Hoping to rope in schools to tug-o-war

April 1993

The introduction of tug-o-war as a sport in Vocational Colleges around the county is on the cards following the support of the VEC for such a proposal at their monthly meeting on Monday.

Raising the issue, Cllr. Leo Carthy said that the Irish Tug- O-War Association are anxious to promote the sport in secondary schools and Vocational Colleges around the county.

He continued that he recently spoke to the Vice- Chairman of the National Association, Cllr. Jimmy Curtis, about the promotion of the sport in secondary schools.

‘ Tug-o-war is a very important sport and one only has to look at the wonderful record of the Boley team, who brought great honour to the county and country with their successes.

‘ The Boley team can’t continue forever so it is very important that we have young people getting involved in the sport and aiming to emulate their record,’ he said.

He added that Wexford has a proud tradition in tug-o-war and urged the Committee to fully support the introduction of the sport in schools.

Mr Pat McGill said that at the end of the last century, there was a famous tug-o-war team in Kilmuckridge called ‘ The Ton’, which had beat all around them for years.

‘ There are probably direct descendants of that team going to school in Kilmuckridge at the moment, and I have no doubt that they would be interested in getting involved in the sport,’ he said.

The Chairperson of the Committee, Cllr. Frances Ryan, wondered would members of the Boley team be willing to go to the schools and advise the teachers on training and tuition.

Cllr. Carthy said he was sure that Cllr. Curtis and his colleagues in the tug-o-war movement would be quite willing to help start up the sport in the schools.

Deputy Hugh Byrne said that Cllr. Curtis had been invited to Russia and Japan to coach tug-o-war teams, and he had no doubt that he wouldn’t mind going down to Bridgetown to do a bit of coaching as well.