KildareNet News

NAAS, 16 July 2002: by Brian Byrne & Trish Whelan. The Naas Special Olympics Committee are ‘nearly there’ in terms of accommodation for the 75 people from New Zealand coming to Kildare’s County town next year, according to committee chairman Denis Curry. But a number of host homes are still required, he noted.

After last night’s official launch of the Naas Special Olympics Supporters Club in the council chamber of Kildare County Council, he told KNN that the committee had received ‘tremendous support’ from individuals and organisations in the town for the event, which will involve hosting the New Zealand delegation for four days in advance of the games proper.

“This time next year the event will be over and the participants will have gone home,” he had earlier told those present. “I suspect that those who will have been involved will feel a great sense of satisfaction, while those who weren’t will have serious regrets.”

New Zealand national director of the Special Olympics Chris Hooper (pictured above third from left with John McCann, delegation assistant to the Special Olympics; Jim Reilly, Mayor of County Kildare; and Denis Curry, chairman of the Naas Host Town Committee), was last night’s special guest at the launch. He said the international event was ‘the pinnacle of their careers’ for the athletes, many of whom had been involved in their local and national events for up to 30 years.

He told KNN that the event will cost the New Zealand party some 500,000 New Zealand dollars, and each athlete and their family must raise half of the cost to bring them to Ireland.

It’s the first time the Special Olympics have been held outside the US, where they were founded by Eunice Kennedy, sister of John F Kennedy.

Mayor of County Kildare Jim Reilly welcomed the attendance at last night’s event, saying it was a ‘very special occasion’ and that a ‘great awareness was growing’ about the Special Olympics.

“Given the calibre of the people who are becoming involved, I think we need have no fear that it will not work,” he said of the Naas involvement.

Mayor of Naas Timmy Conway (pictured above on left with Dara O'Brien; Chris Hooper; Geraldine Kilgannon, Mary Walsh, Kildare Olympic Medal winner Rita Lawlor, John McCann and Sheila Callaghan) recalled the influence which ‘special people’ like Christy Nolan and Christy Brown had had on his own writing, noting that in each case it had been their mothers who had ‘released their genius’. He hoped that those who come to Naas next year will ‘come to love’ the town and that their involvement will make it a ‘dynamic event’.

Kildare councillor Fiona O’Loughlin (pictured above second from left with Mayor of County Kildare Jim Reilly; the Honorary Consul General of New Zealand Alan McCarthy; and Naas Mayor Timmy Conway) who is the host town programme manager to the international event, said it would be a ‘life-enhancing experience’ for those who did get involved.

But it was Christy Lynch, CEO of KARE - the County Kildare Association of Parents and Friends of those now termed the ‘intellectually disabled’ - who made the most compelling presentation of the evening. In a short speech which showed a deep-rooted commitment to those for whom he works, he said that the arrival of an intellectually disabled child is at first a ‘difficult challenge’ for the parents, but in the end those same children show ‘what is important in life’. “The Special Olympics is all about achievement, participation, and those participants showing that ‘I have lots of things that I can do’,” he said.

The Naas operation for the Special Olympics is supported by the local branch of national sponsor Bank of Ireland, and further information can be obtained from Naas Host Town Committee secretary Marion Stapleton at 045 876811 (daytime).