Tom Kelly 8K, 2026 - RESULTS

 

For Tom and Tyshe, 2026

 The Tyshe River will be crossed four times by the Tom Kelly 8K runners on this Sunday in Ardfert. Read the story of the Tyshe River and its tributory stories here to warm up for the run!

For Tom and Tyshe

Thoughts on the Tom Kelly 8K 2026

By David Kissane

“Lost rivers

Plead under our feet

Astray in themselves

Sharing our anonymity”

said Brendan Kennelly in his poem “The Learning”.

On Sunday, January 11th, at around 9.32am, a bunch of runners will hare down Tyshe Hill and cross the Tyshe River for the first time. Most didn’t notice that they will be crossing Tyshe Bridge. It has modesty written all around it.

They will cross the Tyshe River another three times in the opposite direction to the river’s run as the Tom Kelly 8K matures in its own individual way. By the time they reach the 5K mark, the runners will have de-Tyshed themselves and will be in another dimension. All of them were unaware that they will have crossed the river four times. Because the waters they crossed are the waters of Abhainn na Taibhse. The Ghost River.

One of the best kept secrets in Ardfert is the Tyshe River.

Gaeilge rarely lies. There is more truth in the Irish language than there is in heaven. It is so old that it goes straight to the soul of things around us. It is a much more weaponised language than English. It is before us, it is with us and it is after us. It is above us and below us. Whether we come from the Ukraine, from Africa or from Banna-side, to know Irish is to truly know our environment and its origins.

Four times across a ghost river is more than anyone can do in any other run. Another unique reason to do the Tom Kelly 8K. Cross it after 300m and enter another territory. Move within its kingdom and merge with its ghostly embrace. Leave it at 5K and run into your own reality with new pep in your step.

The First Time

There were three us of running in Banna on an evening in January 1988. Danny Sinnott, Tom Kelly and myself. It is safe to say that we didn’t have an Olympic medal between the three of us. One of us had won the married men’s sprint run at an open sports in Finuge the previous summer. Another had a few local medals and a third had a miraculous medal given him by his mother on his Communion Day.

We had big hopes for 1988 as it would be the first full year of St Brendan’s AC and decided to get our retaliation in early. We would be fresh veteran athletes and a whole year of activity was opening up before us. It was the hope that would destroy some of us.

The evening was breathing razor-blades and a hoor of a sharp wind was winging its way from Kerry Head and Ballyheigue from the north west. I could feel the insides of my lungs being assaulted by a salty air with the personality of horse -nails. I began to cough. A deep cough that must have been crafted at the gates of hell. My father had often spoken of “a Lios Laughtin Cough” that a neighbour had been known for in Lisselton. That neighbour had a penchant for Woodbines, which were known locally as “coffin nails”. Lios Laughtin near Ballylongford was one of the bigger local grave yards and all Woodbines pointed in its direction.

All smoking was bad but Woodbines quickened your exit from this life if you were addicted to them. And people were addicted to them because they were cheap to buy in that sparse era. Apparently you could buy them individually or in fives. You could then proceed to destroy your lungs with their poison and hasten your journey across the Styx to Hades by quenching them half way through and saving the butts for later. If there was a later. Then you could re-ignite the ugly butt and undergo double jeopardy and cough the rest of your life away down to Lios Laughtin or Gale or Lisselton or Kilconly.

A Fit of Coughing!

Anyway, on that bitter evening in Banna in 1988 as we ran north, I got a fit of coughing. I had never smoked but had moved in smoky atmospheres in those days. Like the school staffroom which resembled a fog bank at some lunchtimes, or in the shops or everywhere in fact where people moved. The worst of it that evening that I ran under the premise that a good run would clear the lungs. I had pushed Tom and Danny in the early stages on the softening sand as we headed north towards the Black Rock. They took it personally and when the cough hit my thirty five year-old lungs with its metaphorical cough-sledge, both Danny and Tom headed off towards the Black Rock. Legs of lead stuck me to the ground and I gasped for air. Bent over. Banjaxed.

Being two gentlemen, and rogues when necessary, they got concerned and returned to my panting body. “Keep going till me cross the Tyshe River” Tom Kelly said “and we’ll have the wind at our backs then”.

It was the first time I had heard of the Tyshe River. The Ghost River. And Tom was right. Tom was always right…that was the first thing he told me when I first met him! We ran on and turned toface home at the lock-gate where a river becomes a part of the sea. They saw me home with the north wind at our backs but I didn’t run again for a month. And discovered the unwanted effects of anti-biotics for the first time in my life.

From Abbeydorney to Sea

The Tyshe River, Ghost River, rises in the parish of Abbeydorney in the townland of Rathkenny. It constantly is re-born between Abbeydorney Village and Tubrid Cross near Harty’s Bend. Springs out of the ground like a watery volcano, shy and unassuming. Nobody hears or sees its continuous birth. Has been doing its birthing possibly since the last ice age some 10,000 years ago. Every new droplet then starts its journey westward. The droplets don’t have to figure out what to do once overground and born. They probably say “Oh, we haven’t been here before!” as they join millions of other droplets in a quiet march pre-destined by mother nature. The secret life of streams.

Imagine their joy as they ripple and roll down to the Abbeydorney-Tubrid Road and cross it quietly and unbothered. They may even have genetic memories of their ancestors passing under the railway line that was operating here until the 1980s. Then little dykes and streams join them as they enter Ardfert Parish north of The Forge Cross where the TK8K runners will cross it for the 4th and final time just before the 5K mark. One of these streams passes by Wether’s Well carrying with it its mystery and magic to the Tyshe. Madge Davis composed recitations as she crossed the Tyshe at that point on evenings that were as quiet and ghostly as the Tyshe itself. Maybe its secret rhythms may have stirred something in her creative mind.

Then Abhainn na Taibhse gains in strength as it passes through the lands of Carrolls and Driscolls – the rich land of Ardfert – and crosses the road secretly towards Ardfert Quarry around the 4K mark. This is where the runners crossed the Tyshe for the third time and where regular parkrunners suffer a minor crisis as they realize they are only halfway through their race. Think of the moving waters of the Tyshe. They may inspire you. “Commemorate me where there is water” Patrick Kavanagh said. (The last time I heard that quoted was in a bathroom at Listowel Races by a punter who had to queue long and painfully for a wee!)

Then the ghostly little Tyshe does an oxbow and comes back under the Round Road between Ardfert Quarry and Ardfert Graveyard, and here the TK8K runners will have crossed it for the second time. Too adrenalined-up at this stage to look sideways but water can have geopathic effect on the brain at this psychologically boosting point.

My Uncle Mike

My uncle, Mike Kissane from Lahesrough on the side of Cnoc an Fhómhair overlooking Ballybunion, was a diviner and could sense underground springs deep in the earth. He was my favourite uncle…a builder, a carpenter, a clock-fixer, a story-teller, a dreamer of dreams, a singer (in a quiet kind of way), a non-drinker, a lover of his native land, a philosopher and a diviner. Probably a quiet rogue too in the best of ways.

He visited our house every Sunday evening and would sit down and tell stories beside our Jubilee Range. He sometimes brought a penny bar for me to chew the cud on. Those same penny bars were partly responsible for destroying my teeth.

My father and I would accompany him up the hill afterwards and sit with him near Henchy’s Ditch if the evening was dry. Seven hundred feet above sea level. He would point down the Hill and show me the rivers that drained North Kerry. The mighty Shannon to the north west that flooded the Atlantic. He told me if the Shannon wasn’t flowing into the sea near Ballybunion, that we could walk to New York! “Where your great grandfather is buried” he would add.

Before I could ask if my great grandfather had walked to New York, he would point out the Cashen to the south west “where the fishermen are always rowing their currachs” he would add. Then there was the Brick to the south near Lixnaw where my Aunt Jane lived (she was great for quietly placing a half-crown in my palm on her welcome visits). Aunt Jane was the first teacher in the Kissane family and graduated to teach in St Paul’s Schools in London. Mainly because she couldn’t sing and couldn’t therefore get full-time employment in Ireland, my Uncle Mike said.

I can sing like my Aunt Jane, but only in private on in my van on long journeys.

Then his index finger would move south eastwards to highlight the Gale River “which flows beside the graveyard where your grandparents sleep” Uncle Mike nodded. And then he pointed out Listowel through which the Feale flows “where your father and I bought our first horse” he added and “it was there that the dentist pulled your father’s wrong tooth the week after the Races”.

“Why did the dentist do that!” I eagerly asked.

“Because he probably enjoyed the Races too much!” he answered with a wink and completed his river-talk by pointing out the other side of the Shannon to the north east heading past Tarbert.

“The Shannon has travelled over 200 miles by the time we see it from here” he would say. He said it rose in Co Cavan “as a small little watery spring and grew and grew to become the longest river in Ireland, indeed in all these islands!” He added that it meant “the wise river” and was named after Sionnan, the grand daughter of Manannán Mac Lir, the god of the sea.

I often looked sideways at him as he was in full flight on the top of our Hill on those gate-of-heaven Sunday evenings in July and wondered “how one small head could carry all he knew” as Goldsmith said of the village schoolmaster.

I loved that river talk and it followed me to sleep and into my dreams.

Long after he had waved goodbye and faded into the western pathway over Moran’s Glen on his way home to Nora and his family in Lahesrough, my head would be flowing in streams in different directions. I would dream of my great grandfather walking to New York, currachs on the Cashen, half-crowns in my palm, my father’s lost good tooth, my Aunt Jane trying to sing “The Harp the once Through Tara’s Halls” causing Tom Moore to close his ears and the watery journey of the Shannon through the centre of Ireland, through our history and mythology.

Nights weren’t long enough to dream.

Back to the Tyshe

And as the Tyshe River, the Ghost River, flows the opposite way to the Tom Kelly 8K runners, their first crossing will be be at Tyshe Bridge, just those 300m from the start. By now the ghostly river had flown past Ardfert Friary and the site of the Crosby Family (where the main building was burned down in 1922) and past Ardfert Sportsfield. The Sportsfield where Tom Kelly spent his summer evenings encouraging generations of hurlers. Spent St Brendan’s AC open sports days and Ardfert Kilmoyley Community Games evenings there too. How many times did he drive back up over Tyshe Bridge after watching hurling matches and declare that Ardfert would do it that year. Or sometime soon.

At that spot where Tyshe Bridge stands, the local carpenters and blacksmiths used to iron the cart wheels for generations of Ardfertians. The wooden spoked wheels would be brought there, the iron band forged and heated, and the waters of the Tyshe would be poured over them until iron rim and wooden wheel were wedded in ghostly harmony. A man called O’Brien from Kilmoyley was one who worked here. But imagine the buzz here before the Famine when there was a village on this site and when nine smiths and ten carpenters were operating.

A thriving village around the Tyshe, the waters of which nourished their industry. Until a landlord called “Billy the Leveller” flattened the village and spread death, destruction, poverty, misery and emigration among the inhabitants.

Brendan Kennelly had a poem for the likes of Billy too…

“And I know his kind

Would kill river and field

If green and brown

Stood between them and money”.

The River Tyshe saw this and later witnessed the extinction of The Leveller and his likes with its calm and ghostly presence.

In the end, a river ran through him.

To the Sea

Now Abhainn na Taibhse winds its lapping way past the Cathedral, where the TK8K will be started by Kellie O’Regan, Tom Kelly’s grandfather on Sunday, on down past the site of the old creamery, where an area called “the bleach” was frequented by women to dry and bleach clothes in the suns of other days. Then the secret river turns towards Ballyheigue and then left into the Cúl Trá where St Brendan’s AC masters love to run. The Kerry senior cross country championships were run here in the Cúl Trá in 1971 beside the Tyshe and Jerry Kiernan won it. Our lost hero Kiernan possibly believed even then that he would one day run in the Olympics. If the Tyshe gave him those first inklings of glory, then it can claim credit. First beliefs are significant. They often dictate whole life-patterns.

When Kerry Athletics granted the 2025 masters’ cross country championships to St Brendan’s AC to be run in the Cúl Trá beside the Tyshe last October, those who knew deeper things could feel the river smiling.

Then Abahinn na Taibhse enters the Atlantic Ocean after the lock gate on the north side of Banna near the Black Rock.

Only for running out of land, the Tyshe River would be a mighty running river like the Shannon, but it’s petite-ness is its power, and one concludes that it is happy they way it is. Forever petit. Forever ghostly.

For Tom and Tyshe

So we hope that all the Tom Kelly 8K participants will run for Tom and Tyshe again on Sunday and for many more TK8K weekends. Both have played their undisputed parts in the story of Ardfert.

May both Tom and Tyshe run on forever.

Tom Kelly 8K 2026 - INFO

 

St Brendan’s AC will host the Tom Kelly 8K on Sunday 11th January 2026 in memory of one of St Brendan’s AC founding members, Tom Kelly.

This is the fifth year of this event. Tom was coach and club dynamo for the first 10 years and inspired both adults and juveniles with his exemplary work over the years.

This race has now become an annual event in Tom's memory. We look forward to welcoming you all to Ardfert again this year for this event. It is always a great day and walkers and runners are welcome.  Medals for all participants. Category trophies also awarded on the day from junior category to 070+

Event Description:

*****NUMBER COLLECTION : 6-7pm Ardfert Community Centre, Saturday 10th January 2026 and Sunday 11th January 2026 8-9am Ardfert Community Centre near the Cathedral.  ******

REGISTER HERE

Tom Kelly 8K - 12 January 2025

 Tom Kelly 8K on January 12th in Ardfert. Entries are being taken now on https://eventmaster.ie/event/RB8jUL5h76

Tom Kelly 8K 2024 - RESULTS

14 January 2024 - ARDFERT

Position	Time	Bib Number	Name	Club	Winners
1	00:27:25	381	Derek Griffin	Tralee	1st
2	00:28:22	376	Martin Dineen	An Ríocht AC	2nd
3	00:28:40	226	Peter McGovern	Annascaul	3rd
4	00:29:28	122	James Dillon	Lios Tuathail AC	1st Junior Male
5	00:29:39	387	Tim Long	An Ríocht AC	1st O35 Male
6	00:29:57	378	Eamon Griffin
7	00:30:08	565	Robert Purcell	Gneeveguilla AC	1st O55 Male
8	00:30:11	540	Seamus Murphy	Gneeveguilla AC	1st O50 Male
9	00:30:15	123	Lachlan O'Shea	An Ríocht AC	2nd Junior Male
10	00:30:24	125	Zach Walshe	St. Brendan's AC	3rd Junior Male/1st St. Brendan's AC Male
11	00:30:35	232	Danny O'Sullivan	Tralee Triathlon Club
12	00:30:57	231	David Spring	Tralee Triathlon Club
13	00:31:18	476	Cian Hogan	Farranfore Maine Valley AC	1st O45 Male
14	00:31:28	119	David Chute
15	00:31:29	473	John Mulvihill
16	00:31:32	528	Alan Mulgrew	Tralee Harriers AC
17	00:31:47	116	Aaron Horgan	St. Brendan's AC	2nd St. Brendan's AC Male
18	00:31:51	529	John Culloty	St. Brendan's AC	3rd St. Brendan's AC Male
19	00:31:56	566	Raymond Smith
20	00:32:20	900	Peter Jackson	St. Brendan's AC	1st O40 Male
21	00:32:30	574	David Kennedy
22	00:32:56	382	Fionn Foley
23	00:32:59	377	Stephen Falvey	MG Coaching
24	00:33:16	535	John Walshe
25	00:33:27	430	Deirdre Curtin		1st Female
26	00:33:33	578	Thomas McCarthy	St. Brendan's AC
27	00:33:43	538	Feargal O'Donnell	Killarney Valley AC
28	00:33:53	483	Kevin Roche
29	00:33:53	235	Sarah Leahy	Causeway	2nd Female
30	00:33:59	236	Dermot O'Sullivan
31	00:34:33	434	Mary Reynolds	An Ríocht AC	3rd Female
32	00:34:57	228	David Fitzgerald	St. Brendan's AC
33	00:35:08	568	Fearghal Grimes
34	00:35:12	124	Cara Leahy	Lios Tuathail AC	1st Junior Female
35	00:35:14	129	Rian Kenny O'Sullivan	St. Brendan's AC
36	00:35:14	524	Gerard Carroll	St. Brendan's AC
37	00:35:20	121	Noelle Dillon	Lios Tuathail AC	2nd Junior Female
38	00:35:34	575	Den McCarthy	Tralee Triathlon Club
39	00:35:44	569	Jack Moriarty	Panthers
40	00:36:00	576	Frank O'Connor	An Ríocht AC/Kerins O'Rahilly's GAA
41	00:36:07	449	Jer Kelly
42	00:36:14	545	Gerald Culhane	Star of the Laune AC
43	00:36:48	384	Eoin Murphy
44	00:37:04	564	Noel Lawlor
45	00:37:06	237	Trevor Dunn
46	00:37:08	532	Sheila King	Tralee Harriers AC	1st O50 Female
47	00:37:15	485	Thomas McEnery
48	00:37:50	905	Cheryl Carmody	Gneeveguilla AC	1st O40 Female
49	00:37:51	448	Martin Dee
50	00:37:54	480	Ursula Barrett	St. Brendan's AC	1st St. Brendans's AC Female
51	00:37:54	441	Ivan Segade Carou	St. Brendan's AC	1st Visually Impaired
52	00:38:03	428	Amy Spring
53	00:38:07	479	John Collins	Tralee Harriers AC
54	00:38:20	544	Vivian Juffs	Star of the Laune AC
55	00:38:30	537	Garry O'Sullivan
56	00:38:45	612	Martin Gill	Tralee Triathlon Club	1st O60 Male
57	00:38:54	572	Martin Moore	Kiwi Sappers
58	00:38:55	438	Barbara O'Connor	Spá Fenit Barrow AC
59	00:38:58	444	Paul Doogan	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
60	00:39:00	481	Anna Foley	Star of the Laune AC	1st O45 Female
61	00:39:00	486	Ciarán Ó Muircheartaigh
62	00:39:22	487	John Mahony	Kilflynn City Running Group
63	00:39:23	440	Gerard Neenan
64	00:39:24	654	Jim O'Meara	St. Brendan's AC	1st O65 Male
65	00:39:33	570	James Lee	St. Brendan's AC
66	00:39:42	496	Claire Cassidy	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
67	00:39:43	497	Anila Mucaj	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
68	00:40:18	539	Antonio Ponti	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
69	00:40:22	909	S Spillane
70	00:40:26	447	Damien Murphy
71	00:40:32	369	Ross Gallagher	Tralee parkrun	2nd Visually Impaired
72	00:40:32	443	Mary Kilkenny Barrett	Tralee Harriers AC
73	00:40:33	482	Tessy Whyte	Ballybunion Running Club
74	00:40:37	614	Margaret Carlin	St. Brendan's AC	2nd St. Brendan's AC/1st O60 Female
75	00:40:55	491	Sandra Kelly
76	00:41:04	623	Les Galvin
77	00:41:06	525	John Chute
78	00:41:09	493	Aoife O'Driscoll
79	00:41:15	385	Karena Slattery		1st O35 Female
80	00:41:16	492	Aidan McCarthy	Farranfore Maine Valley AC
81	00:41:16	622	Billy Walsh
82	00:41:17	238	Lauren O'Grady
83	00:41:25	534	Marie Louise Sheehy	St. Brendan's AC	3rd St. Brendan's AC Female
84	00:41:29	435	Rachel Glendon
85	00:41:36	655	James O'Dowd	St. Brendan's AC
86	00:41:46	530	Noreen Dillon
87	00:41:56	902	Damien Kelly	St. Brendan's AC
88	00:42:20	472	John Hanrahan
89	00:42:34	546	Ger O'Grady
90	00:42:42	439	Yvonne McGuckin
91	00:43:04	445	Aoife Cashell	Kilflynn City Running Group
92	00:43:05	446	Marie Carroll	St. Brendan's AC
93	00:43:14	488	Susanne Foley	Star of the Laune AC
94	00:43:24	432	Micheal Reidy	Tralee parkrun
95	00:43:27	571	Jimmy O'Sullivan	St. Brendan's AC
96	00:43:46	117	Emma Cahillane	Star of the Laune AC	3rd Junior Female
97	00:43:59	484	Shane McCabe
98	00:44:02	523	Morna O'Halloran	Tralee Triathlon Club
99	00:44:26	370	Annie Lyons	Tralee Harriers AC
100	00:44:49	656	Patrick O'Mahony	Abbeydorney
101	00:44:57	490	Joe Bunyan	St. Brendan's AC
102	00:45:09	579	Noreen Collins	Ballyvolane AC	1st O55 Female
103	00:45:34	380	Seán Houlihan
104	00:45:43	613	Scott Brumwell
105	00:45:53	241	Nora Begley	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
106	00:45:54	431	Jonathan Keane	West Limerick AC
107	00:45:58	400	Mary Brick
108	00:46:18	127	Keira Moore
109	00:46:28	429	Catherine Huggett
110	00:46:58	611	Donal Leahy	West Limerick AC
111	00:47:06	227	Darren Kenny	St. Brendan's AC
112	00:47:07	128	Caragh Kenny O'Sullivan	St. Brendan's AC
113	00:47:12	437	Liz O'Donnell
114	00:47:25	374	Darina Nic Gearailt
115	00:47:48	371	Siobhán O'Driscoll
116	00:48:12	522	Declan Sheehan
117	00:48:13	494	Valerie Hartnett	Ballybunion Running Club
118	00:48:19	495	Breda Mulvihill	Ballybunion Running Club
119	00:49:08	617	Katie O'Sullivan	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
120	00:49:59	531	Kieran O'Connor	St. Brendan's AC
121	00:50:14	233	Niamh Keane
122	00:50:14	375	David Keane
123	00:50:18	475	Lisa Brassil	St. Brendan's AC
124	00:50:18	478	Angela O'Brien
125	00:50:44	541	Helen Twomey	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
126	00:50:45	619	Brenda Lynch	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
127	00:50:55	580	Fiona Shine	Ballyvolane AC
128	00:50:59	386	Thomas Murphy
129	00:51:02	477	Caroline O'Mahoney	MG Coaching
130	00:51:50	234	Anna Twomey	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
131	00:51:50	618	Con Daly
132	00:51:53	577	Anthony O'Connor	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
133	00:51:54	542	Mary Reidy	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
134	00:51:54	543	Louise Porter	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
135	00:53:56	240	Stephanie Kelly
136	00:54:33	372	Serena Griffin	St. Brendan's AC
137	00:55:07	373	Rosie Sills	St. Brendan's AC
138	00:55:20	620	Michael Ashe	St. Brendan's AC
139	00:58:47	383	Jacinta O'Dowd	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
140	00:58:48	581	Elaine O'Connell	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
141	00:58:50	621	Martina Slattery	Born to Run Tralee Marathon Club
142	01:09:57	488	Susanne Foley	Star of the Laune AC
143	01:10:17	126	Juliette Gleeson
144	01:16:25	906	Liz O'Sulivan
145	01:16:26	907	Eilish Diggins
146	01:20:04	573	Mary Fitzgerald
147	01:20:08	234	Anna Twomey
148	01:20:10	567	Eamonn Fitzgerald