with their kind permission Gerry O doherty came on board to give a recollection of this photo .Gerry now based in Essex will be coming across for the Black Tie dinner 40 th in Jacksons with his wife Margaret . His recollection is as follows and remember to keep searching for those old shots . My thanks to MichaelMc Granaghan who has given us numerous excellent slides and at this moment they are being transferred to disc and should be a further story next weekend
Anyhow on with the story of the picture
It’s the Letterkenny 15 miles race which started and finished on the road (where the old running track is) down near the turn off for Leckview Park ( Letterkenny Rovers pitch.) That road was being built then and the background in the photo is close to the little road leading down to the Rovers pitch.
I would have been 18 and it was during my first year at the RTC which would have been 1973/74 . The 15 miles race started over the small bridge at what is now the ‘old’ Dunnes store in Letterkenny and out the back road that leads on to the Ballybofey / Letterkenny road on the Letterkenny side of Drunkeen. I remember Rosaleen in a car acting as marshal at that junction.
It was the longest race I had ever done and remember thinking that the last couple of miles from the Dry Arch to Leckview would never end. Neily Mc Daid won the race with John Bosco Doherty 2nd and maybe Patsy 3rd – I know you all got cold waiting for me to finish !
I will settle with the Letterkenny ‘15’ in the summer of 1973.
What are they now ?
Well we mentioned Neily.John Doherty and Patsy also in the photo Gerry himself Philip Connelly and Jim Hynes all of whom thankfully still alive and well in Donegal with Gerry as indicated earlier in England
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