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At Christmas, I with the help of Paul Mahon, Tom MIlligan and the folk at Outsider Magazine and CineTQ.com organised the ART O NEILL CHALLENGE in aid of THE STUART MANGAN APPEAL.
Read all about Stuart on www.stuartmangan.org. He is a fellow Fermoy man who broke his neck playing rugby last year. Stuart lives in LOndon and we have been hanging out a good bit. He lives in Notting Hill which is on my way home from Drama School. Stuart is touching thousands of people in the Ireland and the UK through different events that have been organised to help with his appeal.
The Art o Neill Challenge was one such event which became a monster. I thought of the idea a few months previously, spoke to Stuart, who loved the idea and started organising it. It involved a 55km trek starting at midnight from Dublin Castle and finishing in the Glenmalure Valley, deep within the Wicklow Mountains. The trek retraced the escape route of Art O Neill and Red Hugh O Donnell in 1592. Art perished on the windswept mountains.
250 people registered their interest with 200 starting the trek in Dublin. 146 people finished the trek some 13 to 15 hours later in Wicklow, for some it was the challenge of their lives and opened their worlds to the outdoors. A friend of mine who was very sporty once, but never hiked in the mountains, had a hard experience on the mountains that night, but since has become ultra hiker extraordinaire, hiking every weekend in Wicklow and is the proper energizer bunny!!
Have a look at a 4 minute video of the event here and get in training for next year.....
A selection of photos from the Beijing Olympics where I competed in the Lightweight 4. I was also a correspondent for irishtimes.com during the Olympics. This was my last rowing event after a 13 year international career and decided to leave rowing at the Olympic Games to pursue an acting career
PLease visit www.irishtimes.com/blogs/villagevoice where i wrote a blog for the Irish Times Newspaper
![""]("../images/page_images/Olympic_Rowing_Course.jpg")
The Olympic Rowing Course Shrouded in Smog
!["Olympic]("../images/page_images/DSC01912_500.jpg" "\"Olympic")
Olympic Village People
!["The]("../images/page_images/DSC01920_500.jpg" "\"The")
The Olympic Village
!["A]("../images/page_images/DSC01899_small.jpg" "\"A")
A brief rest from training in Verese
!["Training]("../images/page_images/DSC00199_small.jpg" "\"Training")
Training Hard in Verese
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