Kenno & Co at the Worlds in Verona, 2004: L to R – Tosh Lavery, Jimmy Lally, Brian Connaughton and Seamus Kennedy
A week on from the passing of cycling legend Seamus Kennedy, cyclists and cycling fans will this evening, Monday, have the opportunity to listen in to a radio tribute show to the popular figure.
Radio Kerry will at 6.30pm broadcast a tribute to Kennedy’s 1978 Rás win; the year he rode the race on the Kerry team. While he lived in Kilcloon, Co Meath, and was known best on the cycling scene in Leinster, Kennedy’s family was originally from Kerry and he had a close affinity with the county.
This evening’s radio programme would be well worth turning in to. It’s on Radio Kerry’s ‘Terrace Talk Sports Show’, with the station available at 96-98FM.
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If you’re not in the region this evening you can get it on www.radiokerry.com
Once it’s broadcast we’ll try and get the show from the station and publish it ourselves in the next day or two.
Meanwhile, UCI president Pat McQuaid has joined the many well known cycling figures to pay tribute to Kennedy. He recalled a man with whom he got on very well and whose passion for the sport he admired greatly.
“I was very much saddened on hearing of Seamus’s death,” McQuaid said.
“I knew him as a cyclist going back to the early 70`s and at that time regularly called in to speak with him about cycling at his workplace which was the AIB garage in Dundrum.”
“Even though we were in opposing camps politically at that time, we shared the same passion for cycling. Every time I had the opportunity to meet Seamus since at World Championships for example he still had that same passion.”
We also received a nice dedication to Kennedy from Tadhg Moriarty of Listowel Cycling Club; best known to most as one of the main driving forces behind the Easter weekend centrepiece ‘Rás Mumhan’.
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There are some nice words and detail in this, and given Kenno’s genuine love for, and affinity with, Kerry we thought we’d run it in full:
Seamus Kennedy: An appreciation from Listowel Cycling Club
“Kerry lost one of its all time sporting legends with the death of the great Seamus Kennedy on Monday last. Kennedy was one of six riders to bring the Ras Tailteann title to the Kingdom when he was victorious in 1978. The others were Gene Manganin’55, Paud Fitzgerald in ’56, Mick Murphy in’58 John Mangan in ’72 and Andy Roche in ’97.”
“Kennedy was from Co Meath and he was the son of West Kerry Parents. He was one of the all time greats of Irish cycling and dominated the national scene in the 1970’s.”
“He had competed in the Ras on 12 occasions, winning 12 stages also, but had failed to win the overall title. However he took up the invitation to wear the Kerry jersey in 1978 and he joined Anthony O Halloran, Mike Breen and Dan Clifford on the team at the start in Shannon for the first stage to Listowel.”
“It was on Stage 7 from Letterkenny, Co Donegal, to Warrenpoint, Co Down - the longest stage of the race with a distance of 101 miles - that he pounced to win the stage and take the famous yellow jersey of race leader.”
“With the unyielding support of his Kerry team mates he held on to win the title two days later in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. He had just over a minute to spare over another cycling legend, the great Bobby Power from Tipperary who sadly passed away around this time last year. The German Hans Willer, whom Kennedy had dislodged from the overall lead, was third overall.”
“Kennedy will be missed on the Ras which gets underway next weekend. He managed the Meath team in many a Ras since his own victory and was a very popular figure in Castleisland at the stage finish last year, being greeted by one and all. He always said that he felt special when he came to the Kingdom and he understood what his great win in 1978 meant to Kerry.”
“To his family, the cycling community in Kerry send their deepest sympathy and assure them that his memory and his great feats will live forever in the sporting annals of the Kingdom.”
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam Dilis.
Tadhg Moriarty
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