Physical activity critical to tackling ills of modern life

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

For an athlete who has achieved so much in her own sporting life, it is refreshing to hear a person of former Irish heptathlon champion Mary Barrett’s stature talk about the importance physical activity has to play in treating some of the ails of modern society, such as mental illness and obesity.

A Physical Education teacher at St. Brigid’s Vocational School in Loughrea since 1990 – having worked at Galway RTC (now GMIT) for 23 years previously – noted athlete Barrett has observed the benefits of sport both sides of the spectrum.

From her own personal perspective, she was crowned national senior heptathlon champion three times throughout the 1980s – finishing second on numerous other occasions – while her zest for physical activity has certainly not diminished with Barrett continuing to represent Ireland at masters’ level.

However, in recent times, she, like many health and fitness experts in the country, has become concerned by issues now recurring among young people, including mental illness and obesity.

She believes not enough emphasis or, indeed, value is being put on physical education in Irish schools.

“If you look at the school, like here (St. Brigid’s), there are 600 kids and one PE teacher. Melissa, my youngest daughter, is in Edinburgh training to do PE at the moment and she is in a school of 1,200 students and they have seven full-time PE teachers. Those teachers wouldn’t teach anything else.” She notes that in this country it is almost a prerequisite that every PE tutor must teach another subject and, inevitably, that other subject “is probably more important than the PE”.

However, the Essex-born former British Colleges champion asks what could be more important than a person’s well-being.

“I read an article in the paper and they were talking about mental illness and the big thing they are saying in dealing with this is the prescription of physical activity. They are talking about exams – and the stress they cause – but you need physical activity in your life.

“Unfortunately, they are doing nothing about it. It is so important, physical activity, not even from the competitive side of it but from the perspective of health,” stresses Barrett, who has observed deterioration in the fitness levels of students who enter the school with every passing year.

“I see it,” she insists. “Uniforms cover up a multitude. They are saying between a quarter to a third of our kids are obese and they are right. I was in Athlone recently giving a coach education course, an introductory session, and we were just talking about it.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.