Long-standing member Donal Iremonger needs little introduction. He is one of the most popular and respected athletes both within the club and the wider athletics community.
Donal followed his father Noel and his maternal grandfather Tommy Conneff into the ranks of Donore Harriers. He is probably one of the very few people who has represented the club from the juvenile thru to the masters grade. His competitive distances range from 400m to the half-marathon, and he has won an array of medals at Dublin, Leinster and National championships, mostly over his favoured 400m and 800m distances.
In this fascinating interview Donal tells us about being a juvenile/junior athlete when the club was still based at its Hospital Lane HQ (he even took coaching advice from the legendary Eddie Hogan); the club’s transition stage to its new base at Chapelizod; his near-misses in the Waterhouse-Byrne-Baird Shield; and his strong connection with the wonderful Lambay Sports & Athletics club.
Donal has in recent years coached the Long-Term Development Plan juvenile distance group and is presently a member of club’s general committee.
STANDARD QUESTIONS
PLACE AND YEAR OF BIRTH? Dublin, March 1971.
WHERE WERE YOU EDUCATED? I went to secondary school in Pobalscoil Iosolde in Palmerstown, and then to University College Dublin, where I did a Computer Science degree.
WHAT WAS YOUR MAIN CAREER PATH? I’ve worked in Information Technology since leaving college, in programming, testing and project management roles, in various industries, mostly financial services. I started my current position as a change manager with Salesforce in March 2019.
IN WHAT YEAR DID YOU JOIN DONORE HARRIERS? I think I joined Donore Harriers in 1981 because I remember running in a juvenile cross-country league in the Phoenix Park as an U/11. But I’d probably been around the club with my Dad (Noel Iremonger) before that, I have memories of the Christmas Raffle and the draw taking place in the old clubhouse every year on Christmas Eve, and of seeing Frank Cahill running in the Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield on St Stephen’s Day.
<NOTE: Noel Iremonger finished 11th in the National Inter-Clubs XC championships in 1960 and was a scorer on the winning Donore Harriers team>
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE DONORE HARRIERS? My Dad was a Donore Harrier from the early 1950’s so there was only ever going to be one club for me!
WERE YOU A MEMBER OF ANY OTHER CLUB BEFORE JOINING DONORE HARRIERS? No, but I have a strong connection with Lambay Sports & Athletics (LSA) in Donabate these days, and I have great athletics friends in many clubs, particularly the likes of Lucan Harriers and Liffey Valley, who I have trained with at different times over the years.
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY OTHER SPORT? Running was always my first love, but I played football, table tennis, and pitch and putt when I was in secondary school. I loved sport and gave everything a go.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ATHLETICS EVENT? My favourite event to take part in is the 800m. I also like 400m indoors (more than outdoors!), and the mile is always a classic distance to race! I have come to appreciate the joys of longer distances on the roads too, but the middle distances will always be my favourite.
WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN ROLE(S) AT THE CLUB? I’m still competing as a master, so I suppose that qualifies me as an athlete! I’m also currently on the committee. I’ve gone as far as the Athletics Ireland Level 1 coaching qualification and I assisted Gerry Naughton with the juvenile endurance squad from 2017 to 2019, before the formation of the Academy Squad. I assisted Graham Hopkins with the Long-Term Athlete Development squad of juveniles from 2019 until early this year (2020), when I stepped back due to other commitments. I’m still part of the coaching set up and very much hope to take up another coaching role in the future.
WHO WERE YOUR SPORTING INSPIRATIONS/INFLUENCES? I’ve been inspired and influenced by many people over the years. My Dad obviously was a big influence. I grew up watching Seb Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram on television. In my teenage years we had a great group of juveniles and juniors in Donore Harriers, who certainly influenced me, some are still good friends. I joined the athletics club in UCD when I started college, which broadened my horizons further. A trip to the US in 1990 with UCD AC opened my eyes to the kind of training that scholarship athletes were doing. I met Mullingar athletes David Burke (1995 National Senior Cross-Country winner) and Cormac Finnerty (1996 Olympian) on that trip while they were on scholarship in the US. I still have a great bunch of college athletics friends including David, Cormac and Tom Hickey, another Donore Harrier. I’ve been involved in coaching juvenile athletes for the last 9 years and they can be the greatest inspiration! Occasionally a young athlete comes along who races with such freedom and fearlessness that it reminds me what it’s all about!
SOCIAL QUESTIONS
WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ? I’m just starting a book called “The Boys in the Boat” by Daniel James Brown that was recommended to me by the aforementioned college athletics friends as a great sports book!
WHAT WAS THE LAST CONCERT YOU ATTENDED? Because there have been no concerts for some time, I think my answer is the same as an earlier interviewee! I went to “A House” in Vicar Street with Alan Farrell before the lockdown, and we met Ray O’Keeffe and Leonie Newman there too.
WHAT ARE YOUR 3 FAVOURITE FILMS?
1. It’s a Wonderful Life
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. About Time
FAVOURITE COUNTRY VISITED? AND WHY? It’s difficult to pick one! I was in Australia and New Zealand for a year in 2000 and 2001, taking in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and witnessing Sonia O’Sullivan winning silver in the 5000m. I loved both countries but haven’t been back since. In Europe, I’ve enjoyed trips to Portugal and Austria. I’m always excited to visit the US. My last trip was to New York in February 2020, where I competed in a half marathon in Central Park on a cold, crisp morning with blue skies and bright sunshine. That was such a great trip, just before the pandemic put an end to travel.
WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER INTERESTS AWAY FROM ATHLETICS/SPORT? What else is there away from athletics and sport! The pandemic has put a lot of social activities and interests on hold for now. I’ve been working from home since March, and quite focused on that, as well as my training. Apart from that I’ve enjoyed catching up on Netflix and Now TV, and trying to get back into doing more reading. I’ve a 6-year-old nephew who I’m inducting into the Liverpool supporters club (he knows Mo Salah and Virgil van Dyke now) and I’m hoping he may be a future Donore Harrier!
IF DESERT ISLAND DISCS ASKED YOU TO PLAY 3 SONGS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE? I’m not into music that much and my tastes are pretty diverse and not very cool but here goes:
1. Paint it Black (The Rolling Stones)
2. What About Us (Pink)
3. Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen)
ATHLETICS QUESTIONS
WHO WAS/IS YOUR COACH(ES)? My Dad was my first coach, when I was doing community games and school sports. When I joined Donore Harriers I was privileged to get some advice and coaching from the legendary Eddie Hogan. I remember doing a track session in Belfield in 1989 and my Dad, Eddie, Cyril Whyte and Sean Cowler were there (Cyril was coaching Sean for an international masters event), and Cyril told me how lucky I was to be benefiting that day from a combined total of over 200 years of athletics experience. How right he was! We had a successful group of juniors and young seniors in the late 80’s and early 90’s coached by Noel Redican, with the likes of Mark Redican, Austin Lynch, Donal O’Sullivan and Paul McGrattan. The Academy Squad today remind me of that group in terms of the camaraderie and team spirit. We probably didn’t have as much talent as today’s group. I certainly didn’t! But Donal O’Sullivan won a National Junior Cross-Country title and went on scholarship to Brown University. I got some great coaching and advice from Jim Davis (Liffey Valley) in 2001, when I was away from Donore with work. Willie Smith coached the senior Donore Harriers men for a time, and I’m back with Willie now, many years later, he’s a great coach, experienced and very knowledgeable. Iain Morrison is also very good to me, always including me in track specific sessions when I need them for upcoming races.
WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER TO BE YOUR BEST ATHLETICS ACHIEVEMENT? I have two silver medals from the National Road Relays, on a senior team in 2004, and on an M35 masters team in 2011. I’m proud to have broken 2 mins for 800m on a regular basis when I was a senior. I’ve had great success over the last 5 years as an M45 master on the track, probably the stand-out performance was winning the National Indoor M45 400m in Athlone in March 2017 in a time of 55.18. I had great support that day!
WHAT ARE YOUR BEST TIMES (PBs)? Track – 400m: 52.5; 800m: 1.58.3; 1500m: 4.08.1; 3,000m: 9.41.0.
Road – 5km: 16:16 a long time ago! 17:38 in Rathfarnham in September 2019; 10 miles: 63:25 in 2008; Half Marathon: 1:25:29 in 2008; 1.25.36 in New York in February 2020; Marathon: 3:02:23 in Dublin in 2008.
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVOURITE COACHED SESSION? I’ve always enjoyed interval sessions with shorts reps, like 200m, 300m or 400m. I’ve generally found the longer stuff more difficult, like 1000m, 1500m or mile reps, and also long sustained efforts like tempo runs. But I’ve been working at the longer stuff this year and I think I’ve really benefitted from it. I did some great sessions (like 3 x 10 mins tempo with a 2 min float recovery) with club mate and Chapelizod neighbour, Sinead Lambe, during the first lockdown. I think it’s important to train with someone stronger if you want to improve, and Sinead is definitely stronger than me (at least over longer distances!). I’ve enjoyed experimenting with progression runs this year as well.
DESCRIBE THE MOST DIFFICULT SESSION THAT YOU DID? There were a couple of really tough 800m specific sessions that I did as a senior. 3 sets of 4 x 200m, done at race pace, so around 30s per 200m rep back in my senior days, with a 30s recovery. There was a 5 minute recovery between the sets. We were basically running 800m at race pace with very short recoveries between the 200m reps. A variation on that was a 600m rep in 90s, with a 30s recovery, and then 200m in 30s. There’d be a long recovery and generally a second set. Super sessions to replicate that feeling in the later stages of an 800m race!
WHAT WAS A TYPICAL WEEKLY TRAINING PLAN IN YOUR HEYDAY? With hindsight I don’t think I ever really trained hard enough as a senior. We’d do sessions on a Tuesday and a Saturday and a long run (10 or 12 miles) on a Sunday. I generally ran easy Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and took a rest day on a Friday. I never did any strength and conditioning training, which I see as crucial now.
These days I find four or five days a week of running works best, with one hard session on a Saturday, a couple of easy days and a lighter session or tempo run mid-week, and a long run on a Sunday. Although I find it difficult to recover from a Saturday session before a Sunday long run and I’m trying to find what works best for me. Always learning! I do three strength and conditioning sessions a week, and I stretch after every run. I was swimming one day a week too, but that’s only been an option intermittently in the last few months. I hope to get back to that as I find it a great recovery option.
DO YOU HAVE A FUNNY OR UNUSUAL STORY RELATED TO ATHLETICS/THE CLUB? I remember running in the Phoenix Park on a cold, dark, foggy winter’s night many years ago. I think I was running with Derek Murphy who was a very talented junior athlete. I suppose the deer in the park weren’t as numerous, or as tame, back then, and Derek and I certainly didn’t know the kind of sounds that they can make, especially during the rutting season! We were running down the Furze Road and we heard a very deep growling emanating from the fog, and it seemed to be following us. The pace of the easy run started to get faster and faster. We had ourselves convinced that a lion had escaped from Dublin Zoo! We eventually managed to outrun the growling and get back to the clubhouse in one piece. It’s a good thing we didn’t have heart rate monitors at the time because the readings would have been off the scale. It was quite a while later before I saw deer growling in that way in daylight and the mystery was solved.
WHO ARE YOUR TOP 3 IRISH SPORTSPERSONS OF ALL TIME?
1. Ronnie Delaney (it’s hard to top an Olympic 1500m gold medal!)
2. Sonia O’Sullivan
3. Rory McIlroy
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
YOUR FAMILY HAS A LONG CONNECTION WITH DONORE HARRIERS, CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT? My grandfather (my mother’s father), Thomas Patrick Conneff, was born in 1882 and was a member of Donore Harriers in the early 1900’s. I believe he went as Tommy Conneff in those days, although, coincidentally, there was a more famous athlete, also called Tommy Conneff, around the same time. The GAA stadium in Clane, Co. Kildare is named after the latter! I know that my grandfather won the Inman Cahill Cup, one of the club trophies, and I have a couple of great photos of him with it. Consulting with Willie Smith, we think this was in 1920, exactly 100 years ago! The cup certainly looks a lot shinier in the photos than it does these days in the trophy cabinet in the club lounge! To finish the Conneff thread, my uncle Paddy Conneff ran with Inchicore AC, which merged with Avondale AC to become Liffey Valley AC in 1974. Paddy was a keen athlete and a great athletics supporter up to his passing away just over 2 years ago. Paddy’s son, my cousin, Justin has signed up with Donore Harriers last summer and is training regularly with Willie’s group. Justin and I joked that his poor Da would turn in his grave if he saw Justin in the black and white of Donore Harriers! But we know he’d really be delighted and proud to see us running together.
My Dad, Noel Iremonger, joined Donore Harriers in the early 1950’s, having started with Metropolitan Harriers (the Metro part of MSB long before they merged with St Brigids). I believe he started as a sprinter, coached by Cyril Whyte, but was asked to make up a cross country team one day, ran well, and never went back to sprinting. Dad, like my grandfather, won the Inman Cahill Cup, and again in consultation with Willie Smith, I believe this was in 1957 (Willie himself won it in 1958). It seems that 1958 was Dad’s most successful year, he features in many of the results that year in the recent Basil Clifford book compiled by Cyril Smyth. In that year Dad won the AAUE Junior Cross-Country title, over 6 miles in Garristown, in a time of 33.48 (I understand this is more or less the equivalent of the National Intermediate Cross Country these days). Dad’s PB’s on the track were 1.56 for 880 yards, and 4.08 for a mile. Dad didn’t compete for many years when my sister and I were young, but he made a comeback in his early 50’s with his colleagues in Dublin City Council, competing in many BHAA events, which I know he thoroughly enjoyed. He regularly won masters prizes in his age category on the roads in the likes of the Raheny 5 Mile and the Rathfarnham 5km. Dad was 83 in April and has dementia. Many of these great memories are lost to him now. I hope I’m doing him justice and not reporting anything inaccurately, it’s based on what I remember him recounting over the years, and from what I remember myself. I owe my love of running and my life-long involvement with Donore Harriers to my Dad.
YOU ARE A LONG-TERM MEMBER OF THE CLUB, HAVING JOINED AS A JUVENILE AND NOW COMPETE AS A MASTER ATHLETE. WHAT ARE THE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES THAT YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED DURING THE TERM OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP? The club has changed hugely since I joined as a boy almost 40 years ago! The old clubhouse in Hospital Lane in Islandbridge was about half the size of the upstairs lounge in the current clubhouse. The showers at one end of the clubhouse probably wouldn’t have passed today’s health and safety regulations! There was an adjoining porta cabin that was for the juvenile boys, and there was a separate portacabin next door for the newly formed women’s section, which had about half a dozen members. I remember a lot of the juvenile boys being fairly local to the club, from the likes on Inchicore, Phibsboro and the inner city. I remember the buzz on a winter Tuesday evening, the clubhouse packed, there was always a smell of sweat and wintergreen rub (like deep heat) and the likes of Pat Cassidy and Tony Murphy would issue instructions for the run (it always seemed to involve a “snappy effort” to White’s Gate!). The seniors would head out the door into the dark night with a sense of excitement and anticipation. As juveniles we’d often do the “station lap”, up Islandbridge towards Kilmainham, left onto John’s Road towards Heuston Station, and back around by Parkgate Street and Conyngham Road to Islandbridge. Occasionally we’d run into Heuston Station and run along the brightly lit platform, which we seemed to think was great craic at the time!
The club moved to the current site in Chapelizod around 1990, I don’t remember the exact year, and that heralded most of the significant changes. We had a grass track where the current track is for many years before we got funding and grants to build the track as it is now. Some of our training sessions changed with new areas of the Phoenix Park more accessible from Chapelizod. Our membership gradually changed with new catchment areas near Chapelizod, and people travelling from further afield. Obviously, the women’s section went from strength to strength after the humble beginnings in Hospital Lane. Some of the old traditions have been lost. With a packed race calendar, we don’t get the opportunity to compete for many of the famous club trophies, like the Inman Cahill Cup mentioned previously. The Opening Run to signal the start of the cross-country season has also become a little misunderstood and confused. But we still have the wonderful and historic Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield on St Stephen’s Day. Of course, there are lots of great new additions like the track and our sprint groups, a thriving and vibrant juvenile section, and great masters groups. Hopefully, we can continue to evolve and improve whilst retaining and cherishing the history and traditions of Donore Harriers.
YOU HAVE A STRONG CONNECTION WITH THE LAMBAY SPORTS & ATHLETICS CLUB IN DONABATE. TELL US ABOUT YOUR COACHING SUPPORT OF THAT CLUB? I lived in Donabate from 2004 until 2016. Lambay Sports and Athletics was founded in 2011 by some parents and Gerry Ronan after successful participation in the Community Games that summer. Gerry had been a coach in Donore Harriers when I was a juvenile. I hadn’t seen him for many years and I didn’t know he was living in Donabate but I bumped into him one day whilst I was out running in a Donore top! To cut a long story short he asked if I would like to help with the coaching in the new club. Having just turned 40 I had started to think about getting involved in coaching anyway so the timing was good. Initially I helped out with existing sessions, and LSA were great in supporting me attending some coaching courses, and I gradually started to take my own sessions with a focus on middle distance and cross country. I still take a Saturday afternoon session in Newbridge Demesne, and I still find it really enjoyable and rewarding. I’ve seen some of the LSA juveniles grow up in the time I’ve been there and some of the LSA coaches and parents are firm friends. I also think we have a great mutually beneficial connection between Donore and LSA. We’ve had a couple of joint training sessions, with the Donore Harriers juveniles joining a Saturday session in Donabate a couple of years ago, and a couple of LSA athletes training with Gerry’s Academy Squad. As a new club LSA have some great innovative ideas that we can learn from in Donore Harriers. And as an older established club we can sometimes advise LSA on some of the issues we’ve dealt with over the years. Long may our successful relationship continue!
DO YOU HAVE ANY PARTICULAR COACHING PHILOSOPHIES? It may be obvious, but with younger juveniles the training has to be varied and engaging and fun. Some juveniles are doing multiple sports and may arrive to training having a played a match, or swum in a gala, earlier that day. I always have a plan going into a session but I’m always prepared to change it at the last minute if the circumstances change.
Not just for juveniles I think it’s essential for a coach to be present at training, at least at key sessions, and ideally at races, to observe their athletes. You have to be able to pull someone out of a session if they’re struggling (and enjoy it if they’re going well!) There are plenty of online training schedules available these days but there’s no substitute for the presence of a coach.
One tip I picked up was to try to get 30 seconds one-to-one chat with every athlete in the session. It’s easier said than done but it is a philosophy that I agree with, particularly when coaching juveniles.
Finally, recovery is key, particularly for masters’ athletes. I don’t entirely agree with the concept of a “recovery run”, I think a swim, or a cycle is better for recovery than going out running again using the same muscles and causing the same impact.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SESSION TO COACH?
I’ve adopted quite a few of Gerry Naughton’s sessions that I modify and use with LSA. The “up and over fartlek” session is great early in the season, when we’re just starting back, and have groups at similar fitness levels. And the paarlauf relay is always popular too. There are some great areas in Newbridge Demesne in Donabate to carry out these sessions and it’s a great place to be on a sunny Saturday.
GOING FORWARD, WHAT ARE TARGETS IN MASTERS ATHLETICS? This was my last year in the M45 category and I had intended to step back from the track and have a season on the roads. I ran 1.25.36 for a half marathon on a hilly course in Central Park in New York in February this year, just 7 seconds slower than my only other half marathon in 2008, and it made me think I still have a chance of running a sub 3-hour marathon. I definitely have unfinished business with the marathon having run 3.02.23 in my one and only attempt at the distance in Dublin in 2008. Obviously, all the big road races were off this year, so I did a couple of track races after all, winning a silver medal in the M45 800m in the National Masters in Santry in September. Next year, as an M50, I may still pursue the marathon ambition, and I also have the ambition to run a sub 5-minute mile at 50. I’ve run sub 5 before, of course, most recently 4.51 in the Griffith Avenue Mile in September 2019. But it would be cool to do it at 50, and apologies for stealing this idea from Tom Hickey, who planned to run the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York a few years ago! I’d love to get a hat trick of National Road Relay medals, an M50 medal to go with my senior and M35 medals, although gold next time, rather than silver! And no doubt I will go back to the track, I may even travel to one of the international masters events, which I haven’t done before, when travel becomes possible. No shortage of targets or ambitions for an old fella!
DO YOU HAVE ANY SPORTING REGRETS? I partly regret not training harder as a senior. My 800m and 1500m PB’s of 1.58 and 4.08 are OK, but I think I could have gone faster with better training. I would love to have run sub 4 mins for 1500m. Having said that, I might not be still running at a decent level, and enjoying masters competition, if I’d flogged myself when I was younger, so I’m grateful now that I’m still running after all these years!
WHAT ONE CHANGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE AT DONORE HARRIERS? We have a fantastic committee at the moment. The three officers, Charlie O’Neill (President), Phil Hennessy (Treasurer) and Peter Nugent (Secretary), to single them out, are doing remarkable things for the club. Our men’s captain, Craig Scott, as a relatively new member, knows everyone, not just the elite athletes, and always has an encouraging word. But what I’d like to see is more members taking an interest and getting more involved in the club. We have almost 500 members but had less than 30 attend our AGM recently, which I think is a real shame. The club doesn’t run itself (no pun intended), everyone has a part to play.
Also, I’d like to see more of our masters’ athletes racing on the track. Everyone is so focused on the roads, and the marathon in particular (and I know I’ve expressed marathon ambitions elsewhere in this piece!), but I think it’s a pity not to try the likes of the Dublin Graded Meetings. This year pretty much the only races that took place were on the track! Our Women’s Captain, Florrie Curley, would be the first to admit she doesn’t like the track, but she turned out for the 3000m in the National Masters and gave it a lash! I think that running different distances on the track will only help in becoming a more complete athlete, and combined with cross country running in the winter, will ultimately lead to improved performances on the road.
DO YOU REMEMBER HOW MANY TIMES YOU COMPETED IN THE WATERHOUSE BYRNE BAIRD SHIELD AND WHAT WAS YOUR BEST RESULT? I definitely took part in 1989 when I was 18, and when one of my training partners, Austin Lynch, who was 17, won the shield. That was one of the first times, if not the first time, that I ran it. I haven’t kept count of how many times I’ve run it, but it must be over 20 at this stage. I had some good races with my Dad over the years, catching him less than 100m from the finish on one occasion, but not getting near him on many other occasions. I’ve had two near misses, one very recently, which has necessitated me rewriting this section!
I ran 66.01 to finish second to Richard Fitzgerald in 2002. I passed the great Jim McNamara on the second lap and he shouted after me “this could be your year”! No pressure! I was in second place on the last lap, not really aware of where I was placed or who was ahead of me, when Tom Hickey caught up to me. Although we were good friends, no words were exchanged, I looked at him from the corner of my eye, and we probably became too focused on our own personal battle. I managed to pull away from Tom in the last 600m only to finish in second place, and I swear I never even saw Richard, who finished 19 seconds ahead of me! Tom ran 62.15, which was the fastest time that day. Tom and I still talk about it (often with alcohol, always with regret) as the one that got away and we probably will for years to come.
But I came close again in 2020, running 66.59 to finish second to James Bolton, who wasn’t born the last time I finished as runner up! I knew I was in decent shape, I thought I had a fair handicap, and I’d been training on the lap prior to the race (much to the consternation of club mate Emmet O’Briain on Strava!). I’ve run faster times over the years, but I think this was my best ever run in the shield. My Dad always said you have to go out hard and use your handicap and I don’t think I’ve ever done that the way I did on this occasion. I poured out all the heartache and frustration of 2020, went out aggressively, raced through the field in my first three laps, and was starting to feel it by the fourth lap. The last two laps are a bit of a blur now! But I kept going and passed Cliodhna Carthy on the Horse Gallop on the last lap to take the lead. So near and yet so far! I almost fell in the mud coming out of the forest at the back of the course, I was on the ropes. James passed me going down into the dip beside the Khyber Road, he glided away from me up the hill, floating over the mud, and my dreams were dashed for another year. I focused on composing myself and holding onto second place as I knew the “big guns” were closing fast, and I managed to finish strongly enough, in second place and 20 seconds behind the worthy young winner.
My grandfather, Tommy Conneff, never won the shield. Nor did my Dad, although he talked about coming close in the 1960’s when the race was run on the road due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. But with my cousin Justin in Donore Harriers now, I’m optimistic that we’ll have an Iremonger or Conneff winner of the historic Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield in the years to come.