Looking Back: Special Olympics 2003 - The Kilcullen Experience

Following on from our recent Looking Back post about Kilcullen and the 2003 Special Olympics Summer Games, Joe Robinson pointed the Diary to a special Bridge magazine production in September of that year, detailing in full The Kilcullen Experience, writes Brian Byrne.

The 40-page special is packed with articles and photographs written by a wide range of people involved in looking after the 22 athletes and 10 coaches from Kenya as well as their family members. In all, 75 volunteers from Kilcullen were part of the local effort.

The publication includes articles by Sean Landers, Philomena Griffin, Tony O'Sullivan, Des Travers, Esther Reddy & Brenda Scullion, Joe Robinson, Robert Dunlop, Nichola Kennedy, Niall Kennedy, Michael Doran & Gese Mucke, Siodhna Kavanagh, Lisa-Marie Dooley, Terri Finglas, Joan Forde, Mary & Bernard Berney, the Dooley family, Monica Sheehan, Siobhan Tutty Bardon, Carmel O'Connor, the Jennings family, Gemma O'Dwyer, the Maloney family, Samuel Kiura, the Gorman family, Richard Reade, Ray Kelly, Mary Charlton, Maire O'Sullivan, and Frank Mitchell.

A special page is devoted to a song written by Padraig Maloney, 'The Brady Bunch', sung to the air of Christy Moore's 'Lisdoonvarna'.

Twenty years on, this is a chronicle of a special time that's really worth a read, and which will bring back very happy memories to many Kilcullen people.

2003 Special Olympics World Summer Games - The Kilcullen Experience is online here. 

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