Resilient Limerick woman wins national tennis title

A LIMERICK woman has added another trophy to her cabinet after she claimed a national title at a National Visually Impaired and Blind Tennis event in Dublin.

Mungret native Marguerite Quinn had her life turned upside down when she suffered a brain aneurysm while attending a camogie match in 2016, leading to 12 months of hospital recovery.

The former principal of St Nessan’s National School in Mungret had to relearn how to walk.

Retiring due to medical grounds one year into her “dream job”, Marguerite said at the time: “It’s a big thing to leave school on a Friday, in charge of 50 staff and 700 children, to never having that again.”

Marguerite decided she needed a new outlet and enrolled in blind tennis lessons in Killaloe, with local coach Wesley O’ Brien.
Wesley encapsulated the Limerick woman’s fighting spirit through one of the first lines she said to him on arrival.

“She is a very strong willed woman. She wanted to know right off the bat if there was an Irish team and how far she could go with this,” he told the Limerick Leader.

Visually impaired tennis is categorized from B1, those who are fully blind to B4, with a minor impairment. Marguerite plays in the B2 category, playing with 10 degrees of vision.

Lessons involve a special foam ball with a ping pong inside, enabling players to listen to the sound of the ball, while playing on a tactile court.

As a result of her recent success at the National Visually Impaired and Blind Tennis event in Dublin Marguerite is now on course to be selected for an Ireland Team for the World Championships in August.

John Foley, Chair of Sport Ireland and Michael Clarke, Leas Cathaoirleach of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CC presented the prizes.
Wesley O'Brien was the tournament director and Martin Etheridge, Technical Director of the International Blind Tennis Association, was the tournament referee.

In 2022, Marguerite took part in an International blind tennis tournament in Poland where she placed third in her division.
Setting out to win at least one match, Marguerite smashed all expectations, winning her first two games.

“Her family were massively proud, and it meant the world to her,” Wesley said of her third-place podium finish, where she came back from 3-1 down, to beat a former champion 4-3 in their exciting third-place play-off match.