Ready and set to face the best
Special Olympics Ireland Games begin in Dublin tomorrow and this week gave further cause for excitement with the torch run in Kerry and the visit of Timothy Shriver. Tadhg Evans spoke to our main clubs
LET me win; but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” It’s difficult to recall how aware the Irish public was of the Special Olympics motto prior to the visit of the World Games to Dublin 15 summers ago – but over the course of nine days in 2003, it would be locked into the nation’s psyche forever more.
Kerry hosted athletes from throughout Europe and Africa that summer, an arrangement that meant even communities based more than 300 kilometres from the host city could embrace the Games’ charms.
This writer can still recall his elder schoolmates – sixth-class pupils at Scoil Naomh Eoin Baiste, Lios Póil – falling 0-4 down inside ten minutes to the visiting South African footballers on a sloped pitch adjacent to the school building. Thinking back, two memories remain as fresh now as they were on the day they unfolded: the cheer and colour of the occasion took hold of all our imaginations. The Special Olympics movement had announced itself to Lios Póil and did likewise in thousands of Irish towns and parishes – weeks before the Olympic flame reached full bloom in Croke Park.
The second memory concerns the whirlwind of South African pace and passing that knocked crack after crack into their opposition’s defence; it could only have been the product of skill mixed with diligent practice.
These sportsmen had not merely shown us what people with intellectual disabilities can do; they gave us a sense of the preparation that they and the coaches behind them had carried out ahead of the Games.
One can’t recall if the South Africans went on to medal later that summer; one can safely assume they were brave in their attempt.
Moving down to Kerry’s grassroots ahead of this week’s Ireland Games, it seems as though our local athletes have prepared with similar conviction.
More than 20 kingdom sports people will participate in Dublin from tomorrow through to Sunday – but one should keep the scores of volunteers supporting them in mind when following Team Munster’s progress.
“We have four athletes going, and Shane Roach is going as a coach,” Tralee Together Special Olympics volunteer Lorna O’Sullivan said. “We started out after the World Games in 2003 after Tralee hosted the El Salvador team, and we’d noticed there were no local members on the Irish team. There are eight people on our committee and a host of volunteers, not least from the Tralee schools, who each help us out in six-week blocks.”
Training at Cumann Iosaef every Saturday, Lorna describes her club as a “marvellous group”, and while much of her current excitement is derived from the upcoming Games, she was equally buoyant for the torch run through Kerry on Monday and the visit to the county of Timothy Shriver, son of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver.
Anticipation for the torch run was similarly keen in Kerry’s other main clubs, as was the dedication of their volunteers. Kerry Stars, covering Killarney and its surrounds, was founded in September 2002, after local families recognised the need for such a club. It has since grown from facilitating 12 athletes in one sport into a wide-ranging movement catering for more than 100 athletes in athletics, swimming, soccer, golf, and basketball.
“We train the whole year round,” Vice- Chairman Tom Tobin says. “We’re at the indoor hall at Spa GAA club every Monday evening, and we move out to An Ríocht when the weather clears up. We added basketball last year at Killarney Sports and Leisure Complex, with much help from Saint Paul’s, I should add. We also use Killarney Celtic’s facilities; Fairways Golf, Kenmare; the Ross; Tralee Leisure Complex; and the Castlerosse Hotel. The whole thing has just kept growing.
“I was based out of Killarney Garda Station in the Special Olympics year, 2003. Nick Maher was in charge of the volunteering for the Italian team we were hosting, but he was on holidays the week it was on – so I took on that job, and through that I got to know some of the Kerry Stars.
“The problem with growing in the way we have is that you always need volunteers, but we’re very lucky in Killarney in that regard. The Transition Years at St Brendan’s and St Brigid’s, for example, give us a great hand out during the school year – and some of them, invariably, do keep it up.
“I’ve always been involved with sports, so that’s one of the attractions. But the parents, volunteers, and athletes are a unique bunch of people. With 12 athletes in three sports going to the Ireland Games this week, I must say they love competing and they absolutely love training. What you see is what you get from them; we’re like one big family.”
It’s a statement that translates with ease to every part of Kerry. Skellig Stars have no athletes on Team Munster in 2018, but Marian Kelly’s pride in the club’s 24 volunteers and 22 athletes is clear.
North Kerry Eagles will send four athletes and two gymnasts to the Games, and the facilities they use in Tarbert and Listowel Presentation Primary bring together more than 20 athletes and some 40 volunteers.
“Most of the parents would be involved,” Fiona Keane tells us. “My own daughter, Rebekah, is involved and she’s all excited right now, even though she hurt her finger and is worried she can’t throw the javelin!”
Whether or not Rebekah and her team-mates medal will only become clear in the coming days.
The bravery in their attempts is already undoubted – as was the case when those South African footballers left Scoil Naomh Eoin Baiste awestruck 15 summers ago.
I MUST SAY THEY LOVE COMPETING AND THE ABSOLUTELY LOVE TRAINING. WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET FROM THEM; WE’RE LIKE ONE BIG FAMILY.