Blarney Girls Blazing a Trail - Evening Echo - July 1988
Blarney Girls Blazing a Trail
By Brendan Mooney
Evening Echo, Tuesday July 26th 1988, Page 14
When top Blarney athletes Mairead Looney and Valerie Vaughan won scholarships to Arizona and Western Kentucky it appeared as if a lifelong friendship would be at least suspended as they went their separate ways
Mairead’s family had decided to move to California where her father, Jerry, had got a new job while Valerie, a graduate from UCC would study for her master’s degree at Kentucky
Things went wrong at Arizona where they decided to drop the women’s track team as part of cutback measures. But Mairead telephoned the coach at Kentucky, where a third Cork girl, Breda Dennehy from Bandon, had also secured a scholarship
The coach there was already aware of her achievements and immediately took her on board. It was a pleasant surprise for both Mairead and Valerie who had been training together with the Blarney/Inniscara club under their coach, John O’Riordan for almost five years
They both distinguished themselves at all levels in athletics. Valerie won the National BLOE under 17 title and followed this up by winning the national junior 1,500m title
After that she concentrated on her studies at UCC but maintained her interest in athletics in a manner that saw her ready to rejoin her friends at the highest level once the examinations were over
She returned last year to figure on the Cork team that won the national senior intercounties cross-country title on the disqualification of Dublin. She won the county novice title, the county intermediate title and was runner-up to Niamh O’Sullivan (Leevale) in the county senior championships
She was runner-up to Grainne Quinn (Waterford) in the Southern Region Intermediate Championships. Grainne is sister of Brendan Quinn who is chasing an Olympic qualifying standard in the steeplechase at the moment
Highlight of her career to date was when she returned to Waterford to win the national intermediate cross-country championship. This was an achievement not just for Valerie but for her coach, John O’Riordan, who had her in peak condition on the day.
Last year she won the Irish Universities 3,000m title and she won the 800 metres title this season
Leevale athlete Bernard O’Sullivan, who represented Ireland over 800m at the European junior championships, has been on scholarship in Kentucky for some time now
Mairead Looney did not enter athletics until she was 14 but, under John O’Riordan, success was instant. This year she made history when she won the Irish schools senior 1,500m title for the third successive year. She was a schools international twice and won the 1,500m at the FISEC games in France in 1986
The 1,500m has been her prime event to date and she has a personal best time of 4:32 for the distance. She has also won national titles at other age groups and was runner-up in the Irish schools senior cross-country championship twice
She has emerged from what will be remembered in future years as a golden era for women’s athletics in Cork. Out of this has emerged girls like Sonia O’Sullivan (Ballymore/Cobh) who competes in the world junior championships in Canada this week and Anita Philpott (North Cork) who would also have been there but for injury problems earlier in the season
Mairead’s family were all deeply involved in athletics. Her father, Jerry, was a driving force behind the Blarney/Inniscarra club, brother, Denis, is also a promising athlete as is Ide but Fiona, who has already won some novice titles, is an outstanding basketball player and could turn to that sport now that they have moved to California
However, their mother, Kathleen, is one of the great success stories of Irish athletics. She followed the remainder of the family into athletics a few years ago, soon found herself up amongst the top runners in the country and underscored this by winning the National Marathon Championship title two years ago
Their many friends throughout the country and throughout Cork, in particular, will join in wishing them all well
