Marathon woman with a strong link to Valentia Island
JOHN Joe Shanahan is the grandson of Dan and Hannah Shanahan who lived in Farranreigh many years ago. Today, John Joe and his wife Siobhán, both originally of Dublin, live at the old home of his late grandparents and are always up for a barbeque and general party crack, both at home and on the local social scene.
On Sunday, August 14, Valentia Islanders took a particular interest in the televised Olympic Ladies Marathon as Fionnuala Britton of Wicklow took part.
Fionnuala performed extremely well in the intense heat to achieve a personal best on a time of 2hrs, 31mins and 22 seconds and finished in 20th place.
She is tipped by RTE pundit and former Olympic marathon runner Jerry Kiernan of Listowel to have the potential to do even better in future Olympic marathon competition.
Fionnuala has visited Valentia on numerous occasions as her husband, Alan McCormack, is John Joe’s nephew. Alan has been running cross country since the age of 13 and also won an Irish Cross Country senior title.
While on a visit to Valentia last year, Fionnuala and Alan enjoyed a run on the roads of Valentia with young Aoife O’Sullivan of Churchtown, County Cork, who was thrilled to run with her hero Fionnuala.
Aoife is the daughter of Martin O’Sullivan, originally of Knightstown and Siobhán O’Driscoll, originally of ‘ The Farm’ in Farranreigh, who reside in Churchtown.
Aoife represented Cork and Munster in athletics, winning All-Ireland gold and also medals at various schools athletic events.
Good luck to Fionnuala and Aoife in future times.