North Cork town to honour sporting hero on St Patrick's Day

A North Cork town is set to honour an Olympian hero this St Patrick’s Day.

Fermoy man Stephen O’Leary loves his native town, and all available evidence suggests that the feeling is very much reciprocated.

Last June, hundreds of people turned out to welcome the Special Olympian home from the World Games in Berlin, where he had captained the Irish soccer team to gold medal glory.

The first Ireland soccer team to get to a final in the Special Olympics since 2007, they won six games out of six, scoring 31 goals and only conceding two goals.

Of those goals, team captain Mr O’Leary scored six, also getting four assists.

Part of the Special Olympics for 15 years and playing soccer “since I was that high”, the hugely popular 34-year-old was the guest of honour at the launch of this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in Fermoy.

O’Leary will be the grand marshal at the event.

The launch took place in Lombard’s Bar and Mr O’Leary said he was grateful to everyone in Fermoy for following his journey.

“My dream as a kid was playing for Man United, but [it’s been some honour] to get to represent my country three times, it’s such a great honour to represent your country, and I just can’t wait to receive my third cap in the near future,” he told the gathering.

Mr O’Leary’s sister Rachel said it was “a massive honour” for the O’Leary family, welcoming old friends and “second mammies, third mammies and everyone”.

“We really want to thank the people of Fermoy for treating Stephen like a king since he came back from the World Games,” she said.

The mayor of County Cork Frank O’Flynn, said he was delighted that Cork County Council is funding the Fermoy parade again this year.

“The parade is always one of the highlights of the year in Fermoy and always very well organised, and it’s always a very, very successful parade.”

Fermoy’s St Patrick’s Day committee chairman and former mayor of the town John Murphy said he felt the selection of grand marshal was a great choice, and he believed the parade was in good hands as it headed toward its 40th anniversary next year.

“I would like especially to thank my hard-working fellow committee members, who have made the parade so successful over the years, and there’s a great future for it as well now.

“Stephen will be a great grand marshal and as usual he will do the town of Fermoy proud,” Mr Murphy said.

Speaking to The Echo after the launch, Mr O’Leary said he was still on Cloud Nine since coming home from the World Games last year, and the support of the people of his home town meant more than he could ever say.

“I love Fermoy, I love my town, I love the community, I love everyone here,” he said.