TODDY LEAVES A GREAT LEGACY IN LOCAL ATHLETICS
‘I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.’ – 2 Timothy 4:7
WEXFORD athletics lost one of its favourite sons last week with the passing of Toddy Moore.
Toddy was president of Kilmore AC, honorary life president of AAI and a life member of Athletics Wexford. For more than six decades he gave unstinting commitment to athletics in his home place of Kilmore, throughout the county of Wexford and, as an administrator, much further afield.
Toddy Moore was born in 1931, a time when the world was in the grip of the Great Depression and Hitler had yet to come to power in Germany. On the home front it was a time when the wounds from the Civil War were still raw, when Cumann na nGaedheal, which had been in power since the Free State’s first General Election in 1923, was still in government.
He was born and grew up in Rackardstown. Like his father before him he grew up to become a carpenter by trade. It is likely that any exposure Toddy had to athletics as a chap was of a utilitarian nature: getting from A to B on foot as speedily as possible. His son Jim has suggested that his affinity for athletics may be traced back to an occasion when Toddy and his brother Wally, bringing a load of potatoes in from the field, managed to overturn the cart and had to flee in haste as their father peppered them with the same potatoes!
Toddy first got involved with competitive athletics through his local club, Kilmore AC, in 1951. Over the next few years he either won, or medalled, at Senior County level over distances from one to four miles. He was a member of the team which won three-in-arow Senior Cross Country titles from 1953-55, taking individual Silver in 1954 and Bronze in 1955. In this same period he won the Leinster four mile race at Caim Open Sports (1954).
The following year he won the Leinster Novice Cross Country only to learn that his win in Caim ruled him ineligible. In 1957, having helped his team to a Silver medal in the County Senior Cross Country, Toddy called time on his running. He was to reverse this decision in later years when, in the 1970s, he returned to competitive athletics as a Veteran.
He was a member of the Kilmore AC team that placed third in the 1979 Leinster Veterans Cross Country Championships. In subsequent years he won a Gold team medal in Leinster and team Bronze in the Nationals. The icing on the cake came in 1985 when Kilmore AC struck Gold in the County Veterans’ Cross Country Championships.
In 1957 Toddy turned his attention from competing to administration, this despite still being a fit and able young man. He became secretary of Kilmore AC, a position he was to hold for 42 years. He was elected county secretary of Bord Luthchleas na hÉireann in 1968 and remained in that role until 1999.
His skills as an administrator saw w him moving further up the ladder and, , in 1982, he became chairman of the Leinster Council. His friendly and open manner coupled with a ‘no problems, only solutions’ approach was exactly y what Leinster needed with delegates s welcoming his can-do attitude. Toddy y remained on in the chair until retiring in 1998. Not quite finished with officialdom yet, he became the inaugural President of Athletics Wexford in 2013, , a position he held for three years.
Toddy’s love of athletics passed onto his children with both John and Jim competing in the colours of Kilmore AC. John was, until relatively recently, senior competition secretary with Athletics Wexford. He is presently vice-chairman.
In a packed St Mary’s Church, Jim Moore, a councillor and current Mayor of Wexford, spoke movingly of his father’s great legacy. He said that Toddy’s commitment to family, community and work was under-pinned by a ‘passionate engagement’ with athletics.
In his graveside oration, Toddy’s friend Seamus O’Keefe took up the same theme saying that commitment to athletics dominated throughout his life with, in recent years, Kilmore Active Retirement getting the benefit of a portion of his energies.
Seamus spoke of athletics-related highlights in Toddy’s life. In 1975 Seamus and Toddy were members of a group which travelled from Kilmore to Crystal Palace Stadium in London for the AAA T & F Championships. Their guide on this trip of a lifetime was Toddy’s London-based brother Wally. For all it was their first time ever to see a tartan track.
They were rewarded with a stunning performance by a young athlete names John Treacy, who won the Junior 3000m. Toddy recalled the trip to Crystal Palace when, as President of Athletics Wexford, and in the company of John Treacy, he officiated at the opening of the new all-weather track at the Enniscorthy Sports Hub. He also took the opportunity to let John Treacy know of another of his sporting highlights: seeing the young Villierstown man retaining his World Cross Country title in Limerick in 1979.
Toddy was in Barcelona in 1992 to see Wexford man Jimmy McDonald crossing the line in sixth place in the 20km Walk.
In 1988 Toddy was instrumental in getting the National Marathon to Wexford and for ensuring that the event was professionally organised. The race, a trial for the Seoul Olympics, was won by John Woods. Toddy also played a key part in the organisation of the 1998 National Senior Cross Country Championships in Bree.
At last year’s Kilmore AC awards night, Toddy was on hand to present awards to club members. These included the Todd & W Moore Perpetual Cup, which goes to the best juvenile athlete each year. Once Toddy’s job of dispensing awards was completed the th club sprung a surprise on him by presenting him with a special Lifetime Service to Athletics Award.
Toddy’s passing leaves a gaping hole in Kilmore’s close-knit community. For F the local athletics club, to which he devoted so much of his energies, the th loss will be particularly acute. The affection a and regard with which he has held h by the wider athletics community was reflected in the numbers that travelled from around the country to pay p tribute.
Among those attending were John Cronin, Athletics Ireland deputy president; Liam Hennessy, former president and life vice-president of Athletics Ireland; Al and Kay Guy, former IAAF IA international technical officials; Nicky N Cowman, president of Athletics Wexford; W Paddy Morgan, chairman of Athletics Wexford and Kilmore AC; and Pat Kelly of Athletics Leinster.
Ar dheis dé go raibh a anam dílis.