Barryroe GAA

In a black week in the Parish, a little flame of love and support.

05 September, 2014

The Rememberance Day for John Drake, will actually be remembered for a long, long time. They had been hoping for a decent turn-out and to collect a few bob for the Regional Hospital.

I think they underestimated the regard John was held in, not only in the Parish, but far beyond. Over 150 cyclists took part, some of the bikes had not seen daylight for a while. On a fashion note boys, tight cycling gear is fine if you are toned and ripped, but otherwise Lads it's not a good look.

I think John himself arranged the weather, from a miserable Friday to a georgus Saturday.

The food was out of this world, with John's life long friend, Mikey Fleming running a great barbeque, with the help of a wonderful crew., and as for the cakes, I put on half a stone just looking at them.

Lovely music, my first time hearing the Jennifer and Kate, and an unknown number of helpers at crossroads far and away.

As for "the few bob" they hoped to collect, well people dug deep and they dug deeper again and the most recent figure I have, is approaching 10, 000 Euro, ( YES 10,000 EURO). This, we should note, came hot on the heels of the great sponsorship given to the O'Leary family and Richard Murphy, who ran in the Cork Marathon recently. Also thanks to the local Gardaí and anyone who helped in any way to make it such a great day.

I have even heard it suggested that this should become an annual event, now I wonder has St. Peter learned the words of "Piddling Pete" yet.

Some pictures from what was a bitter/sweet day for the Drake family.

The page may be slow to load because of the number of pictures on it, so please be patient.

P.S. you should see some of the pictures I couldn't publish.

THERE IS A VIDEO CLIP OF THE START ON THE C.L.G. BARRA RUA PAGE, CLICK HERE.