Background to Sheridan McDonnell Mayo Sports Bursary Awards Scheme supported by Mayo County Council and PORTWEST

The Martin Sheridan Bursary Awards Scheme has been running very successfully since 2013 and has supported many young sports people from the county in their endeavours to achieve success in their chosen sports. Mayo County Council provided funding of €5,000 annually and this was awarded to the winning entrants following a detailed assessment of their applications by an independent judging panel.

The awards are presented annually to young sports people who have been nominated by their clubs because of their ability, potential and desire to perform at the highest level possible in their chosen sport and who have the potential to achieve success at national and international level.

The success of the scheme to date is borne out by looking at the achievements of some of the previous award winners:

Cian Mc Manamon, Westport – double national champion in the Race Walk

Michaela Walsh, Swinford – 8 national titles in the Shot Putt

Conor Gallagher, Swinford – Represented Ireland in cycling

James Lynskey, Bohola – represented Ireland in Karate

Maeve Gallagher, Swinford – won national titles and represented Ireland in Cycling and Triathlon

Jarlaith Golding, Balla – Irish Universities Hurdles Champion

Niamh O’Neill, Ballyhaunis – National titles in Track & Field events

Roísín Hannon, Belcarra – represented Ireland with distinction as Slalom Canoeist

Niall Mc Loughlin, Newport – achieved success nationally and internationally as a cyclist

Clodagh Gill, Crossmolina – represented Ireland in Athletics

Séamus Clarke, Ballina – Silver medallist in European 5000m Race Walk

Freya Renton, Westport – National titles and has broken several Irish records -Gold medal recently at international event in the UK

While the achievements of previous winners are very impressive, the belief is that with additional funding and support these young people can achieve a lot more.

To this end the Martin Sheridan Bursary Committee joined forces with the John McDonnell Memorial Committee set up to commemorate the memory of John McDonnell, who was born in Ardagh, near Ballina, and went on to become the most successful coach in US Colleges history. Ultimately it is the hope that with increased funding and support someone from Mayo will follow in the footsteps of Martin Sheridan and John McDonnell and qualify for the Olympics.

There are two fundamental reasons for the Bursary Awards Scheme:

No 1: To recognise and support young sports people in Co. Mayo who have achieved success in their chosen sport and have the potential to achieve even greater success with additional financial support and backing.

No 2: To commemorate Mayo’s two finest talents – the greatest Olympian Ireland has ever produced in Martin Sheridan and the greatest coach in US colleges athletics history, John Mc Donnell. It is only right that the achievements of these two men are perpetuated.

 Martin Sheridan - the Athlete

Martin Sheridan was born in Bohola, Co. Mayo, on March 28th, 1881, and grew up on the family farm there and attended Carrowgowan National School.

At 18 years of age, he emigrated to America and joined the New York Police Force. He trained with the NYP Athletics team and qualified to represent the US in the Olympic Games. By 1901 he had set a new world record for the discus, something he had never seen before going to the US. Over the course of his illustrious career, he was virtually unbeatable. He won more Olympic medals than any other Irish athlete – 5 gold, 3 silver and a bronze. While Martin Sheridan’s most notable achievements were in the discus throw, he also excelled in the shotput, stone throw, long jump and high jump winning Olympic medals in each of these events. He set 16 world records over the course of his illustrious career and dominated world athletics from 1901 - 1911

He also won 12 US Championships and over 30 Canadian, Metropolitan and Regional Championships. His agility, endurance and strength set him apart in the world of athletics. Martin was also a very proud Irishman even though he competed for the US as he lived prior to the establishment of the Irish State. With the US team he refused to dip the US flag before the English king at the London Olympics in 2008 and he is credited with this gesture.

Martin died at the age of 36 from a viral infection and the New York Times referred to him as “the greatest athlete this country has ever known”. In 1988 he was the first Irishman to be inducted into the prestigious National Track & Field Hall of Fame in Indianapolis.

He will always be remembered in athletic circles as one of the all-time greats. In Bohola today, the Sheridan Memorial Community Centre is dedicated to his memory and a very impressive monument unveiled in 1966 stands in the grounds of the community centre.

John Mc Donnell - Amazing US record as Coach

It is quite a remarkable feat that, in the fierce cut and thrust of American collegiate sport, John McDonnell, from Ardagh, near Ballina, became one of the greatest athletics coaches in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

He was a superb athlete in his own right while living in Ireland, and qualified for the 1960 Olympics in Rome but his hopes were dashed when the Irish Olympic Council, short of funds, did not send him.

Moving to Dublin in the 1950s, he had joined Clonliffe Harriers, got to train with his idol Ronnie Delany, 1,500m Olympic champion of 1956, and went on to win the Irish Junior Cross-Country Championship and six National Championships in the mile, three-mile, and steeplechase between 1960 and 1963. He also represented his country in international cross-country championships.

He anchored a star-studded relay quartet in 1961 in Dublin against a New Zealand team headed by Olympic champion Peter Snell and including Garry Philpott, Murray Halberg and Barry Magee: that quartet had already broken the world record for the 4x1 mile relay.

Emigrating to the US in 1963, he competed for the University of Louisiana and became a six-time All-American in Track & Cross Country; he won the 1966-67 AAU 3,000-metre title, and the mile at the 1966 British Selection Games, and beat American superstar, Jim Run, over 2 miles in Louisiana in July 1966.

In 1972, he joined Arkansas University as an assistant coach, a position that attracted little interest because the Razorbacks were languishing near the bottom rung in track and field. He became head coach in 1978 and brought about an astonishing turnaround, between 1978 and 2008 pulling the Razorbacks from obscurity to the pinnacle of track and field.

On retiring, he had won 40 championships and 83 Conference championships, had coached 185 All-Americans, 54 individual national champions and 23 Olympians (gold, silver and bronze medallists). He led his Razorback athletes to 12 consecutive NCAA titles, the most by any school in any sport in NCAA history.

In 2008 he was on the US Olympic Track and Field team as a middle distance coach, was inducted into the US Track Coaches Hall of Fame, and in 2003 had joined the Pantheon of greats in the Western People’s Mayo Sports Stars Hall of Fame. Today a magnificent 7,000-seater stadium in Arkansas is named the John McDonnell Field. Born in 1938, John McDonnell died in June, 2021, aged 82.

Links to further information on Martin Sheridan & John McDonnell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sheridan

https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/the-legend-of-john-mcdonnell/

https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/john-mcdonnell-3085/

(Assistance with promoting & supporting documentation for bursary proposal kindly provided by Padraig Corcoran)