West Belfast club hits all-Ireland charity target - now sets sights on Big Apple

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St. John Ambulance: set for cash boost in Covid-19 battle.

Q Radio Sport

A West Belfast GAA club has beaten the lockdown to complete a charity challenge and visit every county ground in Ireland - virtually.

O'Donovan Rossa members launched the fundraiser for cash-strapped St. John Ambulance in response to the charity's Covid-19 £100,000 appeal.  

It has been on the frontline assisting the National Health Service and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service during the coronavirus crisis, but with donations from cancelled public events wiped out its funds are running low.

Former county hurler and Rossa official Gerard McNally has told Q Radio the club wanted to support the service in its hour of need - to give something back "as they are always there for us on GAA match days."

Using social distancing rules, the Rossa mission was to run, walk or cycle locally and virtually travel the distance to every county GAA ground in Ireland.  

It all kicked off from Rossa Park at Shaw's Road on Monday and was due to finish back in Belfast at Casement Park on Sunday - but such has been the success, it'll all now end up in the United States!

 



What a family affair it's been with club members young and old stepping up to the mark to make their contribution to the effort - and get in some extra training at the same time.

Naomhin Love is health and well-being lead at the club. She says the GAA community across the country has been amazing:

The massive effort has been warmly welcomed by St. John Ambulance, with the head of the charity here, Adrian Donaldson, sending a special message:



The club's original target has been surpassed on its JustGiving page with St. John Ambulance netting an invaluable £6,725 - at the time of writing - with more to come. 

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rossa32countychallenge

But Rossa won't be stopping at that.

The club has already added London to its 32 county destinations and the running total has topped the 2,000-mile mark.

Next stop? They're going transatlantic.

Here's Gerard McNally again: "We're going for New York - we've come this far, another 3000-odd miles can't hurt!"

And there was a big surprise all the way from America on Saturday night:

 

Some of the other highlights on the road to NYC...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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