A Connemara island’s famous low Spring tide races have attracted international media over the years.
The Omey meet, which once also included currach races, return next Sunday August 4th after a break of several years.
As The Sunday Independent reports, the pandemic and insurance factors had resulted in postponement of the races on the strand separating Omey island from Claddaghduff.
The principal race organiser, Féichin Mulkerrin, who has been an Office of Public Works guide on offshore islands, has also made a remarkable recovery from a serious health event.
“I had a stroke, I was taken to hospital, and the family were called in as they were told I wouldn’t make it that night,”Mulkerrin recalls.
“I did, but the consultant told me I had three clots on my lung, which they would try to filter to ensure the clots didn’t reach my heart or my brain,”he explains.
“After about three weeks they removed the filter, and the consultant gave it to me as a souvenir,”he says.
“But I couldn’t read, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t walk properly, and my vision was affected.”
“At the first meeting with the consultant after I was discharged, he explained he didn't think he would see me sitting in front of him again,” Mulkerrin says.
“He also said ‘I’ll get you back to the health that you were in prior to this’..”
Mulkerrin recalls that these words gave him the determination to recover.
“The physiotherapists in Galway’s Merlin Park hospital were outstanding,”he says, describing how they first focused on restoring his eyesight and then had him out playing football and basketball.
“The physiotherapists were terrific,”he says.
Part of the excitement of Omey is the mad dash to Claddaghduff to beat the incoming tide after the last race.
The Omey races were held for working horses, with events including currach races, sports, a bicycle race - and even a car race one year.
The races were suspended in 1963, but revived by Mulkerrin and a voluntary committee in 2001.
This year’s Omey Race meet starts at 12 noon sharp on Sunday, August 4th, and access is signposted from the N59 route out of Clifden, Co Galway.
Read The Sunday Independent here (paywall)