<\/p>\n
LEINSTER LEADER\u00a0<\/em> AUGUST 4 1984<\/b><\/p>\n FAMOUS RACES OF THE TWENTIES RECALLED<\/strong><\/p>\n With interest in the August Bank Holiday\u2019s sponsored run from Dublin to Naas (in aid of church renovation funds) mounting the Leinster Leader<\/i> this week talked to Tim Coyle of Naas who celebrates his 80th birthday this year, and is the last surviving runner in the road race when it was held in the 1920\u2019s.<\/p>\n Although suffering from ill-health, Tim, when we visit him at his neat little home in Sarto Road, was eagerly looking forward to the re-run of the road race on Monday next.\u00a0 Tim is guest of honour at the reception after the race and will be presenting the commemorative scrolls to the fifteen runners taking part in the Town Hall.<\/p>\n The race in the twenties was for the Ballingappach Cup, donated by Mr. Charlie Farrell of that address in Clane.\u00a0\u00a0 The race was run in 1926, \u201927, \u201928 and \u201929, and Tim took part in it for the last three years.\u00a0 He never won the coveted cup but was second on each of three occasions.\u00a0\u00a0 It was won outright by a runner from Dublin, called McKeown, who was first home on three occasions running, and earned the right to keep the cup.<\/p>\n Tim has a clear recollection of each of the races he took part in but particularly of the 1927 event.\u00a0 He was not an athlete in the very competitive sense that we understand now. \u201cNo, says Tim, with a smile, \u201cI was more of what you\u2019d call a sportsman, and hardly ever won a medal in my life.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, he confided he only took part in Naas for the past two years of the race to give McKeown a sporting chance of winning the cup outright \u2013 \u201cNot that I would have beat him if I got a chance,\u201d he added hastily.<\/p>\n Unlike today\u2019s runners who train nearly all the year round, and run the required distance umpteen times before the actual event, Tim to present-day standards, did a minimum of training.<\/p>\n Trial Run<\/i>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One day, he recalled, we ran to Ballymore and round by Harristown, Carnalway, and onto the Dunlavin road, and back to Naas.\u00a0 In November, just before the race, with Martin O\u2019Brien, who won the race in 1926, we went to Dublin.\u00a0 I put my clothes on the back of my bike and ran in a trial which few knew about from the GPO to Naas; so I knew I could do the distance.\u201d<\/p>\n When the big day came \u2013 the race at that time was run in December \u2013 Tim brought his employer\u2019s family \u2013 the Brophy\u2019s of Jigginstown \u2013 to Mass in a Model T Ford.\u00a0 He came back and milked cows \u2013 he worked as a farm-hand.\u00a0 \u201cI had only a cup of tea and a slice of bread before I set off for Dublin with Joe McDonald who had a shop in the town.\u00a0 Martin O\u2019Brien who worked in McDonald\u2019s was with him.\u201d<\/p>\n From Nelson\u2019s Pillar<\/i>:\u00a0 The two Naas runners stripped off in the Automobile Club\u2019s premises just off O\u2019Connell Street.\u00a0 \u201cThen,\u201d says Tim, we put our backs to the railings around Nelson\u2019s Pillar and we set off.\u201d\u00a0 There was about nine runners in all, and apart from a man from Maynooth, Tim and Martin were the only runners from Co. Kildare.<\/p>\n Their route was down College Green, Dame Street, and through a maze of Dublin side streets, out into the country (now Crumlin and Ballyfermot) and onto the main road at Bluebell, Inchicore.\u00a0 Tim remembers the biggest problems were created by pot-holes with abounded on the main road at that time.\u00a0 At sections along the route there were crowds out to cheer the runners.\u00a0 Each runner had a steward on a bike to make sure that the way was clear for his runner.\u00a0 The race finished up that year in the old football grounds \u2013 Kenny\u2019s field \u2013 off the Tipper road.<\/p>\n Was Exhausted<\/i>:\u00a0 Tim says that as he tackled the hill at the old railway bridge at Friary road he began to fade.\u00a0 He was egged on by a supporter, whom he heard afterwards had backed him whether he won, was placed or even finished the race.\u00a0 \u201cI was practically exhausted when I reached the railway bridge on the Tipper road,\u201d recalls Tim.\u00a0 There were about 400 people on or around the bridge and they cheered me on.\u201d<\/p>\n Each runner had to do a lap of the football field before officially finishing.\u00a0 \u201cWhen I arrived at the field,\u201d says Tim, \u201cMcKeown, the runner, had just completed his lap.\u00a0 I managed to get around but collapsed from exhaustion at the end.\u201d\u00a0 He was brought by car to Ned Timmon\u2019s pub (now the Random Inn) where he was offered a meal and other sustenance.\u00a0 \u201cBut,\u201d laughs Tim, \u201cI was only able to drink ale because I had a thirst on me that you couldn\u2019t kill.\u201d<\/p>\n Better Prepared<\/i>:\u00a0\u00a0 The following year Tim was more prepared and made sure that he had more than a cup of tea before setting off on the gruelling twenty-mile run.\u00a0 This time he ran McKeown closer, and the following year, gave the holder an even closer race but did not manage to improve on his position.\u00a0 But Tim was well satisfied as he ran \u201cfor the sport of it\u201d and not for gain.\u00a0 In 1928 the race finished at the Town Hall, and in 1929 at the newly opened Fr. Brennan GAA Memorial Park at Maudlins.\u00a0 Each time the finish was witnessed by large crowds.<\/p>\n Tim, in his youth, was an all-round sportsman, taking part in athletic, boxing, cycling and football, and he names some of this contemporaries in the club:\u00a0 the late Jack Hartigan, Paddy Farrell, Jack Doyle, Martin O\u2019Brien, Dick and Myles O\u2019Mahony (many of them still alive).\u00a0 They trained in the former carpet factory at Millbrook under the watchful eye of the caretaker Mr. Maguire. Tim played once for Kildare \u2013 in 1921 in Athy \u2013 when he says they were short two of their regulars.\u00a0 He also took part in a number of marathons, including the Irish marathon from Navan to Dublin.\u00a0 His last race was in 1941 when he took part in a veterans marathon from Rathcoole to Naas.<\/p>\n Fiftieth Anniversary<\/i>:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tim, native of Two-Mile-House, Naas, also worked at the Poulaphouca scheme and in the closed down Cotton Mills in Naas.\u00a0 He celebrated earlier this year the fiftieth anniversary of his marriage to his wife Mary, a native of Naas.\u00a0 For many years he was a strong Labour supporter with a great devotion for the party leader, the late Billy Norton.<\/p>\n Monday will not alone be a special day for the parish but also for Tim as he relives the memories of the Ballinagappagh Cup races in former years, and he is justly feted for his achievements. The race was won by Karl O\u2019 Brien.<\/p>\n Re-typed by Mary Murphy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LEINSTER LEADER\u00a0 AUGUST 4 1984 FAMOUS RACES OF THE TWENTIES RECALLED With interest in the August Bank Holiday\u2019s sponsored run from Dublin to Naas (in aid of church renovation funds) mounting the Leinster Leader this week talked to Tim Coyle of Naas who celebrates his 80th birthday this year, and is the last surviving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspaper-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}