A public meeting has been called to re-establish a once-popular Athletics club…
Gorey Athletics Club was he club was originally founded in 1958 by the great Tommy Doyle but fell away over a decade ago. Along with forming the club, in his latter years of involvement with the club, he became known as ‘Tommy Sports’ for his running of the children’s sports throughout the summer every year in Gorey Town Park.
A Public Meeting will be held at the Loch Garman Arms this Thursday, 27th March at 8pm. At the meeting, the new committee members are hoping to re-establish the club originally set up by Tommy.
We caught up with one of the members on the committee, Nathan Kelly, who is eager to re-establish the once-popular athletics club in Gorey.
While there are many athletics clubs throughout the Wexford community, one doesn’t exist for the heart of Gorey town anymore. Given the developed amenities such as the Gorey Town Park and the ever-increasing population of the town, the re-establishment of the Gorey Athletics Club makes perfect sense.
Another obvious reason – of course – is to promote health and fitness, but the committee members are quick to point out that continuing Tommy Sports’ legacy is paramount too:
“There are a number of reasons. We feel that given the continued boom in popularity of Athletics around the country, particularly after last year’s Olympics in Paris, that there would be a demand for the resurrection of Gorey Athletics Club, which was originally founded in 1958 but fell away over a decade ago. The club is also being reformed very much with the founding member Tommy Doyle in our minds, or ‘Tommy Sports’ as he was known within the town for his involvement in Athletics, Cycling and other sporting clubs/events around Gorey.”
“Tommy introduced the ‘Chocolate Races’ which introduced lots of kids to athletics with prizes of chocolate and sweets for participants. The club actually hosted the National Track and Field Championships in the Showgrounds in 1963. Tommy passed away in 2005 and we’ll be very much looking to keep his legacy alive in the club. The health & fitness aspect is an obvious point too, be it for adults or children,” Nathan told Wexford Weekly.
At its peak, the athletics club was quite popular in the town and attracted people from the surrounding areas:
“We do know the club had success through the years on the national stage. In the latter years of the original club in the early 2000s, the club moved to a juvenile-only club with 40 members,” Nathan said.
As mentioned, a public meeting has been called to attract people to come on board to help to re-establish the club. Nathan told Wexford Weekly that more than 50 people have already reached out to join the club:
“We have had over 50 people already express an interest in joining, between adults and juveniles, and anyone else who may be interested is welcome to come to our Public Meeting this Thursday at 8pm at the Loch Garman Arms, or you can contact the club on our social media accounts” he said.
Jason Redmond
From Gorey, Jason is the owner of Wexford Weekly. He is also a post-primary English and History teacher.