News
Kilbeacanty native joins Irish team to take on Australians
A young Galway national hunt rider has been selected on the Irish team to take on the Australians in this year’s Jockeys’ Challenge Down Under.
Ian McCarthy from Kilbeacanty joins Katie Walsh and Luke Dempsey on the flight where they will link up with Australia-based jockey Johnny Allen, to make up the Irish team. The selection was announced by President Michael D Higgins at last week’s Galway Races.
The 28 year old with 70 career winners rode his first winner on Teffia Native, trained by the late Dessie Hughes at Fairyhouse, back in June 2007.
He is a four-time winner on the Jarlath Fahey-trained Jennies Jewel and she provided him with his biggest success in the Tara Handicap Hurdle at Navan in 2013.
Ian and Luke Dempsey fly out with manager Sean Lynch on August 20 and will compete in the first of two racedays at Murraybridge on August 24.
They will be joined by Katie Walsh and Johnny Allen for the second part of the contest on ‘Irish Day’ on August 27 at Morphetville. Irish day at Morphetville ranks as the second biggest raceday of the year in South Australia, attracting a large Irish contingent.
While in Australia, Katie Walsh will seek to emulate her brother Ruby’s success in the 2015 Grand National Steeplechase in Ballarat, by taking part in the feature race on the final day of the Sportsbet-Ballarat jump racing festival on August 21.
Katie, youngest daughter of Ted Walsh and sister of the great Ruby Walsh, is of course herself one of the leading Irish amateur riders of recent times.
She landed the Irish Grand National on Thunder And Roses for trainer Sandra Hughes in April, 2015, becoming only the third woman to ride the winner of the race. Katie was the key member of the successful Irish team who beat their Australian counterparts in the 2008 renewal of the series.
Luke Dempsey is from Carbury, Co Kildare, and the son of trainer Philip Dempsey. He has ridden winners for Dermot Weld, Gordon Elliott, Johnny Murtagh, Colm Murphy and Ted Walsh.
Johnny Allen is from Kilworth, Co Cork, and he has carved out quite a career for himself in Australia, becoming one of the leading jockeys in the process.
This is the 30th consecutive year that an Irish team has been invited to Australia to participate in the jockey challenge. There have already been 40 contests staged in the two countries, with Ireland taking the honours on 24 occasions, Australia winning 15 times and one draw.
Team Australia has won the Australia v Ireland Jockeys Challenge for the last two years and Irish Team Manager, Sean Lynch, is keen to see the Irish team get back to winning ways.
“We have a strong team heading over this year to join Johnny Allen in taking on the Australians and I’m very confident that we can win. It’s a great experience for the jockeys who travel over and we receive the very best of Australian hospitality every year,” said Sean.
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.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
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.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
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
