To the Women of St Brendan's Athletic Club
By David Kissane
"There is a road between great oak trees
I have walked since I was a child
I danced when I heard the oakleaves singing
‘That girl is wild’"
The words of a woman in Brendan Kennelly’s great poem "A Girl" published a few years ago and he hears the woman then say
"I think I could fly
Out of myself into the air"
Worth reading that poem. Like all Kennelly poems, it challenges. Now, talking about challenges and the day that’s in it…
A few years ago the lead coach in St Brendan’s AC challenged me to write about the women in the club. That’s what Ursula does best…she challenges you! It means you have no choice but to respond. Only men know what a challenge it is to write publicly about their female colleagues. One described the undertaking as a form of self-annihilation. An invitation to destruction.
In other words, I grabbed the opportunity!
Knowing the atmosphere of equality in St Brendan’s AC and in athletics generally, it was a challenge that was fair and overdue. And so I began.
One of the newest members of the club to make quite a dramatic entrance to the athletics arena is Danielle Faulconbridge. Born in Coventry in the UK of Irish parents, Danielle moved to Ireland at the age of ten. No interest in athletics in those ten years, or after until last year when she happened to be in the brand new An Fearann Astro pitch in Ardfert. A May evening designed by the god of athletics: birds singing over the rich and rare land of Ardfert, a warm sun caressing the large army of energetic juveniles, a bounce off the Astroturf that enabled even the coaches to frogleap and loads of hurdles, turbo javelins, shots, relay batons, cones of all colours and whateverisnecessaryforfun (one word which no other word describes). Danielle was there for her daughter Noelle who happens to love athletics and smiles through a variety of events. The power of children over parents!
One of the coaches asks Danielle to give a hand with ferrying the shots from the trolley. She takes hold of an indoor shot and looks at it. The shot looks back. There is a serious moment between them. Danielle smiles. The shot smiles. The coach ahems and apologises for the interruption but asks if Danielle would like to putt the shot. A quick demonstration, it’s a push-not-a-throw-keep-your-elbow-high-walk-backwards-after advice and soon the shot flies through the evening air with a smile on its shotface. Lands at a fine distance from the makey-uppie shot circle of cardboard. The coach is dumbfounded with a whathavewegothere kind of expression. Danielle asks “how was that?” and the coach has a wowface and has that coachy feeling that another shotputter has been discovered. Only a coach knows the magic of such moments when such discoveries are made. You can’t buy such moments in a shop or order them online or download the app. These moments are life-affirming and are as treasured as the first snows of winter or the first blossoms of February.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were a shotputter?”, the coach asks.
“Never putted the shot before!” Danielle says. “Never even knew it was called a shot!”
And so came the Kerry Athletics championships and an evening in July and the threat ov Covid temporarily fading and the buzz of the Ríocht track and the women’s O45 shot…And the shot flies out of Danielle’s palm for the first time in competition and the gold medal is hers. She hugged the shot afterwards like she would hug her pet cat and affirmed her devotion to it. And a few weeks later she lined up in Templemore in the Munster masters championships and putted her beloved shot to a silver medal.
Then the tears came as she was presented with her medal and the coach asked if she had injured herself and why were there tears and she replied “Because I am so happy!”
Incredible.
And then came Marie Louise Sheehy, also because her daughter was in love with athletics and before she knew it, Marie Louise was out running with the Fit4Lifers. Up Tubrid Hill on her first longish adventure and she was commenting how she was new to 5K running and what should one do starting out. A fellow runner was advising her about taking it handy advising with my-advice-is kind of things and she was in agreement…until the last K arrived and Marie Louise took off like a 747 and left the fellow-runner for lost. “Innocence you are my enemy” (Kennelly again, same poem!) was brought to the fellow-runner’s mind as he struggled to finish the session on Station Road, 100m behind. Then 800m repeats took her fancy and no one was safe from her blistering pace. And then the Kerry county masters cross country championships in Killarney and God only knows what’s next! Well, coaching qualifications were next and then she is also a gifted race-walker. Phew!
Indeed a band of new women have joined St Brendan’s AC in various roles in the past few months and we salute you all:
Elaine Wren
Caitriona Griffin
Helen Feehan
Sarah Flaherty
Lisa Brassil
Leslie Harty
Rebecca Carroll
Liz Casey
Mary Dillane
Catherine Burke
Jill Kenny
Joan Burke
Eileen Leen
Incidentally, Sinéad Murphy needs a big mention too as she has been an abiding presence at training sessions all year. Always offering to help at coaching sessions, she is well under way with coaching qualifications. Looks like she will be a good thrower too during the coming season. Crossing the big border to Kerry from Crossbarry in Co Cork, she brought the athletics love of her father, well known in Rising Sun AC, with her. Mind you it took the power of St Brendan’s AC, and her two daughters’ enthusiasm to get her actively involved, as she never heeded her father’s advice to get involved when young. Thank you Co Cork for sending Sinéad our way!
And then there’s the eager club photographers whose work will be even more appreciated in the years to come, always available with enthusiasm when the Banna Run and the open sports and the TK8K and numerous other events come around: Trina McCorry and Caroline Wallace Fahy zoom and click and get the key shots all the time! Trina specialises in the action shots while Caroline (multi-medal holder with St Brendan’s in the 1990s) has a preference for atmospheric stills before, during and after events.
And then there are the established club pillars. Irene Butler is hard-working club treasurer but has loved running since she participated in schools athletics and local open sports as a pupil in Causeway in the 1980s. She is armed with an understated sense of humour: when I sent out notifications to schools about the inaugural St Brendan’s AC indoor primary schools athletics meet a few years ago, she reminded me that I dad sent a letter to her old school in Rathmorrel. “I don’t think you will get any entries from my old school, Dave” she quietly reminded me, “Rathmorrel closed down years ago!”
She runs too, by the way. After completing her first marathon, in Dublin, a few years ago she answered the “why” question with “I run because I enjoy it!” She has inherited the sovereignty of the joy of athletics.
Irene started her adult running career in a Couch to 5K programme in Naas where she was living in 2014 and ran her first adult race in a Darkness Into Light event soon after. Hooked then.
In reality, Irene and the other St Brendan’s women are part of a culture of Irish and world athletics history both competitive and participative. As in many other areas of life, women’s sport is a reasonably recent phenomenon.
On a competitive level, the Olympic Games are a yardstick of measuring sporting participation. The Games were a male-centric movement until women were first allowed to compete in the Paris Games of 1900. Helena de Pourtales of Belgium became the first woman to win an Olympic gold medal (in a sailing event). Not until 1928 in Amsterdam did women’s athletics find a place in the Olympic schedule with the 100m, 800m, high jump, discus and relay put on the menu to please women’s pressure groups. In the men’s events, Pat O’Callaghan is always associated with these Games as he became the first Irishman from the new Republic to win a gold medal. That was in the hammer but a Polish woman quietly made history (Artur Nowak take note). Her name was Halina Konopacka who became the first ever female Olympic track and field champion. She won the discus with a world record throw of 39.62m on July 31st, 1928 in these Games. The first female track Olympic champion was Betty Robinson, a 16 year old American girl who won the 100m later the same day and equalled the existing world record of 12.2 secs.
Cathy Flynn has covered a fair few miles in the sky blue top of St Brendan’s AC. She has served as PRO and now is assistant treasurer. Very professional in her methodology too.
Cathy joined the Ardfert Gym fourteen years ago to get fit and had an aim of doing 3K in 15 mins on the treadmill, which she found challenging then. Then she took to the roads and her first race was in the Dublin Women’s Mini Marathon which she accomplished with great satisfaction. Excited and delighted with her new hobby, she continued to run and her most memorable event is the Tralee 100K Ultra. Team mate Pat Sheehy and other members of the club all helped out at different stages of the run. Artur Nowak joined her in Fenit and ran beside her all the way to Blennerville, listening to her complaining about the torture of running and that she would never run again! The day was memorable as her family were waiting at the finish line, especially as she participated in the event in memory of her uncle. Emotive moment.
With pbs of 3-46 for the marathon, 1-50 for the half and 46-47 for the 10K, Cathy has laid down serious markers for her future running career. “I run because every session is an accomplishment in itself” she affirms and says she always feels great afterwards. One of the funniest things to happen to her on a run was when she was joking about another runner to a friend, the other runner appeared beside her and made her jump with surprise. Giggles for the rest of that run!
About her club she says “joining St Brendan’s AC was the best decision ever. I have met great friends who give great support. You know that when you turn up to training ‘not feeling it’, someone will always stay with you till the end. That friendship is priceless...”
Cathy now leads the growing Couch-to-5K group in the club and they do their first parkrun on this Saturday. As a famous Welsh rugby player once said as he lined up to take a winning penalty kick, prepare to celebrate.
“I run because I can” says another club stalwart, Kirsti Nowak. Kirsti started running in 2012 after she stayed in Dingle in 2011 for the weekend of the fabled Dingle half which husband Artur was doing. She was swept away by the atmosphere and excitement and firmly promised to be running in the popular event the following year. And she was! She ran the Banna 10K as part of her build-up and that was her first real run. “I was sore for about a week after” she remembers. So she ran the Dingle half in 2012 as promised and was elated at the finish line in Dún Chaoin. On the way back to Dingle on the bus, she considered that the only show in town was to do the full Dingle marathon the following year, finishing in Dingle town with the crowds and excitement all around. And come 2013, she did!
“It is a very tough route and definitely not one for the faint-hearted” Kirsti says now, “but it’s absolutely worth it when you cross Milltown bridge with only a km to go, hearing the roars of support from fellow runners and spectators; soaking up their respect and admiration for you. Running my first marathon in the town where I grew up is my best running memory. I’ve done the full Dingle marathon four times there now and I hope I will do it there again.”
Kirsti has run 4-54 for the marathon and has an impressive list of pbs for a host of distances. She has run eight full marathons at this stage and is delighted that she took up running in her forties. There’s a message there for any woman or man who has never run before. Absolute focus is part of her event-running as I saw in the Tralee Born to Run relay last year when she tore into the tough relay leg telling herself that she meant business. “I know I’m slow but at least I’m trying” she was saying to herself.
The funniest thing that ever happened while on a run was finishing the marathon leg of the Hardman triathlon in Killarney in 2017. “It looked like I was literally sweating blood when in actual fact the hair dye I put in the previous night was trickling down my face! I was mortified but it’s still a funny memory!”
“Running has enhanced my life in a way I didn’t think possible” a deireann an bhean láidir seo a tháinig ón Daingean go hÁrd Fhearta.
It should be noted that getting women’s athletics recognised internationally was no easy task and did not happen overnight. In the 1928 Amsterdam Games referred to above, there was outrage when a number of the women fell exhausted on the track after the 800m final (won by Lena Radke-Schauer of West Germany in a world record of 2-16). Women were not capable of running such a distance, it was said. And it was not just men who thought like that.
The Suffragette movement of the early twentieth century, the right of women to vote in the 1918 General Election in Ireland and the growth of Cumann na mBan and camogie gave Irish women a huge boost in demanding a status in sport. Strangely, World War 1 and the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic (which killed thousands of people in Ireland) enabled some women to take up roles outside the home in caring or other capacities, thereby breaking their traditional status of home-only, silent mothers.
But we had to wait until 1956 in Melbourne to see the first Irishwoman compete in Olympic athletics. Maeve Kyle from Kilkenny competed in the 100m and 200m on the track where Ronnie Delaney won gold. While she didn’t win a medal (she did later), her participation was historic and should never be underestimated. As well as being an equal-status athlete in Melbourne, she took on extra duties for the male athletes who referred to her expertise when they needed gear re-sewn or ironing done! Like all women, she could multi-task if required.
Next time we will meet some more women who carry the colours of St Brendan’s AC. They would all be held in high regard by the pioneers of women’s running who broke the mould and shattered glass ceilings and went out bravely to compete. They are among the unsung heroes of Irish and world history.
Lines from a poem by the late coach and teacher Kevin Griffin often come to mind on a training session. When women and men go out on a run, it’s like being in
A portable peace
faithfully lived.
Society should never forget the struggle women had to get treated equally in athletics. The first woman I ever saw running was my mother. I foolishly challenged her to a sprint when I was about ten. The length of our meadow. She flew like the wind up the green grass, leaving me speechless in her wake. I didn’t know that women could run up to then. “There you go now”, she said proudly as I stumbled up to her. We both laughed our hearts out. Lesson learned. Magic moment.
When considering how far women’s athletics has developed over the years, many nations have contributed to the narrative. France has a notable presence in the story with a non-competitive, participative angle. In October 1903 the major couture houses in Paris organised the marche des midinettes – a 12km walk through the streets of the city specially for women. Two-and-a-half thousand young women took part. It was a great success and perhaps one of the first examples of participative athletic eventing. Our St Brendan’s AC women would have taken part if they were there.
Linda O’Sullivan, current Co-PRO, coach and athlete is probably one of the longest serving women athletes in the club. She is also a coach and motivator. She started running at Tiny Tots level at the tender age of five in 1992. Probably the hardest race to win is the Tiny Tots, starts like a grand national, mothers and fathers cantering nearby, a range of styles and straight lines as defined by five year olds! And they are the ones who are running forwards. But Linda survived that occasion in Ardfert Sportsfield and was congratulated afterwards by her proud father Tom who was a keen coach.
Linda’s love of athletics blossomed and her most memorable running moment came in the Kerry Community Games athletics finals when she was part of a gold-medal winning U10 relay team. Mosney-bound, merry and mesmerised by the joy of athletics. Many races, many open sports, many county championships later, Linda graduated to longer distances to record a personal best of 23-59 for the 5K in the first Covid year. That was on her own during lockdown in one of the many virtual challenges organised by St Brendan’s AC to keep spirits high. It did. Her 10K pb time is a creditable 50-57 achieved in the Tralee Summer Solstice run some time ago. No fear of the longer distances either with a 1-57 half and 4-31 marathon, achieved in her first-ever full marathon on the hilly Dingle course.
And why does Linda run? “It clears my head!” she says, “gives me a feelgood factor and allows me to be a good role model for my three children”. Your father is proud of you, Linda and so are all of us in the club. This year she becomes a master athlete and, master athletes, look out!
Margaret Carlin gave up smoking in February 2007 and ran her first race, the Cork Marathon the following June. That’s what is called a good start! The Ballyheigue woman was hooked on distance running and one of her career highlights is winning the Donegal Marathon in 2015. She likes Donegal. Her husband comes from there. Margaret has serious best times for a variety of distances, like the 21-04 for 5K and 42-45 for the 10K distance. Along with these impressive times, Margaret has clocked 1-38 for the half marathon and 3-26 for the full marathon (in Cork in June 2015). The social dimension of group running is important for Margaret who has also supported her club in track events.
When you run with Margaret, you realise that she has the style of double world cross country champion John Treacy with her own brand of stamina, flavoured by the hills of Ballyheigue and garnished with a splash in the Atlantic waters or a dollop of cycling.
One of the achievements she can be very proud of is her medal finish in the Mount Maunganui half marathon in New Zealand in August 2018. “I got a medal for being old!” she jokes as she competed in the O55 category in a very competitive run. International runner for St Brendan’s AC! Part of the joy of that run was the fact that her daughter also ran in the race around the exotic landscape of the North Island. A run is a treasure. A run shared by family is a treasure indeed. And a recent run in Cork has confirmed that Margaret’s running star is still on the rise.
Moira Horgan is the efficient St Brendan’s AC secretary but loves the running too. The year 2010 was the launch time. A student in IT Tralee, Marcus Howlett did a project on people who never ran a marathon with the aim to inspiring them to take on the 26 mile 385 yards challenge. About sixty students and staff eagerly took up the offer and thirteen of them survived to do the Limerick Marathon in 2011. Moira was one of the thirteen.
As a result of the experience, Moira and a small group of those runners launched the Born To Run Tralee Marathon Club in 2014. Then there was the amazing experience of running the New York Marathon in 2016, “an electric and memorable experience, running through all five boroughs”. She ran 4-59 in the Big Apple. A feat to be proud of. A 4-01 pb for the distance is electric also as is Moira’s 5K time of 26-40. She is a key figure Tralee adult and junior parkruns as volunteer and participant and she has graced parkruns all over Ireland and abroad.
“Running has so many positives” says Moira “but the most important one for me is to be a role model for my two boys. I especially enjoy it when the three of us go on a run together”.
And then came Ursula Barrett. She now runs in the O45 category and broke the Munster record while getting the gold in this year’s Munster indoors. Ursula hails from West Limerick and started running as an U10 in Community Games and represented Limerick in the National Finals in Mosney in the hurdles. She loved the buzz that permeated Mosney but thought that the competition was “cut-throat”. Then other sports like basketball took her attention and she returned to running seven years ago when she joined the Fit4Life group. Her first race back was the Kilmoyley 5K which has a special atmosphere about it and then the Banna 10K, the Dingle half marathon and she finished off that year by participating in the Dublin Marathon. That is so Ursula Barrett!
Then she became engulfed in track and field and was introduced to Munster championship athletics by tearing her groin doing her first provincial high jump. Most would have called it a day then but that was a mere challenge to Ursula. She found her niche in the 100m, 200m, and long jump where she has won a sackful of county, Munster and national medals, both indoor and outdoor with some championship records on the way. Read her performances and weep.
Among her favourite memories are the Banna Run 10K where she knows most of the competitors, can run a fast time and be back on time to serve the tea and goodies. Then there was the Kerry Athletics masters’ track and field championships in An Ríocht track in 2019 where she was among the sixteen St Brendan’s AC members who competed on the day, dominating the relays and having a great craic. There was a seam of poetry running through the occasion. “The club spirit that day was super” she recalls and doesn’t add that she was partly responsible for that spirit.
And why does Ursula Barrett run? “It keeps me sane”, she affirms with an uncomplicated smile. “I love the combination of exercise and the company. I like to challenge myself but I don’t want it to be too serious as it’s important to live life too. Hence my glass of wine the night before a competition!” Yeah, a glass of vino! She recalls a tag rugby match used in a training session a few years ago which ended in a giggling session on the ground after the players had got into some compromising positions! “There are always fun conversations over a meal with the ladies (and gents) of St Brendan’s AC” she will tell you as she urges you to do another lap when you are out on your feet and hearing a choir sing Going Home!
“There is such variety in athletics, cross country and road running that it is stimulating and motivating” Ursula believes. Her indoor sessions are a big hit with both club members and non-members and have helped to pass away the long night of winter for the past few years.
Her sessions has us all digging for Australia like children with sand shovels in Banna on an August day. Helium high.
One of Ursula’s look-up-to athletes is Jason Smyth, the paralympic sprinter and she loved watching Usain Bolt too as he made sprinting look so easy. Just like she does.
Of course there is also the unseen presence of women without whom the club would not function. Mothers who inspire and encourage. Sisters who challenge and praise. And maybe enrage at times! Grannies who delight to see the second next generation enjoying themselves. Aunties who ask “how did you do at training?” Wives, girlfriends and partners who enrich the athletics world with a word here or a positive push there. And maybe supply a gentle pick-up after a disappointing performance.
The world of athletics is a wide world indeed.
We recognise this as we keep in mind the women and children who are on the roads out of Ukraine at the moment. Or staying behind under bombardment.
Virginia Woolf has said
"As a woman, my country is the whole world".
There is a world of miles and smiles in store for St Brendan’s AC as long as the club’s band of inspiring women are lacing up and looking out.
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