Profiles: Triona O'Neill
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Triona O'Neill has been involved in disabled sailing from its beginnings in Cork and while she has taken a back seat as far as committee work is concerned she is still actively involved as a helper. Triona shares with us here an article she wrote over 10 years ago for the Royal Cork Yacht Club.

On returning from working in London in 1979, having worked there for three years and yearning for the sea, I became steadily involved in Kinsale Yacht Club. This Club is very dear to my heart as I have several memories of my parents and their friends attending various dinners at the various locations the Club had prior to anchoring at their present location. The Ladies of the Club used to prepare the dinners, each sharing a different course each week. The princely sum of five shillings (25p) was charged for the meal, seven shillings (35p) if music was provided!

Serving my time as Hon. Sailing Secretary of the Kinsale Yacht Club in the early '80's gave me an insight into the Club organisation as such. Going on the water to race is exhilarating for the participants, but behind the scenes there is much work to be done to ensure that all will go well for the race. Clashes with other events in the nearby harbours, organising officers of the day who will start and finish the race, provision of committee boats, getting courses laid, etc. etc. The list is endless. Then you also have the various Classes in the Club, i.e., the Cruiser fleet, the Dragon fleet, the 15's, Mirrors, Oppies and Challengers etc. It all takes time and is a very thankless position.

Having worked in the Medical field, I had a lot of contact with persons with disabilities. These people of various ages had differing disabilities, from Spina Bifida and Muscular Dystrophy to M.S. or M.N.D, being blind or partially sighted, deaf or a combination of both. They did have one common problem and that was coming to terms with their disability and of integration with able bodied persons. It was from my own experience that I felt I had something to offer. Here I was, healthy, able bodied and I enjoying what life had to offer. To be honest, I made the most of life anyway.

I got interested in the disabled sailing group in the earlier days of its onset and helped with fund raising with people like Eddie Mullins, Eric Geary, Eddie English etc, but because of work commitments and being abroad for some time I was unable to participate fully.

The group purchased a Challenger triamaran or two initially with funds raised and in the year of the disabled in 1981 several companies (mainly in Cork) sponsored a boat. You had Barry's Tea, Ecco Shoes to mention just a few. These boats proved to be what was required to entice people with disabilities to come and try the sport of sailing, leave the disability behind and enjoy the camaraderie! Things took off in Cork and later one or two of the boats went to Dublin.

Now these Challengers, while they fill a void in peoples life's, can also wreck you! They are ideally designed (by a disabled woman - Diane Campbell) for use on water reservoirs and the like (not on the open sea as in Ireland! They are stable and great fun in a breeze, but they are also very labour intensive in that you need at least two able bodied persons to get these boats in and out of the water.

There was mighty craic taking place in Cobh thanks to Eddie English. Unfortunately the slipway in Cobh is extremely steep and it took its toil on the hulls and also the people in wheelchairs found it difficult in transferring to and from the boat because of the incline. Each year in September visitors from England came over to race against our gang at either Crosshaven, Kinsale or Cobh.

At one such event, in Crosshaven in 1987, I strolled to the Club on the Saturday night to have a quiet (no such thing!) drink and the place was alive to say the least. This was all prior to your Ford Cork Week and not long after the gruelling World Quarter Ton Championships which we had participated in. Needless to say, the last to leave were the Challenger gang. They were so glad that the event was over and that they had survived!! There were some complaints in that there were no helpers available and that the organisation was poor from the Club itself. While they knew that the Club was unaware of the intensity of the dinghies themselves, they felt that after at least the first day, more bodies would appear and help out. This was not to be. That was when I stated that we should take the event to Kinsale and show the rest of the Clubs around the country what was needed to provide integration for persons with disabilities.

Little did I realise then what I was taking on? Needless to say, the following year came. No maintenance was carried out on the boats that had been abandoned at the Show Grounds (free of Charge) and September was looming on the horizon. By mid July I was panicking and brought together some of the members of the group, John Twomey, James & John Whelan and Eddie Mullins. Following a deep discussion it was decided to bring the challengers to Kinsale by lorry, assemble them and see what happens. This was done in due course and the boats just lay there and were taken out only every so often. September arrived and we had assembled a marquee effect (thanks to the committees contacts and again free of charge) outside in the dinghy park to make it more accessible for the people. A great amount of fun was had over the two or three days and great friends were made. Some new-comers even came to watch what was going on - the news had spread through the grapevine at last.

The following year saw the season begin in earnest. An organised Committee under the leadership of Retired Navy Captain Bob Guthrie ensured that things would run more smoothly. Once again the boats were brought from the Show grounds (again free of Charge), assembled and each night there were more people brought out on these Challengers for a go at sailing. The able bodied persons were worn out with the hauling and pulling of the Challengers up and down the slipway in Kinsale but at least the numbers of disabled sailors was increasing which was the main objective of the group who called themselves the Irish Disabled Sailing Group.

"Come and Try it" weekends were organised and these proved quite successful and encouraged yet more sailors to come along and be a part of great fun. Of course the Club was gaining also out of this and even though we had to haul the wheelchairs around the Lower O'Connell street side of the club for easier access it didn't seem to dampen the spirits of the lads and lassies. Again September came and we had many visitors from both Scotland and England and the craic that emerged even drove the group further. Not only this, but Kinsale Yacht Club were in the throes of refurbishing their clubhouse and there was no way this was going to be completed without the provision of facilities for disabled persons. September 1993 saw a refurbished Clubhouse together with full disabled facilities and the biggest Challenger fleet to date in the Club with 27 Challengers competing for the Irish championships! What pride.

Friends from all walks of life were made during my 18 years involved with the disabled sailing. Friends who are wheelchair bound, bound by their callipers or crutches, bound by the lack of hearing or sight or just helpers,like me...