Gladiators honoured

THE seanchaí has been part of Irish culture since the days of Cú Chulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhaill. The tradition lives on in the shape of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh who regaled the crowd at the Knightsbrook on Monday night with tales from history, personal experience and sport. The man who stepped into the shoes of the great Mícheál O Hehir as the voice of summer Sunday afternoons, went among his captive audience. He spoke to the various winners of the 2007 Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotels Sports Personality-of-the-year awards, having the "craic" with each as he went along. He laced his delivery with his unique mixture of humour, pathos, history, folklore and, of course, the cupla focal. The 'voice of voices' as he was described by the Paul McQuillan, Managing Director of Cusack Hotels, certainly added something special to what was the first occasion of its kind. An occasion to honour the achievements of some of Meath"s top sporting performers. The audience was made up a veritable who"s who of sport in the Royal County with footballers, hurlers, camogie players athletes, jockeys, trainers, managers, selectors and spectators joining together. There were heroes from another era such as Jack Quinn, Pat Reynolds, Tommy Carberry and Colm O"Rourke to more modern achievers on the local, national and international fronts. The kind of people who went home with one of the weighty trophies specially designed by Betty Newman Maguire. Among those was Kourosh Foroughi, the young high jumper, who has an Iranian, Irish background. O Muircheartaigh displayed his distinctive take on things when he demonstrated how, through data found in the Annals of the Four Masters, Foroughi"s ancestors could be traced back to Kerry in the middle ages!! It was a suggestion that made the young Star of the Sea athlete and his family laugh loudly. Then there was the winner of the overall 2007 sports personality awards Gordon Elliott who trained Silver Birch to the Aintree Grand National on an unforgettable day last spring. Also present was jockey Robert Power who guided 'the Birch' to the gold medal position in the most famous national hunt race of the lot. The awards night was the finishing point for a journey that started early last year when the late John Cusack and McQuillan met with Dave Sheehan and Ken Davis from the Meath Chronicle with the idea of honouring local sporting excellence. It was recalled how John enjoyed sport. He was no stranger at Balreask Old when Navan played rugby matches. He was an avid supporter of the Meath football team and nobody was more delighted when the Royals beat the rest to attain All-Ireland glory. John carved out a highly successful business career, staring out with a public house in Kildalkey - the Cusack Stand - before going on to develop a range of hotels in the Meath area. Along the way he had to display all the qualities demanded from high achievers on the sporting front - hard work, honesty of effort and enterprise to achieve his goals. He had to learn to overcome challenges and with characteristic decency and drive, he did just that. O Muircheartaigh had a few cupla focal with John"s wife, Maire. She had words of advice for those seeking to achieve something on the sporting front. 'Do it for they Royal,' she added to rapturous applause. There was poignancy also when Seneschalstown"s achievement in winning the Keegan Cup was recognised. The management team of coach Damien Sheridan and his selectors Ian Maguire and Tommy McDonnell were the recipients of the November award. Tragically, Tommy passed away soon after Seneschalstown had defeated O"Mahonys in the final replay. His son Ted stood in for him on Monday night as a great victory was recalled. Manager Sheridan spoke about the 'high emotion' that had driven Seneschalstown on. How McDonnell"s illness and other tragedies such as the Kentstown bus crash had left an indelible mark on the psyche of the players and the community. How that high emotion had 'transformed a group of lads into an unbeatable team.' A team that simply wouldn"t accept anything less than victory. 'The day after the championship was won Tommy could say that this was the happiest year of his life,' added Sheridan. Getting over a serious spinal condition sparked Sean Heary into becoming an archer. He first contacted the illness in 1969 and is now getting ready for the Paralympics in Beijing. It was that kind of night when tales of heroism were told to match anything achieved by Cú Chulainn or Fionn Mac Cumhaill. Roll on the 2008 event.