“This is just a wee message for those waiting on their transfer test results. No matter what the result shows, you are going to be okay and you have done fantastic. No matter what next little step you’re going to take, if it’s what you wanted – wonderful. If it’s not, that’s fine.
“I had a really wonderful summer and a really tough summer. I won a European Championships gold medal, and I had to withdraw from the Olympic Games and didn’t get to race and I was absolutely heartbroken. I’ll let you into another little secret.
“Whenever I wanted to go to university, I wanted to go into veterinary to be a vet and I didn’t get in. I didn’t get the grades. And do you know what, my second choice was physiotherapy and I absolutely loved it.
“Sometimes things that you think are the worst things in life happen for a reason and they turn out to be the best. So, no matter what the result is, pick yourself up and smile because you are fantastic and amazing no matter the result.” - Portaferry’s Ciara Mageean
WITH the God-awful SEAG transfer test results upon parents and 11-year-old children tomorrow morning, the above message was too good not to be shared beyond our own football WhatsApp group.
The great Ciara Mageean was invited by Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council to give a talk at a Women’s Workshop For Winter Running and Walking at the Theatre at the Mill, in association with the ‘End Violence Against Women and Girls’ campaign.
I was invited to the evening by my good friend and the Council’s Sport and Physical Activity Manager Kevin Madden.
Kevin, you’ll remember, enjoyed a brilliant Gaelic football career with Antrim and Portglenone. During that time and to this day he’s always been a great help.
So, when it came to a choice between a night at home watching Champions League football and listening to Ciara Mageean among some terrific other guests - including high performance nutritionist Sharon Madigan - it was an easy decision.
Some information nights, while well intended, can be dull affairs - but Wednesday night’s packed event in the Linen Rooms on the second floor of the theatre was informative, enlightening and nothing short of inspiring.
There was an invaluable contribution on stage too from the PSNI, stalls at one side of the room that had loads of important literature and giveaways such as flashing safety bands and pocket alarms.
When Ciara was approached about supporting the event she didn’t hesitate.
She even went to the bother of putting on a slide show, taking her mostly female audience on a journey from her childhood to playing for the Portaferry camogs to discovering athletics, going to university in Dublin and charting the highs and lows of a remarkable running career.
When she eventually hangs up her spikes, the 32-year-old Portaferry native should consider entering the sphere of public speaking. She was brilliant.
After all the photographs and chats and handshakes had concluded, Ciara sat down in a side room for an interview with The Irish News.
When the interview had finished, I asked if she’d mind doing a little video message to our young footballers many of whom are anxiously awaiting their transfer test results on Saturday.
The above quote was what she said. One take. Word perfect. A fantastic, life-lesson message.
It was duly posted in the parents’ group but it was the kind of heartfelt message that deserved a bigger audience.
Now, the cynic might say, you got Ciara on a good day. The cynic would be wrong of course. But we’ll run with the cynic for a minute.
She’d just announced her engagement to long-term partner Thomas Moran a couple of weeks ago and she stepped onto a treadmill for the first time in four months since having surgery on her Achilles that prevented her from running at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.
But here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter which day you meet the European gold medalist, she’ll be amenable that day too.
Ciara Mageean is a proper hero and represents all that is good about Irish sport.
People want her to do well because she’s an authentic, heart-on-the-sleeve type of person who speaks so well about the passion for her sport, her roots and being born on this beautiful island.
Throw in a bit of that unmistakable Portaferry and what’s not to love?
It’s weird how we all know Ciara will endure in our collective consciousness long after she retires from her sport in a way that others won’t.
She’s a throwback to a different, more innocent time when the magic of terrestrial TV somehow preserved memories of sporting excellence better than the 100 satellite channels manages to do today.
We’ll never forget Barry McGuigan, Sonia O’Sullivan, Eamonn Coughlan, Packie Bonner and Dennis Taylor in their pomp, how they made us feel sitting in our living rooms, whereas we struggle to remember local heroes of last year.
We felt their pain on terrestrial TV and shared in their triumphs just in the same way we avidly follow and run every stride with the down-to-earth Mageean, boxed in going down the home straight in Rome and how her camogie smarts got her out of a tight squeeze as she pushed for gold.
We jumped off our sofas and punched the air, an adrenaline rush we’ll never forget. And how our sorrow lingered for her at not being able to race in Paris last summer.
In this media-trained, Instagram-created world, it seems we don’t live the moment with our sports stars in the way we once did.
Ciara Mageean is different.
No matter what times or PBs she runs for the remainder of her career, we’ll remember her for who she was and how she made us feel.
For now, though, a comeback beckons. We’re already on the treadmill with her.