A FORMER Offaly footballer had a big win in a tough endurance swimming race in Dublin on Saturday.
Paul Mulvehill, a native of Ballycollin, Geashill, had a great win in the 104th Dublin City Liffey Swim, over a testing 2.2km course. Competing for Aer Lingus Masters Swim Club, Mulevhill was first home in a strong field of 272 swimmers. A very historic event, it is hosted by Swim Ireland and Dublin City Council.
A handicap race, the Liffey Swim is the pinnacle of the open sea season and provides a memorable experience for swimmers and the many spectators that line the course. The fine late sun added to the feel good atmosphere and a delighted Mulvehill performed heroics.
He took up swimming seriously some years ago and brought the same toughness to the event that he brought to the football fields with Offaly and in club action in the 1990s. A rock solid, teak tough, no nonsense defender who was best at centre half back, Mulvehill played minor, U-21 and senior football for Offaly.
He started swimming about ten years ago after having a procedure done on his hip. That forced him to give up football and swimming was a means of staying fit as well as providing a social outlet. He initially took it up on a small basis but went to group sessions in Belvedere College about 8 years ago and this rekindled the competitive fires in him. He came under the influence of a very good coach in Tony Morris, taking both group and one on one sessions with him. “I kept improving and he was very encouraging,” Mulvehill outlined on Monday.
He discovered open sea swimming at this time and loved it during the summer after the long months in the pool during the Winter. Various clubs organise meetings and competitions throughout the summer with events in Killiney, Seapoint, Portmarnock and Bray. “The races are handicapped and everyone thinks they have a chance,” he smiled, adding: “It is good craic, there is a good social side to it.”
Mulvehill turned 50 just a couple of weeks ago and this success was the perfect birthday present to himself. The Liffey swim is a bit different than many of the ones out on the sea. It is staged at full tide so they have to deal with currents and a bit of a flow but he found it easier to spot where he was during it. “In the sea, you are looking for a buoy as your marker. It is easier to spot where you are going in the Liffey. I knew I was going well. I noticed I was catching a few and no one was going by me. I could see there was one more ahead of me and I knew I would catch him if I stayed going the way I was going but I wasn’t sure if there was someone ahead of him.
“I also wasn’t sure if someone was coming up behind me. There would be some very fast swimmers in it. The ladies winner, Jessica Purcell (16 years of age) went out 17 minutes behind the first swimmer and won well. She is an international standard swimmer.”
His football career co-incided largely with a barren spell for Offaly but he gave great commitment in the 1990s. He played 22 league and championship games for Offaly senior footballers from 1992 to 1999. The bulk of his appearances came at centre half back from 1992 and 1995 and he played just one championship season, 1993. He was not present when Offaly won the Leinster Senior Football Championship and National Football League in 1997 and 1998, though he came on as a sub in one league game in ’98.
The won of Mary and the late Jimmy Mulvehill, he also gave great service to his home club, playing football and hurling for years before switching to Castleknock in Dublin. He started out with Killeigh-Raheen in the late 1980s and when that amalgamation had a quick break-up in the early 1990s, he went with Killeigh.
He has lived and worked in Dublin for several years and transferred to Castleknock in the 2000s, playing football and hurling with them. He captained Castleknock to win their first Junior Football Championship in 2012 – he was joint captain with Ballinagar man Cathal Daly, not to be mixed up with the former Offaly defending stalwart of the same name – and played senior for them as they went up through the ranks.
He has, however, remain entrenched in his native parish and county and has been on the committee of the Offaly Association in Dublin. He has served as PRO and worked hard to promote their annual golf classic for Offaly GAA.
The race started at Rory O’More Bridge near Guinness Brewery gate. The swimmers then travelled up the Liffey passing under eleven bridges finishing at North Wall Quay before The Custom House.
In the Men’s race Paul Mulvehill won in 33 minutes 43 seconds. The Aer Lingus Masters swimmer started on 4 minutes 15 seconds and moved through the field in front of him, taking the lead at the Rosie Hackett Bridge and he never relinquished it.
Mulvehill said after the race: “I just can’t believe it to be honest, I thought there was a few people in front of me still, I can’t believe it. Great, delighted. The first half I was kind of finding my way through it and then I don’t know, I was eating up a few alright and then there was fewer and fewer swimmers in front of me and I just tried to go as hard as I could for the last quarter. Going through the line I was looking around going there must be somebody else, but there wasn’t so, I can’t believe it, honest to God, I’m shocked.”
Templeogue’s Neil Bolger won the fastest time prize in 26 minutes and 8 seconds, North Dublin’s Luca Rohan won the U18 prize in 37.58 while Aer Lingus Masters won the Men’s team prize.
