Dunboyne woman Katie to make a splash for Ireland... and history too!

PRIDE Dunboyne woman part of first ever Irish synchronised additional needs team to represent her country at upcoming European Championships in Italy

A Dunboyne mother who was told her Down Syndrome baby may never achieve in life says she is "beyond proud" of her daughter who has been chosen to represent Ireland at a major sporting competition abroad.

Twenty-three-year-old synchronised swimmer, Katie Gaynor will take her place with Down Syndrome Team Ireland’s delegation in Italy in September.

Katie was chosen along with three other synchronised swimmers to compete in the Artistic Swimming Competition at the SUDS (Sports Union for Athletes with Down Syndrome) European Championships in Padova from September 3rd - 10th.

They will be the first ever Irish synchronised additional needs team to represent Ireland.

Katie is a multi-talented young lady participating in swimming, athletics and dancing as her proud mum Mary explains:

"Katie loves swimming and she loves dancing so it’s her ideal opportunity to combine both, it’s like dancing on water and for her you couldn’t really get much better than that!

“The artistic swimming group was set up by Tom and Liz Murray. There are ten of them in the group at the moment and their coach Aoife Drumm is fantastic. When you watch them training they all listen to her and they love it, they enjoy it so much. It’s music, it’s movement, it’s very special to watch.

"They had a bootcamp in February, they choreographed duets themselves with the help of Aoife and put on a show for family members and staff, it is in existence less than two years and what they can do is truly amazing.”

Katie was always destined to succeed according to Mary who said:

"Katie was in main stream school all the way, I never thought otherwise about it, she had great support all the way up through primary school through secondary school and then she went to Dunboyne College of Further Education. She did a work skills course over four years with the Louth/Meath branch of Down Syndrome.

"She loves music and researching music so she would like a job researching for radio. She likes the area of knowledge of music and fact finding.”

Despite having additional needs the young Dunboyne woman has beaten all the odds.

"The day before I had Katie, I had this feeling something told me that she was going to be special,” said Mary.

"When she was born, the nurses were absolutely amazing but the head of paediatrics at the time, I remember him coming around and sitting on the bed and saying to me, you know that Katie may not be able to achieve or get on like other children, she may not be able to do things like maths in school. I never cried when Katie was born, I wasn’t upset, it didn’t bother me that she had Down Syndrome but it bothered me that he had said that to me.

"Always in my mind from that time on I said 'no, you’ll see she will do whatever she wants to do'. My finest moment was when she did her Junior Cert, she had an exemption from Irish but she did Irish and she got an A and she got a B in Spanish and she got a C in Maths because the SNAs had worked so hard with her.

"That was the day I said to myself if only you could see her now!

That was one of the memories Mary described in her nomination for Katie for a Special Hands Award, an award to celebrate people with Down Syndrome and their achievements and an accolade she would go on to win. Another moment in time also stood out to the proud mum.

“One of the things I did with her since she was a baby was read to her, I read to her non-stop until she could read herself, I used to buy her a new book and she would sit in the trolley when we were shopping and she would read the book out loud as we would go around the shop.

“One day she stopped and asked me what a certain word was and this man doing his shopping turned around and said 'oh don’t stop reading, I was really enjoying that' and that was another moment in time where somebody appreciated my daughter who was told she would never achieve. I get a great buzz from those moments!”

Katie is looking for help to fund her participation in the Artistic Swimming Competition at the SUDS (Sports Union for Athletes with Down Syndrome) European Championships in Padova.

You can find more information by searching

‘Kindly Support Katie get to the Euro Championships’ on gofundme.com