When Ian Redican won the Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield in 2014 it symbolically marked the 50th anniversary of his father’s (Tommy) victory in the same event back in 1964. Whilst Ian had a background in soccer and GAA, as a family member of the Redican/McNamara running dynasty, his sporting roots were engrained in Donore Harriers…
PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH? Dublin, 1973
WHERE WERE YOU EDUCATED? I’m originally from Finglas so for anyone familiar with the area I went to the triangle of schools in Finglas East – The Mother of Divine Grace / De La Salle / Beneavin College – or as Finglas people call them: the ‘Mudder’, the ‘Dee-La’ & Beneavin. Afterwards, I studied Photography in D.I.T. Kevin Street
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR CAREER PATH? While in Kevin Street I discovered the Gardaí had a photographic section, so I thought why not… If I could just get my head around dead bodies and a fear of flying [we take aerial shots from an open-door helicopter], I’d be sorted. So, I joined An Garda Síochána in 1996. Spent 5 years in Irishtown in the Ringsend/Sandymount area of Dublin; and the last 18 years in Crime Scene Examination in the Photographic Section of the Technical Bureau in the Garda Depot, Phoenix Park
IN WHAT YEAR DID YOU JOIN DONORE HARRIERS? As a member… in 2013… but in practice I’ve been on the periphery all my life through my family. I literally grew up in Hospital Lane and was always around in some form or other through the years. Certainly, Stephen’s Day for the past 40 years, I don’t remember missing many. Always the spectator until I joined the club. When there was a bar in the club… Stephen’s Day was quite a long day. Nobody seemed to want to go home!
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE DONORE HARRIERS? Donore Harriers chose me… There’s’ no other club allowed in the Redican/McNamara households don’t yeh know!
WERE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY OTHER CLUB BEFORE JOINING DONORE HARRIERS? No… the family would disown me!
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER SPORT? It was GAA & Soccer the whole time growing up. I’m sorry I didn’t try and include running in with them in hindsight
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ATHLETICS EVENT? Dublin Marathon [ouch, great painful memories] but there are a few races on the calendar that I go back to year in, year out because they’re so well run and organised and enjoyable…: the Raheny 5, Dunboyne 4 Mile [now 10k], Drogheda 10k to name but a few. Again anyone that knows me, knows I’m a regular fixture at the BHAA
WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT ROLE AT THE CLUB? Athlete… although I’ve great plans to contribute in the future since I’m not getting any younger, faster and after my time is up in AGS. Unfortunately, my free time in taken up, apart from my family; with my positions on the Garda Athletic Club and USPE (Union Sportive des Police d’Europe). I travel a good bit with USPE thru my position on the Technical Commission where I’m responsible for Police Sport Competitions in Marathon and Cross Country
WHO WERE/ARE YOUR SPORTING INSPIRATIONS/INFLUENCES? Didn’t have to look too far away from home in my Dad and Jim Mac(Namara) growing up. But nowadays I have a lot of people around me who are achieving great things at great ages… I’m finding great inspiration from them and who knows…. Master’s Masters is the new Senior!
SOCIAL QUESTIONS
WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? Not a great book reader to my shame… Anything I read is usually short… almost all the time. If I do it’s usually something historical. Always been movies for me for escapism
WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED? The Paper Kites…. [The Paper Who?]
WHAT ARE YOUR 3 FAVOURITE FILMS? Hard one… have to separate them into ‘Of All Time’ and of the ‘Last 12 Months’
All Time:
1. Le Chateau de ma Mere
2. The Assassination of Jesse James [with the big long title…]
3. It’s a Wonderful Life
Last 12 Months:
1. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2. 1917
3. The Peanut Butter Falcon
FAVOURITE COUNTRY VISITED? There are so many, but recently I’ve found a soft spot for Greece. Blue Sky, blue sea, lovely people, great food… and generally a chill atmosphere!
WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER INTERESTS AWAY FROM ATHLETICS/SPORT?
Photography… In work I have restored and archived the photographic police history of the country from the 1900’s onwards. A fascinating unique glimpse of old Ireland, people, towns and villages. Did a lot of similar work in Donore too in recent years assisting Maurice Ahern in restoring our athletic past in pictures. Working in photography has also been a dream job. Except for the gruesome things I photograph, I’m effectively working at my hobby every day
IF DESERT ISLAND DISCS ASKED YOU TO PLAY 3 SONGS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
Any that knows me usually says who the hell is that you’re listening to?
1. Tenenbaum [The Paper Kites]
2. Here Comes the Sun [The Beatles]
3. Tonight, Tonight [Smashing Pumpkins]
ATHLETICS QUESTIONS
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT? In 2011 I ran from the Spire in O’Connell Street to Eyre Square in Galway… 1 Marathon every day for 5 days [also on one of them, the local Garda patrol car while giving me an escort out of Ballinasloe took me the wrong way and I had to double back adding 3-4 miles onto that day’s total!].
Also not much beats the WBB Shield win in 2014
WHAT ARE YOUR BEST TIMES/MARKS (PBs)? Unfortunately, I was closer to 40 than 30 when I started finding a short-lived rhythm in the legs. Glad anyhow that I broke certain barriers that most runners target like the 20 in 5k, the 40 in 10k and the 3:30 in marathon…. So, on that its: 1 Mile: 5:14, 5k: 19:21, 10k: 39:59 [skin of your teeth stuff], Marathon: 3:27:46
WHAT IS YOUR TYPICAL WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN (pre-COVID)? Ah… welcome to the life of a on-call Garda Photographer… Plan = It’s quiet for the moment… have I got time for a run. Every day: minimum of 5K. When I’m preparing for a marathon then it’s your usual marathon mileage plan with the exception that I could be running at weird times of the day or slightly off the schedule for long runs +/- a day
(During COVID). Every day – 5k. Think I’ve missed 2 days in the entire time [Tony Griffin can testify to that… he’s around the corner and sick of seeing me go by! Reckons I’m planning something!]
WHO ARE YOUR TOP 3 IRISH SPORTSPERSONS OF ALL TIME (all sports)?
1. Eamonn Coghlan
2. Brian O’Driscoll
3. Sonia O’Sullivan
TOP INTERNATIONAL SPORTSPERSON? Eliud Kipchoge [he has just gone to the top of the list without question. He is the greatest and the only runner to bring me to tears]
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THE REDICAN FAMILY CONNECTION WITH DONORE HARRIERS? My Dad, Tommy Redican & Jim McNamara are first cousins on my grandmother’s side. Then there’s Noel, my Dad’s brother who also ran and who later trained some successful young Donore teams. There’s another brother of my Dad who ran also for a little while during that 70’s period: Maurice or Mossie as we call him. My own brother Derek was good talent in his teens/late teens. Noel’s son & my cousin Mark competed during the 90’s, and again was a great talent. Jim’s younger brother Mick McNamara was another great talent in the late 70’s, early 80’s with some titles to his name. But I suppose it’s Jim and my Dad Tommy who are most noted. They joined only weeks apart in 1963 [Jim first]. My Dad wanted to give up cigarettes at the time and this was his quitting method of sorts. They were both part of the successful Donore Harriers 60’s/1970’s period under Eddie Hogan alongside such great names as Tom O’Riordan, Eddie Spillane, Tony Brien, Mick Neville, Brendan O’Shea, Tony Murphy, Mick Connolly, John Sheridan, Willie Smith… and onto Eamonn Coghlan, Frank Greally, John Phelan, Pat Cassidy, Maurice Ahern… Forgive me if I’ve left out any; but even more greats were still around the club like the Dunne brothers and Bertie Messitt. It’s like an endless list of great runners…
YOUR 2014 WATERHOUSE BYRNE BAIRD SHIELD WIN WAS GREETED WITH A UNIVERSAL APPROVAL. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT DAY? What a fantastic day… winning the WBB Shield in 2014. If I could have written the script it wouldn’t have been much better. It was 50 years to the day since my Dad won it and we had a few members of the family out that day walking and jogging to commemorate it. I passed a few of them on various laps so I think getting cheered at different points on the course must’ve gear me up a bit. My cousin Jim Mac was still out on course, unknown to me, going into the last lap at 8 miles; but he shouldn’t have been because he told me just before he set off that he was just going to run “a lap or 2 for Tommy”. I didn’t realise that a possible win was on until going into the last lap, when my uncle Noel stuck his head out in front of me and told me I was insecond! I could see a runner in front in the distance and eventually I overtook them at the stone bridge. I thought I was leading then based on my info, but heading into the trees ahead I could see the ‘very obvious gait’ of Jim. It was actually Jim Mac that was leading with just over half a mile a to go as we approached the ‘down & up’ hill alongside the Kyber. I caught up with him going up the hill and put my hand on his back. Jim turned and said, “thank God it’s you Ian… keep going and do it for your Dad”. Almost at that point my uncle Noel had run across the fields to tell me I was winning and to tell Jim to keep going and hold on too. Jim was pipped close to the finish by John Dunne, who was off scratch. A day that will live long in the memory and Jim’s last WBB run… and what a run by him
CROSS COUNTRY or ROAD RACING? Cross Country all the way. I love characteristics of a good XC course. The best one is our own WBB course… but for our Garda National XC we run the same lap, 3 times, with the added addition of a 2nd steeper hill just further on instead of heading in towards the cricket grounds
ANY SPORTING REGRETS? That I never started running at a younger age
HAVE YOU HAD TO DEAL WITH ANY LONG-TERM INJURIES? Immediately after my first marathon in 2006, I was suffering badly with cramping pain in my feet. So much so that I’d only get a couple of hundred metres before the pain would bring me to a halt. After a couple of consultant and hospital visits it was diagnosed as compartment syndrome. The blood flow in my feet was cramping them. The right shoes got me sorted. My advice to runners apart from pronation type is to check this out and make sure the shoe is right in the upper part also!
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST MEMORABLE RACE OTHER THAN THE W.B.B WIN? AND WHY? The most memorable race for me was the 1st time I broke 3:30:00 for the marathon in Paris. On the plane on the way over my wife asked me: “So if your time is 3:30:00 will you be happy?” “No”, I said. It had to be minimum of 3:29:59. On a roundabout heading towards the Arc d’Triomphe, my GPS said 26.2 miles and 3:29:22 and I could hear the finish line speaker but couldn’t see the line. Panic was setting in. As I rounded the roundabout the line suddenly appeared. I kicked in as fast as I could manage. 3:29:54. The finish line video is funny… as I disappear stage right off camera in a ‘jock’!
