Young and old will be able to do their bit for the Irish language when RITH 2016 kicks off in Kildare on March 4th – and comes all the way to Donegal.
Coinciding with Seachtain na Gaeilge, the eleven-day All-Ireland relay run will promote the language in an athletic in a lively fun-filled manner.
A message of hope to the people of Ireland, signed by President Michael D Higgins, will be carried by a baton-holder at the front of the run as it winds through every county.
The baton will be opened when the run reaches its closure at Trinity College on March 14th and the President’s message about the language read out.
One man is unlikely to be phased by the challenge. For Lucan man Dáithí Ó Murchú, no race in Ireland can be too daunting.
When you have run from the eagle plains in the Yukon through the Arctic Circle and over to Tuktuk in the Arctic Ocean in average temperatures of around -30 degrees, the Irish language promotional event is just another step.
Gael Linn festivals and Gaeltacht football tournaments were always an opportunity to bring the Irish language community together and he sees RITH as further opportunity.
“Events such as RITH 2016 give the Irish language community an opportunity to come together for the good of the language. Between young and old, there is an opportunity to take part in a national event and this year, and as we commemorate 1916, everyone has a chance to take part in something historical for the language during Irish language week,” he said.
For Dáithí, this will be a more relaxed occasion after the gruelling efforts he ran in such freezing conditions last year. When he talks about the incredible challenge he faced, he talks about the spiritual, physical and psychological aspects of a challenge, only ever completed by eleven others.
“It’s very hard to say what inspires someone to do this but sometimes you feel inside that you have to do something. But it was the right time, the right place and the right ultra (marathon) to do and that what’s happened …. every decision you make is life and death.
“When it goes to minus 30 or minus 45 and minus 50, the freezing ice comes in, the snow starts to fall and you really are trying to keep the mind going but the hallucinations are something else.
“When you start to hallucinate, you can’t tell the difference between reality, surreality, what is and what is not. They are the dangerous times. Then you are walking on frozen oceans…. the challenges are on every single level,” he says.
When he participates in RITH 2016, he will be combining his passion for running with his another love, the Irish language.
His family was, he says, “always sympathetic” to Irish and he received post-primary education through the native language.
A Limerickman, he also helped establish two Gaelscoils, Gaelscoil Ó Doghair and after that Gaelcholáiste Uí Chonba in his native county.
You only need to write into google or youtube the words “running and health” to see the enormous effects which athletics can have on people’s health. Quoting the Irish proverb, Is fear rith maith ná drochsheasamh, Dáithí explains in simple terms the benefits of running. At “every level”, he says, sport is important. “It adds much to the spirit of the soul and your body. There is no doubt that sport helps a person on every level. I am always running and absorbing the beauty of the world on the roads, on mountains, on hills and in isolated places all over the world.
“There is no doubt that running adds to the health of a person, not only in the body but also in the soul and in the head. If something is annoying you, put on your runners and go out walking or running in the air.” As a retired school principal, he freely admits that he doesn’t mind being away from the stress involved in teaching. The creativity of the children of the country is something he occasionally misses but now he has more time for running. And sometimes he now trains twice a day.
Daithí Ó Murchú will be taking part in RITH 2016. Thousands are expected to take part in the relay-fun-run that will go through every county in Ireland from March 4th-14th as part of the national 1916 centenary commemorations.
For more information on RITH 2016, see www.rith.ie.
