Meath connection with European championships

The parish of Skryne is this week again celebrating its links with European championship medals. Just two weeks after Derval O'Rourke, the charge of Skryne coaches Sean and Terrie Cahill, won a silver medal in the 100 metres hurdle in Barcelona, the Murphy family is celebrating the success of Grainne in the European Swimming Championships in Budapest. The 17 year-old, who collects her Leaving Certificate results this week, won the 1,500m freestyle and is regarded as one of Ireland's great hopes for the London Olympics of 2012. From New Ross in Co Wexford, she is a member of one of the Hill of Skryne's best-known families. Her 93 year-old great grandmother, Nancy, passed away last year, but not before Grainne visited her at St Elizabeth's Nursing Home in Athboy with gold medals from last year's European Junior Swimming Championships in Praque. Grainne's grandfather, Christy, moved to Wexford, and her parents Brendan and Mary run the Horse and Hound pub in Ballinaboola, near New Ross. In Prague last year, she became the first Irish swimmer to win a European Junior gold medal. In fact, she won three of them and broke the long-standing European 400m individual medley record of multiple Olympic and world champion Yana Klochkova (Ukraine), world female swimmer of the year 2004, in doing so. She added 200m and 800m medley golds, and her bronze in the 1,500m freestyle was notable too, as she swam the final just an hour after breaking that 400m medley record. Last year, she broke the Irish 1,500m freestyle record at the World Championships in Rome. President Mary McAleese conveyed her congratulations to Grainne Murphy on her silver medal win at the European Swimming Championships in Budapest. "It was truly uplifting to witness Grainne's courageous performances throughout the week which culminated in this well-deserved silver medal win in the 1,500 metres freestyle competition," she said. "I wish Grainne every success at the beginning of what promises to be a very exciting swimming career." The recent European Athletics Championships also held an interest in Ratoath, where Irish runner David McCarthy is due to take up a teaching post in Ratoath College next month. McCarthy competed in the 800m and the 4x100m relay squad. The 27 year-old is an Irish medal-winning sprinter who specialised in the 400 metres and began racing over 800 metres in 2007. He finished seventh at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston and fifth at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham. He won the bronze medal in 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, together with teammates Robert Daly, Gary Ryan and David Gillick.