IRON & STEEL
Competitive heart still beats in Gaynor
AGOOD part of Ciara Gaynor’s Laochra Gael story will be familiar to many. The five-time All-Ireland winner with Tipperary was crowned Player of the Year in 2003. A defensive lynchpin, she earned her first medal as a teenager. Gaynor came from Tipperary hurling royalty with father Len a legend in his own right.
But tonight’s TG4 episode also provides another chapter that brings Gaynor’s story bang up to date.
It’s nearly 20 years since she last appeared in an All-Ireland camogie final and then decided to retire. Her competitive spirit explains just what she was doing in Kona, Hawaii last October as she travelled out, not for a holiday, but to take part in one of the most demanding global sporting events — Ironman. A previous qualifying time in a Hamburg event earned her a place in the 2023 World Championships, the pinnacle triathlon event.
And so she found herself booking a long-haul flight in the company of her sister Sinéad and taking part in a sporting adventure of a different kind.
‘Last year was the first year it was women only —- there was room for a few extra women on the island!’ she laughs.
‘They went a bit further down the rankings. I got in anyway, was happy to take it.
‘It was an amazing experience. Bucket list. I’ve watched it on television for years — to be in all the places that I’ve seen on television was incredible.
‘It was a short enough trip but we did travel over to the far side of the island. The Big Island they call it. The side that we were on, the eruptions took place. So it’s very barren. There’s all the lava fields on our side. But the other side is all very lush and green — waterfalls. We did a day trip to see some of the waterfalls.
‘We did a snorkelling tour two days after the Ironman race as well which was amazing.
‘The whole island is just so beautiful. Stunning. They have a coffee boat out on the water the whole week before the Ironman so you can swim out about 200 yards where you can sit in a rubber dinghy, have a coffee, and swim back in. I’ve heard of all these things so to experience them was unbelievable.’
On the playing field, she had a reputation as a steely competitor. But this was another level of endurance test — 3.8km for the swim, 180km on the bike, and 42km of a run or basically a marathon. And it all took place in what felt like oven-temperature conditions.
‘It was intense heat. It got up to about 32 degrees on the day. When you’re cycling there is nothing to absorb the heat so the heat is coming back at you off the road. So you’re being absolutely baked.
‘You have 17 hours to complete the course. I’m usually between 12 and 13 hours. No one ever really asks you the time. And the professionals are usually home and in bed by the time I finish!’
So why this? ‘Probably for years the camogie team would have carried me. There’s days I would have played well and helped others. There’s days I didn’t play so well and the team would have carried me. This was very much a kind of individual test, just to see can I do it. Because you have to do it on your own — there is no outside assistance allowed. I do like to challenge myself.
‘It is torture. When I’m swimming I do hate every stroke. When I’m on the bike I usually have an ad done for Done Deal – “I’m selling the bike”. Then you’re on the run and you’re thinking, “Why am I doing this? Why amn’t I in the pub? Or cheering from the sidelines like everyone else?” But then you cross the finish line and you are like, “Okay, where is the next one?”’
After completing it, she plans to take a year out before going again.
Her day job too brings its own challenges and rewards, based
“It’s torture. When I swim, I do hate every stroke” “I retired young so there was plenty left in me”
out of Mayorstone Park Garda Station in Limerick city. ‘I’m a juvenile liaison guard. You’re working with children in vulnerable situations that maybe need extra support. Working in conjunction with youth diversion projects, different bodies like that where the child is very much to the fore. How can we divert the child away from criminality or get the child on the right path? Most kids just need a chance, need a little bit of guidance.’
That her brother-in-law happens to be current Tipperary senior hurling manager Liam Cahill — ‘Oh he gives nothing away!’ — means talk of hurling is never far away, her own son coming up the ranks.
She explains how she was able to move on quickly to other things after finishing up her playing career. ‘I had no regrets finishing up the camogie. I feel like it’s one chapter in my life that I enjoyed. I was lucky to be so successful with it. Me playing camogie — that’s just done. I would have been young enough when I finished so there was plenty of life left in me.’
There certainly is.