Connacht Tribune
Addicted to adventure
Lifestyle – Former professional rugby player Damian Browne has found a new focus for his energies – extreme sports. As he prepares for his greatest challenge yet, a solo row across the Atlantic Ocean, he tells Judy Murphy what motivates him.
Damian Browne’s obsession with rugby began at the age of 11 when he joined Galwegians Rugby Club in Galway City, across from the family home in Renmore. On his debut outing with ’Wegians, he missed his first tackle – and got a kick in the face. For most kids, that might have been the end of their career, but Damian was different.
“It unleashed something in me,” he recalls. “And I loved it. I loved the sense of letting go, that commitment to a tackle, the physical side of it.”
That passion saw Damian, the eldest in a family of three, embark on a professional rugby career that led him to play second row with Connacht before moving abroad, first to England and then to France.
Since an injury prematurely ended his rugby career in 2015, his sense of adventure has found a new and unusual outlet. This gentle giant is now into extreme sports. To date, Damian has climbed Mont Blanc and Gran Paradiso, summitted Kilimanjaro, taken part in high-altitude treks in Peru, Kyrgyzstan and an expedition into the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan. He’s been to volcanic lava lakes in Rwanda and Ethiopia and completed six marathons over six days across the Sahara in Morocco. Through that, he raised nearly €7,000 for Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Amani Children’s Home, Tanzania.
His latest undertaking is his most ambitious yet. In December, 37-year-old Damian will set out to row solo across the Atlantic – a 4,800km challenge from the Canaries to Antigua in the West Indies. He’s the second Galwayman in as many years to take on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge and will raise funds for three charities in the process.
“I’ve a personality that keeps having to push further and explore more,” he says. “The more I push, the more reward I seem to get back – it’s kind of addictive.”
Over coffee in the city’s Black Gate Café, he explains that he’s been planning to do this race for about five years and had originally hoped to do it last year. As it happened, 2016 didn’t work for him, but when he was researching last year’s race, he got a surprise.
“I went to the website and found there was an entrant from Ireland, Gavan Hennigan. Then I saw he was from Galway,” he says. Since more people have summited Everest and been to space than have completed this row, it’s some coincidence.
Gavan, who finished the race in under 50 days, has been a great help to Damian, advising on the boat and facilities that will best help the Renmore man row the 4,800km crossing.
“He’s been very helpful and patient, because with ocean-rowing, you have to ask a lot of simple questions – you are trying to decipher a language you don’t understand,” says Damian.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
