Great national senior athletics medal for proud granddaughter of an Offaly exile

A NEW name on the Offaly athletics scene emerged in fairly spectacular fashion last weekend when Madison Mooney captured a great bronze medal in one of the blue riband events, the ladies 1500 metres at the National Senior Track and Field and Championships in Morton Stadium.

Racing in the colours of Tullamore Harriers, Mooney ran a tremendously gutsy race as she got up to the front from the start and stayed in the medals position throughout. She really went for it, bothering the winner, Sophie O'Sullivan, daughter of Irish running folk hero, Sonia O'Sullivan, inside the last lap before holding on for third place and a bronze medal.

O'Sullivan, the silver medallist, Carla Sweeney from Rathfarnham and Mooney opened a small gap on the field in the closing lap with O'Sullivan recording her expected win, in a time of 4.20.45 with Sweeney in 4.21.13 and Mooney in 4.21.70.

While racing for Tullamore Harriers, Mooney was very much a new name on the Irish athletics scene. Born and reared in the USA, her Offaly and Tullamore connections are tenuously powerful. Her surname is a very familiar one in Mucklagh and Tullamore. Her grandfather, Colman Mooney was a member of the very well known Mooney from Lynally, in the wider Muckagh area and just a few miles from Tullamore.

Born at Lynally in 1939, he was one of Jermiah and Brigid Mooney's twelve children and was a valued early member of Tullamore Harriers, which was formed in 1953. He emigrated to New York in 1960, working as a carpenter and he spent years living in Florida, passing away in 2021.

Colman Mooney had played hurling at home in his youth but athletics was his true calling and he excelled in running events in America. He was very close to international and Olympics standard in his peak years in the 1960s – he was runner up in the National Championships One Hour Run in Washington, managing to complete 11.25 miles while he won the National American Marathon in 1963 in 2 hours 29 minutes. He was fifth in the US Cross Country Championships in 1975 but concentrated on family and work commitments at this stage.

He made a spectacular return as a masters athletes in the 1990s and 2000s, competing in four World Masters Games, finishing tenth in the 1995 marathon in 2.56 hours at 55 years of age. He had a host of other great athletics achievements and regularly returned home, bringing children and grandchildren with him.

Colman Mooney, right, running with the late Noel Gowran in O'Connor Park, Tullamore in the 1950s.

His love for athletics has been inherited by following generations. Colman Mooney's son Chris is Madison's, also known as Maddie, father, and he was also a runner. One of four siblings, Madison was reared in Denver, Colorado and recently completed an athletics scholarship at University in Wisconsin.

She got dual American and Irish citizenship sorted recently and this allowed her to run in the national championships – declaring for Tullamore Harriers was a natural move considering the strong family connections that remain in the area. Her father still has a number of uncles and aunts living in Offaly and elsewhere and there is also great athletics connections in her family tree.

Her second cousin Laura Mooney, Cappincur and Tullamore Harriers, recently ran for Ireland in the Track and Field Championships and is on an athletics scholarship in the USA – Laura's grandfather, Mick Mooney, who lives near Killeigh, was a brother of Colman Mooney.

Another second cousin, Danielle Donegan from Tullamore, has also represented Ireland at international level. The Donegan's are a powerful running family and their mother Marie, and Laura Mooney's father, Brendan, are first cousins of Madison's father - Marie's later mother Margaret Bracken was a sister of Colman Mooney.

Her appearance at the national championships was very much of the last minute variety. Her dual nationality was only sorted recently and she flew into Ireland on Friday with her father Chris, competing in the heats on Saturday and final on Sunday, returning home to the USA on Monday.

Her decision to run was certainly justified with an excellent performance. While her times will have to improve further, it opens up the possibility of representing Ireland at international level. 24 years of age, she spoke with great pride at her Irish and Offaly connections before the championships, stating how “proud” and “gracious” she was to represented Tullamore Harriers and remarking on how proud her late grandfather would have been.

Mooney had set a new 1500 metre personal best in Canada just a couple of weeks before the Irish championships and she was second in her heat on Saturday in 4.32.29, easily securing one of the five final berths on offer. She ran within herself there, doing just enough to qualify, but it was a different story in the final when she really attacked the race with everything she had and running over ten seconds quicker.

It was a productive championships for Offaly athletes. A Tullamore Harriers runner on a scholarship in the USA, Ava O'Connor had a fantastic run to capture silver in the ladies 3,000 metres steeplechase on Sunday. Michelle Finn couldn't be beaten in that race and ran away for an easy win in 10.05.25. The real race was for the silver and bronze medals and O'Connor, a native of Emo in Laois, did very well to hold off Raheny's Niamh Kearney to take silver in 10.17.47.

Birr Athletic Club's Claire Kennedy also performed very well, winning bronze in the ladies discus. A regular winner at these championships, Kennedy's best throw was 39.97 with Raheny's Niamh Fogarty taking gold with 54.64 and Anna Gavigan of LSA silver with 47.27.

Another Tullamore Harriers member on scholarship in the USA, James Dunne achieved his ambition of making the mens' 1,500 metres final, finishing second in his heat on Saturday in 3.54.36.

In Sunday's final, Ballycommon man Dunne got boxed in early on and couldn't get into medal contention, finishing a respectable 10^th in 3.47.64.

Dean Power, Tullamore Harriers showed great quality and bravery by making the mens' 100 metres final. Power has battled back from injury problems and he finished seventh in the final in 10.69.

Ferbane Athletic Club's Laura Dolan was just outside the medals in the womens' weight for distance (28lbs) event, finishing fourth with a best throw of 6.69.