Athletics track upgrade inspires envy and admiration

‘There’s a light beyond these woods, Mary Margaret.

Do you think that we will go there,

And see what makes it shine, Mary Margaret?

THE lines of the hauntingly lovely song by Nancy Griffith occurred to me last week when talking to an American who had flown to Ireland and travelled to Castleisland to gaze on the new athletic track surface at An Riocht.

I thought of the lines in reverse, I suppose, in that the light is here and people are coming to see what makes it shine.

There is little doubt but that the laying of the new two-tone surface has put the athletics track right on top of the list of attractions in Castleisland at present. That may not be a big list in our little market town culture and mindset but it certainly is a welcome re-addition.

In fact, its light went well beyond these woods as photographs of the near complete, photogenic surface began to appear on social media on the eve of last weekend’s Denny / Kerry Community Games Finals. International athlete and An Ríocht AC member Shona Heaslip was, phone in hand, filling an ambassadorial and patriotic role while taking part in the European Athletics Team Championships in the Lille Metropole Stadium in France at the weekend. And they have only a monotone, blue track there.

She was ‘showing-off ’ the home track to her international team-mates and their reactions, apart from the oooohs, the aaaahs and the wows, were mainly like ‘when can we run there’ and ‘I can’t wait to try it out’ and several other complimentary utterances.

The transformation couldn’t have but impressed Kerry’s newly appointed Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Brendan Griffin TD as he, fast out of the traps, visited the games finals on the Saturday in the company of his party colleague, Cllr. Bobby O’Connell.

Wonderful and all as it appeared and tidy and all as it happened, it was finished just on time for the games. The vagaries of South West Ireland’s weather did nothing to advance the project.

In fact, the weather held up progress at every hand’s turn as the Denny/Kerry Community Games Finals were nearly in the tunnel and limbering up for their laps of honour.

It relented on enough occasions for the job to go from line to tape in just under the allotted time.

The opening ceremony and lighting of the flame of the 2017 Kerry Community Games Track and Field Athletics Finals were performed at 10am on that Saturday morning in a thick enough mist – but things got much better from there on.

So, with all this near world wide focus on the light beyond all their woods, can we expect to see a high profile athletics meeting here in the not too distant future?

Irish team member, Shona Heaslip, An Ríocht AC (left) with her mentor and club-mate, Niamh O’Sullivan. Shona filled an ambassadorial role for An Ríocht while on international duty in France last week. Photo by John Reidy