Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Hurling

hurling

Kildare hurlers running for Ruairí

Kildare senior and minor hurlers are embarking on a 40 hour collective run this weekend.

Kildare senior and minor hurlers are embarking on a 40 hour collective run this weekend.

By Cian O’Connell

It promises to be a hectic weekend for the Kildare hurlers, who are carrying out an admirable fundraiser.

Six year old Ruairí McDonnell from Clane is currently battling a terminal neurological disease and the aim of the appeal is to generate money to help the family make the necessary renovations to their home and help with ongoing homecare costs.

Following an initial approach from Kildare manager David Herity, highly regarded Lilywhite goalkeeper Paddy McKenna is spearheading the drive.

“David Herity our manager came to us with it saying it would be a great thing to help out a young lad and his family in a bit of need, especially now when lads have a bit more free time that they might be able to put towards it,” McKenna explains.

“I'm from the parish, I only live about a two minute drive away from the young lad, I don't know the family, but I'm not too far away from them. I took it on board that I would help out as best I could.

“The Cork hurlers did something similar to what we are doing at the start of the lockdown for one of the facilities down there. They did a 24 hour run with each of the players doing an hour each. When David said it I was fully onboard because we had done one with Clane.

“I might be the main person people are contacting about it, but we have so many in the background helping out like the minor team, minor management and selectors. It has been great, everybody is rowing in behind it.”

That the Kildare hurling community is rallying together provides a source of optimism for McKenna, who is delighted with the minors occupying a central role.

“It is great, fair play to Eoin Stapleton, the manager, and Mark Maloney, one of his trainers,” McKenna adds.

“They offered to come on board which was great. At the time we were only looking at ourselves to see what we could, but when they rowed in it will go to a wider community again.

Kildare hurling goalkeeper Paddy McKenna.

Kildare hurling goalkeeper Paddy McKenna.

“It links the two. It is a tender age the minor group because a lot of lads might fall off, they mightn't make the senior grade with their county.

“So it is great to be able to link in with them, to get to know the lads even a little bit putting names to faces. In hurling when you are hidden behind the helmet it can be very hard to know lads off the field so it is great that way to combine the two.”

The planning and plotting has afforded McKenna and the Kildare panel an opportunity to assist a worthy cause. Trying to ensure the weekend goes smoothly is a considerable challenge that is being embraced.

“It is something different being put into the WhatsApp,” McKenna admits. “You are trying to keep everything fresh, you don't want things to be dying out a small bit, you want to keep it fresh.

“So we'd put in the odd thing and lads would put in their own thoughts into the group. It helps them in a huge way and almost revitalises lads because it is going to be a very long year. The uncertainty of the whole Covid and whether we will be playing matches at all. There is a lot of unknown.

“This is something fresh, it takes lads minds off hurling for a little while which isn't too bad because of the way the year is going to go.

“Realistically it is going to be towards the latter end of the year before we are pucking any ball at all. There is supposed to be nice weather too which will get lads out in the fresh air, that will do them no harm.”

How is the event going to happen? “The way we are doing it is we will have 40 hours,” McKenna replies.

“We are starting at 6pm on Friday. That will go right through until Brian Byrne the captain runs from 9am to 10am on Sunday morning. That is the last hour slot. We have 44 members of the senior team and backroom, who are all running an hour.

“The kitman, physio, and logistics people will all go into one hour. Other than that everyone is on an hour by themselves with two hours where there will be numerous people onboard.

“The minors are running with us on Saturday from 7am up until 10pm. We have 30 minor panelists helping out, they are running half an hour slots. So they will have two people running every hour.”

Innovative Kildare GAA PRO Christine Murray has offered significant assistance and social media will continue to be utilised. “We got a few of the lads to do videos, to be fair to Christine Murray, the Kildare PRO, she has been flat out putting stuff up on social media promoting it,” McKenna states.

“Nearly everyday there is something going up, a link, videos or photos. When the lads go out for their run, we want them to take a picture of themselves and maybe their donation that they are putting towards it, tagging their club and Kildare GAA.

“We will try to circulate it around as much as we can that way, to raise awareness. We know a lot of people, not only in Kildare, but particularly in Mayo and a few bordering counties are doing a lot for Ruairi.

“So we understand a lot of people have donated already, but there is no amount too little that wouldn't help out the family. Whatever people can give we will graciously take off them. Every little helps, we will do whatever we can for them.”

The past few years have been an interesting time in the Kildare hurling tale, but McKenna is admirably honest and pragmatic about when inter-county action will resume.

“It is frustrating, we should be looking forward to going over to London this weekend to play them in the final group game of the Christy Ring,” McKenna remarks.

“Especially when you see the good weather you'd be itching to get out to do a bit, but the back garden will have to do for the moment unfortunately.

“Sport is at the end of it all. People's health and getting through this is much more important than us playing a few matches. It is obviously great to be able to do it, but everybody getting healthy and getting rid of this Covid 19 as best we can has to be to the fore.”

Off the field McKenna and the Kildare hurlers are most certainly doing their utmost.

To donate to the Roar for Ruairí fund click here.