Mayor honours Limerick Olympians and Paralympians at Mayoral reception

Mayor Honours Limerick Olympians – Mayor Daniel Butler, Róisín Ní Ríain, Róisín Upton and Sarah Lavin. Picture: Liam Burke/Press 22

Mayor honours Limerick Olympians and Paralympians at Mayoral reception

By I Love Limerick Correspondent Ann Mc Donald

The mayor honours Limerick Olympians with a mayoral reception which took place on Thursday, September 23 at 6pm in the Council Chamber Dooradoyle, to honour our local Olympic and Paralympian athletes.

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Limerick had many people competing in the Olympics and Paralympics, including Sarah Lavin, Greg O’Shea, Róisín Upton, Carolyn Hayes, Ben Fletcher, Megan Fletcher, Róisín Ní Ríain and Anna Moore. 

Speaking to I Love Limerick, Mayor Daniel Butler said, “I was delighted to be able to honour our amazing sports people who represented us with such pride at both the Olympics & Paralympics along with someone who played such a huge part in that Olympic story over many years. 

I was particularly proud to honour 5 women of sport who are incredible role models for other young women in our city and county. 

I am so proud of them all as first citizen and honoured to be able to acknowledge their incredible commitment, hard work and sacrifice to achieve all they did. Huge credit also goes to their family and friends who support them so strongly taking them to training in the dark winter months to ensure they succeeded. We are so grateful to them.”

Róisín Upton

Róisín competed in the Tokyo Olympics as part of the Irish Women’s Hockey Team. The Janesboro native is an Irish international hockey player and is a World Cup Silver Medallist 2018.

She featured in all of Ireland’s games throughout the 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup, including the pool games against the United States, India and England, the quarter-final against India, the semi-final against Spain and the final against the Netherlands. 

The 16-woman squad for the Olympics were selected by Team Ireland and the hockey players were selected after the Euro Hockey Championships which took in the Netherlands.

Sarah Lavin

Sarah was selected by Team Ireland to be a member of the Athletics Track and Field team to compete in the Women’s 100m hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Lisnagry athlete became only the second Irish woman to ever break the 13-second barrier in the 100m Hurdles at the World Athletics Continental Tour silver meeting, running a personal best (PB) of 12.95 on the occasion.

Sarah is also only one of twenty-four other Irish athletes who are chosen to take part in this year’s Olympic Games.

Róisín Ní Ríain

Drombanna native Róisín represented Ireland at the Summer Paralympics. The 16-year-old was the youngest member of the five-person swimming squad. She competed in 6 events, beating her PB in many of them. Róisín, who is visually impaired, is in her 5^th year at Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh.

Greg O’Shea

Greg was part of the Irish team for the Rugby 7s at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Irish Rugby 7 squad secured a final place in the Men’s Sevens competition at the Tokyo Olympics after a six-year journey from the lowest division of European Sevens Rugby right to the top.

The Limerick native holds a unique record for the first ever Love Island winner to compete in the Olympic Games.

Ireland joined the World Rugby Sevens Series as a “core status” team for the first time for the 2019–20 season. In their first tournament, the 2019 Dubai Sevens, Jordan Conroy led all scores with seven tries and was named to the tournament Dream Team.

Pictured above is Mayor Daniel Butler and Laura O’Shea who accepted on behalf of her brother, Greg. Picture: Liam Burke/Press 22

Carolyn Hayes

Carolyn competed in the Women’s Triathlon at the Games this year.

She earned a brilliant silver at the World Triathlon Cup Lisbon in May and 10th place in her third World Triathlon Championship Series event, June’s WTCS Leeds.

The Newcastle West native began pursuing her dream of representing Ireland in the Olympics in 2018 and put her life as a doctor on hold.

She produced a swift final leg in the triathlon, finishing 23^rd at the Olympics, finishing six and a half minutes behind the gold medal winner.

Pictured above is Mayor Daniel Butler and Tony Hayes, who accepted on behalf of his daughter, Carolyn. Picture: Liam Burke/Press 22

Ben and Megan Fletcher

Siblings Ben and Megan competed in the Judo event in the Olympics, making them the first Irish brother and sister to qualify for Japan’s national sport.

While the siblings were born and raised in Wokingham, England, they were eligible to represent Ireland due to their mother coming from Bruff. The duo are well decorated in the sport of judo and have been representing Ireland since 2017.

Pictured above are siblings Ben and Megan Fletcher.

Anna Moore

Anna, known to some as, ‘mammy of Irish boxing,’ was present at Dublin Airport to greet Kellie Harrington, who won gold during for the Women’s Lightweight boxing event.

Anna became involved in boxing after meeting her husband, Seamus, who owns St Francis Boxing Club, which has had 4 generations come through the club.

She has been at the forefront of Irish women’s boxing from the early days and is not only manager of the Irish women’s team, but also has a seat on the European women’s boxing committee.

The I Love Limerick crew would like to congratulate all of them for their fantastic achievements.

For more about the Olympics go HERE 

For more stories about the Olympics go HERE