Julie Dwyer picked for Echo Women in Sport award for selfless commitment to Special Olympics

Mallow’s Julie Dwyer was 'surprised' to be commemorated for her selfless service to Special Olympics Ireland with The Echo Women in Sport Outstanding Achievement Award.

This is because she views it has a team activity, where everyone has a role in making a welcoming an open environment that caters for all abilities in North Cork and beyond.

Julie says this after years of volunteering with Special Olympics Ireland, and various clubs around the area like Mallow Marlins, Mallow United and Copstown Special Olympics Clubs.

She was even celebrated in recent weeks in the form of a Distinguished Service Award at the Special Olympics Ireland Volunteer Awards 2025 in Dublin.

Julie places everything within the context of a team, something which she went into detail with when speaking to The Echo.

“I’m very surprised really – I didn’t know anything about it so they had to convince me to even come because I meant to be doing other things,” she said.

“But, look, it is lovely and it does recognise the work that goes into Special Olympics. Like any of these organisations, it involves a massive team. That group that are with me are the volunteers and parents. 

They are the heart of the North Cork scene. We’re very lucky in North Cork. We have a lot of sports available to local athletes.

“My daughter does eight sports and all within 15 minutes from home which is quite remarkable."

GROWING

All of this is part of a growing movement that aims to provide for everyone across North Cork and the rest of Ireland. Julie sees this growing every single year, meaning more opportunities for the athletes to make friends and experience new sports.

With this comes a way to international competitions for some locals, as they get a chance to compete at major events like the Special Olympics.

“Well, you know, it keeps on growing and I know that from, even as recent as today, I had two people ring up and say can you tell me what sports are on around Mallow because my 16-year-old son is just lost and I'd love to have somewhere to take him.

“So they're coming now to golf on Saturday and then they'll be coming to basketball on Thursday.

“So I think those are the things that are really important because there's a lot of people quite isolated and the thing that Special Olympics does particularly well is brings them all together as friends. And they are friends and Mallow is quite unique because we have so many sports.

"So many of us compete in so many of those sports together, but they're all great friends.

"And so they socialise together and they work together and they play sport together. And the opportunity to compete now, that's quite a haul. And in that group of 28, there's four that have competed at World Games in recent years.

“So, you know, there's been amazing achievements, but it all comes from that bonding together and the support of the families and the coaches. So it's great.

“We're a community club, so we don't have a bus or service workers to sort of take people. It's all the parents or the coaches that are supporting all of the athletes. We’re very excited and hopefully now we can get somebody to go to the World Games in Chile.”