Summer is always a time of year that encourages us as individuals, families, and as a nation to undertake challenges we’ve often put on the long finger - helped by a more accommodating climate.
As a county we look forward to our football and hurling teams making it to Croker; as an individual it can be as simple as producing a summer garden to set the scene for a barbecue, dusting off the golf clubs that have been put at the back of the shed in frustration, hoping the weather will give us hope of nailing that pitch or chip onto the green that has always proved as equally difficult as a mountaineer might view climbing an Everest.
It doesn’t matter if it’s as simple as learning to swim, or as mentally exacting as running a marathon. We all know that in facing our own challenges and navigating one's way through them builds resilience, confidence, and, a measure of reward.
In Galway we have two young men - brothers Conor and Eoin Dodd - who are undertaking their Everest. Both in their mid-twenties with non-verbal autism, the pair have already displayed all the necessary qualities - adaptability, flexibility, fortitude, determination, and enthusiasm in setting themselves a challenge few of us would manage, or even contemplate undertaking.
The brothers, both sailing enthusiasts, are now competing in one of the world’s toughest challenges, the 2023 Rolex Fastnet Race - a 690 nautical mile event which is heralded as the world’s largest offshore race.
This is a sailing challenge in which amateurs line up against professionals, attracting sailors from around the world - to test themselves in what is regarded as both a tough personal and team challenge. Good communciaton skills are essential for sailing, so for Conor and Eoin, who can only communicate with sign language, this is their Everest.
Taking the helm, they will have a crew of seven, and will be the first sailors with non-verbal autism to helm a yacht in this world-famous boat race. Both boys are passionate sailing enthusiasts and they have now set themselves the challenge of preparing for and participating in the Fastnet Race where they will helm. As they only communicate using sign language and text, the Conor and Eoin Fastnet Challenge will put them in the history books as the first sailors with non-verbal autism to helm a yacht in this world-famous boat race.
On land another Galway athlete is following a similar path in her chosen sport. Shauna Bocquet, already well known in athletic circles, is a member of Team Ireland that will compete in the 2023 World Para Athletics World Championships.
The Craughwell teenager, who is well known in athletic circles, has not let her ambition be thwarted by a wheelchair. Since the age of eight when she started wheelchair racing, and her drive and ambition have ensured she has attained her goal of competing at the highest level.
Having won three gold medals at the Junior World Championships, and recently the Elite Wheelchair category at the VHI Women’s Mini Marathon in Dublin in June, she now has her sights set on the 2023 World Para Athletics World Championships in Paris next month.
Shauna has never let her disability stop her from pursuing her passion for sport, and like Conor and Eoin, is a role model for us all - their ambition, motivation, positivity, fortitude and determination are inspirational, and we wish them all the best in their forthcoming endeavours which Galway will follow with keen interest.
