It was an evening to remember hard-earned pride and glory, and to pass on inspiration to current and future young generations of athletes,
writes Brian Byrne.
The atmosphere in Kilcullen's Community Centre last night was as fervent as in any Olympic stadium down the decades, as Kilcullen honoured its own Olympians for their achievements. Displays around the walls provided details of all who were being so honoured.
The
Kilcullen 700 event had the added benefit of two of Ireland's gold medal Olympic legends on hand to give out the special trophies and mementoes —
Ronnie Delaney and
Michael Carruth.
Telling the stories of their own journeys to gold at the world's top sporting event was a wonderful underpinning to the no less brave accounts of Kilcullen's top athletes who have competed in the
Olympic Games, the
Special Olympics, and the
World Transplant Games.
That there are no less than 12
Kilcullen 700 Olympians on the scroll of honour is an extraordinary feat in itself.
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| Members of the family of the late Col Bill Mullins accepting the Kilcullen Olympians Award. |
The late
Col Bill Mullins was a member of the Irish Army Equitation Team in the 1956 Olympics held in Melbourne, though the equestrian element of those Games was held in Stockholm because of Australian Quarantine restrictions.
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| Members of the family of the late Colm McCoy accepting the Kilcullen Olympians Award — his wife Noelle, son Barry, and granddaughters Mya, Eve and Cara. |
The late
Colm McCoy, a member of Kilcullen Boxing Club, competed in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He didn’t make it through to the finals, where a young American boxer called Cassius Clay brought home the gold.
Brendan O’Connell participated in canoeing events in the 1972 Olympics in Munich and the 1976 Games in Montreal. His first event was overshadowed by the terrorist massacre of members of the Israeli team.
Local archer
Noel Lynch competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in Korea, and in the 1992 event in Barcelona where he set Irish records for the Olympic Round.
Susan Shortt, brought up in Kilgowan and a pupil both at Halverstown NS and Cross & Passion College in Kilcullen, competed in equestrian Eventing at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and the 2004 Games in Athens.
Special Olympians from Kilcullen honoured on the night included
Dermot Shortt, with his playing partner father Francis, who won gold at the 2003 Special Olympics in Limerick.
Special Olympian
Patrick McMahon competed in soccer in Limerick in that same year, adding to the pony riding, gymnastics, pitch & putt, swimming and running he has been doing since he was seven. He is hoping to compete in bowling next year.
Kevin O’Callaghan has been involved in Special Olympics for many years in a range of disciplines, winning a silver medal in 2007 in Shanghai, China, for golf skills.
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| Norah Burke accepting the Kilcullen Olympians Award on behalf of Cathal Timoney. |
Special Olympian Badminton competitor
Cathal Timoney took bronze and silver medals home from the 2010 Limerick event.
Declan Dowdall won gold for Pitch and Putt in the Special Olympics in Limerick in 2014.
Veteran of national, European, and World Transplant Games
James Nolan was also honoured as a
Kilcullen 700 Olympian, for participation and myriad medals in golf and track disciplines in France 2003, Canada 2005, Thailand 2007, Australia 2009, Sweden 2011, South Africa 2013, and Spain 2017. James was given a kidney transplant by his sister Catherine 32 years ago.
Ronnie Delaney and Michael Carruth unveiled a wall plaque to mark the occasion. Recalling his own Melbourne Olympics, Delaney noted how air travel in those days requires many stops, and that in Fiji a group of Holy Ghost fathers bicycled to meet the Irish team at the airport. “They all blessed us,” he remembered. “We were the most blessed team at the Games.”
Michael Carruth remembered that he had fought the final against the Cuban Juan Hernández Sierra in Barcelona in 1992 with broken bones in both hands. His was the first Irish gold since Ronnie Delaney’s. “I leaped so high in the ring that I should have also got gold for the high jump,” he quipped, adding that whether one takes home medals or not, ‘once you have competed, you’ll always be an Olympian’.
That last sentiment was similarly expressed by Ronnie Delaney, who congratulated all involved in what had been ‘a very special evening’.
Noel Clare was MC at the event. Presentations of CarveOn leather notebooks were made to the visiting Olympic gold medallists, and a
Kilcullen 700 plaque was presented to the Community Centre. The specially-commissioned trophies were designed and produced by
Joe O'Connor.
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