This week’s round-up tees off in the sports pages of the Waterford News & Star, where Daragh Small writes about a Tramore golfer who has made what the paper describes as an emotional journey back to the top…
This is another human-interest story which deserves plenty of readers and plenty of promotion and it’s all about Ian St John, who this week is playing in the Irish Open for Players with a Disability and also has the European Championships for Golfers with a Disability with the Irish team to look forward to from July 20th to the 22nd.
Now this is a far cry from the devastating news Ian had to face seven years ago in Beaumont Hospital when he was diagnosed with spinal cancer and paralysis having just played a ProAm golf tournament in Donegal.
His wife was eight months pregnant at the time and they had a two-year-old daughter to consider at the time and as Ian put it himself, he was “aabsolutely destroyed in every way you can think it is, obliterated in the space of a couple of days”. Ian also had a very trying court case to get through subsequently and he frankly admits that when asked has he accepted his paralysis, Ian states: “The answer will always be no.”
To Ian’s eternal credit, and WLR listeners will know this story well thank to both Matt Keane and the sadly missed Kevin Casey, he was determined to play golf again and the ParaGolfer mechanism has facilitated his return to the golf course, which, in Ian’s case, is just 6oo yards from his front door in Tramore. And it’s best to let Ian himself take up the story from there:
“I sit into it. You are basically cocoon-strapped into this awkward looking machine. It gets you into an upright position and you can play golf. It has a maximum speed of 9.6km which isn’t brilliant. But for me anyway it’s been life-changing because when I got paralysed, I’m a PGA professional, that was my life, that was everything I do, play or teach, the works. So I didn’t want to know about golf or anything like that afterwards. But then I was made aware of this machine and yeah, I got into it in June. Just when the weather was getting better.”
Ian’s return to golf has also been facilitated by conversations he has had with his counsellor Liz Finch whom he credited with lowering the volume on his internal chatter.
Ian told Daragh: “Look what I am doing, I am playing competitive golf. I am going to be wearing the Irish jersey in the Irish Open and in Holland. I am entered in several events around Europe, get to the US as well at some stage and further afield. It’s night and day in that respect.” What a man Ian is and what a story he has to share so fingers crossed, he’ll have two successful back-to-back weekends coming his way!
This week’s Munster Express features a story from the mid-1980s, the fatal attack on the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in which MEP and Waterford native Grace O’Sullivan, who was a member of the crew 38 years ago, is now seeking an apology from the French Government about the incident…
I couldn’t not mention this piece by Jamie O’Keeffe this week, Ollie/Dymphna, even allowing for the fact that I made a conscious decision when this blog was convened that it was going to predominantly focus on glass half-full, smile inducing stories.
But this story couldn’t be ignored this week and another of the reasons for mentioning it was that this is one of the first news stories I can readily recall when I was six years old. In fact, the only one I can remember before this was Ronald Reagan’s visit to Ballyporeen in 1984 and the next story after the Rainbow Warrior I can call to mind was the loss of the Challenger space shuttle in January 1986 so I hope that sets the Rainbow Warrior tragedy in context for younger blog visitors.
So Grace O’Sullivan, the Green Party’s Ireland South MEP, has written to French President Emannuel Macron seeking a full apology to crew members and the family of the murdered photographer Fernando Pereira who was killed by members of the French Secret Service on July 10th, 1985 while the Rainbow Warrior was moored in Auckland in New Zealand. Grace herself and several crew had taken shore leave at the time that French Secret Service agents in diving gear had attached two explosive charges to the hull of the ship. Fernando Pereira, who was trapped inside the Rainbow Warrior following the explosion, lost his life.
At the time the French Government, then led by President Francois Mitterand, denied all knowledge of the operation until two French Secret Service agents Dominique Prieur and Alain Mafart were caught by New Zealand security forces. Both were later transferred to a French military base where they served less than two years while only two other agents suspected of involvement ever saw the inside of a courtroom.
Speaking from the European Parliament, Grace said neither the family nor the family of her friend Fernando have ever received an apology from the French Government. She said: “The whole French operation was a brutal and botched attack on peaceful protestors that ended in assassination. It’s time for an apology.”
Post-Brexit, France has become our closest geographical ally in the European Union. Friends should be capable of saying sorry – and it is never too late to say sorry. So let’s hope that the decent thing is done here by the French State, albeit almost 40 years overdue.
And finally this week and staying in the sea, albeit for much more positive reasons, this week’s Dungarvan Leader reports on the return of the town’s duo of surf-loving seals to their favourite spot on the Colligan Esutary…
It lifted my heart to open Page 14 of this week’s Leader where Jo Bell’s words and Eddie Dee’s photo detail the seals’ return on the Colligan, within eyeshot of the Park Hotel.
Jo writes: “It had been feared that the seals might not return, after their paddle board came loose and floated away, last month. They had not been seen in the estuary since the incident, despite the paddle board having been returned to its spot within a week of its disappearance.”
However, last weekend, many people took to social media to share photos of the seals happily returned to their customary maritime perch. Speaking to the Dungarvan Leader, Local Seal Rescue Ireland volunteer Sar’anne Walsh said she was “SO thrilled to see a juvenile common seal up on the board. I don’t think people understand the true importance of these seals on so many levels. Apart from the ecological and conservation win this is for the Colligan Estuary and Dungarvan, the emotional affect of these animals has been incredible.”
These seals are the equivalent of Waterford’s Fungi the Dolphin, just as it’s a joy to see otters on the Suir, John’s River and the Anne Valley. The presences of these creatures are signs of healthier rivers and streams in our city and county and at a time when we are all more aware of sustainability and positive environmentalism, a story like this in the Leader is truly worth celebrating.
…And before I take my leave, many thanks to the Dungarvan Observer, the Waterford News & Star and The Munster Express for this week's coverage of the Argo Tractors Ireland launch which Green Acre Marketing co-ordinated at the FTMTA Farm Machinery show at Punchestown on Wednesday last! And you can find our more about ‘GAM’ here: https://www.greenacremarketing.ie/meet-agribusiness-marketing-experts/
I review Waterford's local newspapers every Wednesday morning on WLRfm's 'Big Breakfast Blaa with Ollie & Dymphna: https://www.wlrfm.com/shows/the-big-breakfast-blaa
Comments