Athy Memorial Run for Mary held on St Stephen's Day
An, they're off...!
ON 26 December the Lion’s Club in Athy held their fifth Mary O’Sullivan Memorial St Stephen’s Day Run on a 5km route out along the Blueway.
“Two and a half, out and two and a half back!” said organiser Cllr Brian Dooley.
“This is our 10th year, and our fifth for Mary,” he explained.
“Mary was a Lion’s Club member, and a great baker,” Cllr Dooley remembered.
“When we started the St Stephen’s Day Run she was a great woman to bring the mince pies or the barm brack.
“So when she passed we thought it only proper to name the Run after her,” said Cllr Dooley.
“We had a great turnout, about 130 participants…and we’d expect to raise in the vicinity of €1,500,” he revealed.
“Dan Curtis from The Oul Shebeen sponsored the water for us, and we’ll be able to support the Family Resource Centre, Vincent de Paul, and Willow Counselling – we’ll be able to support them as well this year.
“We’re delighted with it, and the sun shone all day.
“In fact, I can’t remember a morning [of the Run] the sun didn’t shine…we’ve been awfully lucky with the weather,” he said.
“We were joined by all of Mary’s family from Athy and Castledermot, and even Martin her husband took part – and he only seven weeks after a hip replacement! That’s some going!
“We’d like to thank the local gardaí as well. We had Community Garda Sean O’Mahony and Dave Mc Grath from Traffic.
“No, they didn’t run!” laughed Cllr Dooley.
"Because we had one road to cross, and we needed them to slow down the traffic at that junction.
“£I believe the winning time was 19’16”, and I have no idea who that was,” he admitted, “but young Fennin came second, Jack Dooley came third, and Finn Clancy was the first of the Juniors”.
