UCC PE students and Mardyke Arena welcome 32-schools for Wheelchair Basketball4All event
Team from Mount Mercy College, Bishopstown at the Wheelchair Basketball4All event for transition year students at Mardyke Arena, UCC on Thursday 13th March 2025. The event is in collaboration with the B.Ed. Physical Education, Sports Studies and Arts programme in University College Cork and Irish Wheelchair Association Sport, UCC Sport and the Mardyke Arena. Pic Larry Cummins
For the third year in a row the Mardyke Arena was a festival of fun and colour as 32 schools were welcomed for the Wheelchair Basketball4All Event for Transition Year students.
The celebration of ability draws people in from across Cork city and county as well as Limerick, Waterford, Galway, and Kilkenny, further cementing its place as a fixture on the college’s calendar.
Everybody gets to take part on the day, from the UCC Physical Education Students running the event to those taking part and experiencing sport through wheelchair basketball.
It’s become so popular that available bookings are gone within a few hours, says Dr Diarmuid Lester.
“We fill this event within 48-hours – we’re able to get 32 schools from Cork, Limerick, Galway Kilkenny, Galway, and Waterford in 48-hours,” he told The Echo.
“This is a blueprint for what should be developed in other universities and other settings elsewhere. It is eventually a positive experience for all, especially the TY students that are here.
“The beauty of this is that it is mixed ability and it is suitable for the students with or without a physical disability.
"Gender doesn’t come into it. It’s all boy schools against all girls schools, mixed schools playing all boys and all girls schools. It is really about coming together for a common purpose.
“The biggest thing that I will say about that is that if this is the TY students first introduction to the Mardyke, or their first introduction to UCC in fourth year, what a lovely introduction it is.
"If they associate UCC and the Mardyke with something like this, a positive experience that is suitable for everybody, that is a win-win.”
Paul Ryan and Irish Wheelchair Association-Sport supply the equipment, and they are just one small stakeholder in a collective that comes together every year for the students.
He is a long-time supporter of the event, going back to an earlier version that predated the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s the third year since COVID – we ran it before COVID as well and it really came back with a bang,” he said.
“We have a full day here now today and we’re going until 3:30 from 9:00 this morning and we could sell this twice or three times over.
"It is just the logistics of all of that. But, it is a brilliant event.”
And those taking part get to experience Irish wheelchair basketball, an intense sport that is played at the highest level by some of the most dedicated athletes on the island.
“It is amazing – it is a bit of a leveller for them,” Ryan explained.
“The kids who are traditionally strong and fast, all of a sudden they are in a wheelchair and their movement is entirely different.
"It is about team-work. But, it is an incredible sport with that team ethos and they are loving it. If they get the odd basket here and there, it is all the better.
“It is sport at its purest. Is it about winning? Sure, of course it is but at the same time it is about being here trying something new and just going for it.”
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