Michael Donohoe (athlete)

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Michael Donohoe (1908–1989) was born just outside Nenagh, County Tipperary in a small village called Belvue in the late summer of 1908. He was one of three children born to an elderly farmer who died a few years after Michael’s birth. Michael (or Mick, as he was to become known) was the only one of the three children to survive his teenage years, being reared by his mother and a legion of aunts, uncles and cousins who all lived nearby.

Mick worked as a labourer on Biggs’ estate in the village, and developed a reputation as being a good runner from an early age. He began to go to running competitions at weekends, often cycling miles to do so. Like so many athletes of his time from North Tipperary, Mick joined the Mid Tipperary Coolcroo club in 1937, shortly after its formation and shared in many successes from county to national level. When Mick threw in his lot with Coolcroo he was already a runner of note and had graduated to junior status. He was one of twelve members of the 1937 team that won the All-Ireland junior cross-country competition at Ballydoyle - the first of many championships won by the club.

The following year he was in the history-making senior side which captured the All-Ireland laurels for the first time, the club having six runners home in the first fifteen in what was considered one of the greatest displays by any team for years. The next year Mick was there again on the senior side which retained its crown, and, with the juniors also winning the national title, Coolcroo became the first club ever to win the All-Ireland double.

In 1940, Mick not only took part in the NACA Cross-Country Championship, winning a medal for his ability, but he also received another medal at the Tipperary Junior Hurling Championship when he competed with his local team, the Shannon Rovers. More than forty years later, Mick was to be honoured by the latter club for his achievements when he was invited back to be presented with a statue in recognition of all that he had given to the club over the years. Only one disappointment clouded 1940’s triumphs for Mick – he had believed that he would have been selected for the Olympic Team in this year, but this year’s event was called off due to the war.

1941 saw Mick storm the records as he won 1st place in both the Tipperary Junior and Senior Cross Country Competitions.

He served his Coolcroo club for five seasons, and shared in numerous county senior cross-country titles. Club patron and famous athlete, Tom Healy, describes Mick as a dedicated athlete who never shirked a challenge and who was one of the great team members of that era. In 1942, he returned home to form his own athletics club, which he named the Shannon Rovers. They were based around the towns of Terryglass and Ballinderry in his native North Tipperary.

During his time with the Shannon Rovers (and also with Coolcroo), Mick had the task of purchasing race prizes with club funds. He enjoyed this as he knew that, invariably, he would win them back for himself at the very next race.

Mick immersed himself thoroughly in his work with the Shannon Rovers, encouraging a new generation to follow in his footsteps. He was hugely well regarded for his work with the team, which performed well with his encouragement.

By the mid 1940s, with Mick entering his late 30s, he also become interested in the slightly less arduous sport of rowing. He became a prominent member of the local Kilgarvan Regatta, and was the proud recipient of their winners’ cup for a stunning three years running – 1944, 1945 and 1946.

By the next year however, Mick’s attentions had waned. He was married in the June of 1947, and chose to spend his free time with his young family rather than heading off running every weekend. He ran one last race in his 39th year which, predictably, he won.

Mick was not quite done with the sport yet, however. In 1953, he re-engraved the Kilgarvan cup that he had won repeatedly so that it now read “The O’Donoghue Cup”. It was to be used as a trophy for the novice cross-country winners in Mick’s own six-mile cross-country competition that he began around this time. It was swiftly to become a well-regarded prize.

In 1960, Mick’s own Shannon Rovers ran to victory. Mick’s pride in his young novices can barely be imagined. In 1961, he opened up the cup to senior clubs too, and invited his old club of Coolcroo to compete in his cup competition. After “a ding-dong struggle” over the course, they failed very narrowly to their great adversary of the time, Holycross.

This was to be the last time that Mick would see teams run for his cup as the next year, like so many of his contemporaries, Mick emigrated to England and eventually settled in Waterloo at the outskirts of Liverpool.

Being in another country did not distance Mick from his runners, and he remained in close contact with them. On one trip home to Ireland in the mid 60s, he was asked if he would start a race. He gladly agreed, running a portion of the course and, no doubt, putting some of the youngsters to shame in the process! On a much later visit, whilst in his 70s, he was visiting the local school and met with the school-master who had taught his children, Paddy Fogarty.

“You’re looking well Mick,” remarked Paddy. “You’ve seen nothing yet!” retorted Mick as he proceeded to sprint down the length of the corridor.

Even whilst away from the country, Mick did not forget the young runners and would retain a correspondence with them. One letter that survives was published one New Year in the mid 70s and appeared in the local Nenagh Guardian.

“I wish all the young Nenagh runners, as well as all my old friends, a very happy New Year, I was delighted to see (in the “Guardian”) the big turn-out for the (O’Donoghue) Cup, and also the names of my old mates as, like myself, they helped Coolcroo in their heyday. Some people say that cross-country running is very rough sport, but I am still in tip-top form after twenty-two years, and often give the lads a chase in the school where I am a caretaker.”

Mick was unable to attend Coolcroo club's jubilee celebrations in 1987 due to ill health, but visited Tom and Sheila Healy at the Turnpike later that year, where Tom presented him with his scroll, and where with a few colleagues of four decades ago they relived briefly the great exploits of the Coolcroo runners who had built up an everlasting relationship on the cross-country fields near and far. In all correspondence over the years to Coolcroo members, Mick always finished off with the line, "Up the old black and white", showing his affinity for the club and his colleagues.

Two years after reuniting with the surviving Coolcroo runners, Mick died.