By Stephen McKinley
Nenagh will get a new statue commemorating three of its most famous sporting sons: marathon runner Johnnie Hayes (1908, London), 400-meter hurdler Bob Tisdall (1932, Los Angeles) and hammer thrower Matt McGrath (1912, Stockholm), who were all gold medallists.
The local committee has raised the necessary £70,000, £5,000 of which came from the local council. Fianna Fail’s Maire Hoctor said the committee had received a substantial contribution from the National Roads Authority to make the project a reality, according to the Nenagh Guardian newspaper.
Hayes’s victory in 1908 oddly presages recent Olympic doping scandals — Hayes came second after Italian runner Dorando Pietri. Pietri, having run the marathon the wrong way round the track, was later found to have taken a drug stimulant and was disqualified. Hayes took the gold in his place.
Skydivers
Four Meath men will take part in the World Skydiving Championships in Spain this June, along with a fifth team member from Dublin. Ashbourne brothers John and Conor King are joined by Navan man Dave Clarke, Clonee man David Byrne and Dubliner Eoin Mallin of Cabinteely.
Never miss an issue of The Irish Echo
Subscribe to one of our great value packages.
Since they formed their team last year, the fivesome won the Irish championships, even though sometimes hampered by inadequate training facilities. They will head for Florida this month for more intensive training, and are hoping for sponsorship to help them. At home, explained John King, they have managed about 200 jumps in a year, since they only manage to fit in the training at weekends. In Florida, they intend to make at least 100 jumps in two weeks, reports the Meath Chronicle.
Further information can be found at their website: www.ipcvision.net.
Fishers
Sad memories came flodding back in Fermanagh last week when Gladys Fisher and her son Roy were finally released from hospital. They had been recovering from injuries sustained when the helicopter being piloted by their father and husband, Bertie Fisher, the well-known rally driver, crashed in moorland between Enniskillen and Derrygonnelly.
The Fishers’ other son and daughter, Emma and Mark, died at the scene. Bertie, who also ran a successful engineering business, died the day after.
Roy and his mother expressed thanks to the community for support during the tragic time, according to the Fermanagh Herald. They also recognized that the community and the media had been discreet enough to allow them to grieve and recover in privacy.
They are still along way from full health, and face intensive physiotherapy.
Bins and drink
Galway city dwellers are to take delivery of 35,000 new wheeled trash cans known as "wheelie bins" this week. The Council has been educating the public on which trash can is for which materials, in the hope that Galway will recycle at such a rate to become Ireland’s most environmentally-friendly city within a few years.
Belfast tourist welcome
West Belfast welcomes farm-phobic tourists. Wary of the foot-and-mouth situation in the countryside, visitors to Northern Ireland are being hailed to West Belfast for a new program of guided tours.
Councilor Tom Hartley, whose graveyard tours have been a highlight of the West Belfast Féile over the past decade, says the new tours will prove a boon to the fledgling tourist industry in the west of the city.
Colin Glen Forest Park and its famous Mass Rock will be on the route, as well as Milltown and the City Cemetery, Falls Library, the Cultúrlann arts center, the murals of Ballymurphy, the Bombay Street peaceline, Springfield dam, St. Mary’s College and the grounds of St. Dominic’s College, Falls Park, St Matthias’s Oratory, the new Top of the Rock Center, St Peter’s Cathedral, Rossa House and the Dunville Park Fountain.
We’ll also be offering tours which focus on the political history of the West," Hartley said.
After all that walking around, thirsty tourists will be able to stop by one or two of the Falls Road’s famous bars, such as the Rock, the Fort, the West and Caffrey’s.
Swords lottery night
Yet more luck of the Irish: Declan and Linda Fleming of Swords, Co. Dublin, collected a lottery check of £5.2 million ($6.2 million) last wee, and headed straight home to buy a drink for their friend Jack Hayden.
Hayden won £800 on a Match 5 Lotto prize and celebrated his own good fortune with the couple in Kealy’s pub on Sunday morning. The Flemings had already heard that they’d won £5.2 million, but the reality had yet to sink in, so they kept it quiet. On Monday evening, they were able to buy Hayden a drink in return, and celebrate long into the night.
The couple stuck with tradition and said that the money wouldn’t change them or their lives.
"The money will not make a huge difference to us. If it brings us health and happiness, that is the most important thing," Linda said.
Leonard Flynn, the owner of Dixy’s Wonderland, where Declan bought the winning ticket, will receive £7,500 for selling the winning ticket. "The big wins usually go West of the Shannon, so it is nice the winner is from the local area," he said.