County Limerick tug of war club pulls in enough money to represent Ireland

AN EAST Limerick tug of war club will get to represent Ireland in the British and Irish Championships thanks to community strength in numbers.

The small Mulcair club winning the right to represent their country is on a par with Limerick winning the All-Ireland last year, said Eddie O’Malley, coach. They beat all the traditional Irish super clubs to earn the right to wear the green and white singlets.

The only problem was the cost of the trip to Coleraine for the games which are on this weekend. It works out at around €700 to €800 per person.

In last week’s Limerick Leader, Eddie revealed that their participation was in jeopardy due to a lack of funding. However, he confirmed the good news that they now have enough to head north and take on the best in the United Kingdom.

“We got a great response from the article and the bit of publicity. It was brilliant. We have a good bit of money collected now. We got a great response. Local businesses and people have been very generous,” said Eddie, who thanked everyone for their financial support and their main sponsors St Ailbes Credit Union and Shannonside Galvanizing.

He says money shouldn’t be a deterrent to representing your county in sport but sadly that is the case in tug of war.

“They have already travelled all over Ireland at their own expense. A few lads said they would give us a loan to go that we can pay back later. And if we do a bit more fundraising we can pay it off in time. We have a good bit of money promised too. We are going to go – that’s the bottom line,” said Eddie.

 The eight men who will swap their blue for green jerseys are Con Hayes, Cappamore; John O’Malley, Cappamore; John Carey, Cappamore; Eugene Taaffe, Cappamore; Robert O’Brien, Dundrurm; Brian Ivors, Thurles; Daniel Gleeson, Kilteely and Dave Collins, Cork. They will pull for their country against the best England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have to offer in the 680kg category.

They will be joined by clubmates Jason Ryan, Rathkeale; Shane Kett, Cappamore and Brendan Gleeson, Kilteely who have made the U-23 Irish team.

Eddie says they are now looking forward to and focusing on representing Ireland in the British and Irish Championships.

“We will give it our best shot,” declared Eddie, who is immensely proud of the the men under his care who have gone from being annual losers to reaching the pinnacle of the sport.

“These young fellows are training since last October, probably six days a week. They have put a monumental effort into it and don’t get any huge recognition. We said we would try and step it up and the lads put in an absolutely huge effort since last October. They are virtually professional without getting paid. What they are after achieving is probably on a par to what Limerick hurling achieved last year

“We are a novice club but novice clubs are allowed to compete in senior competitions. Normally novice club clubs don’t do well. Not only did we not get beaten this year but we won the national league and beat all the super clubs. We won the right to put on the green jersey and represent Ireland. We are ruffling feathers in the tug of war world,” said Eddie.

They hope and plan to ruffle some more this weekend.