Offaly Wins Flisk At The Go For Life Games
A team from County Offaly is the winner of the Flisk event at the Go for Life Games, where 300 older people from 17 counties celebrated sport at Dublin City University last Saturday June 7th. Flisk is a game adapted from boccia and horseshoe pitching played at the Games since their establishment in 2012. Olivia Murphy, Offaly Sports Partnership Team Manager, congratulated her team ‘Well done to the Offaly Flisk team. This was the third time playing in competition and only the first time at the Games. I would encourage other people to get out and get involved. It is worth it.’
40,000 people take part in Go for Life activities annually.
Other games played at the event were ‘Lobbers’ (a target game adapted from petanque and boules), and ‘Scidils’ (an adaptation of ten pin bowling with one skittle) with winners from South Dublin and Wexford. Teams taking part in this year’s event represented older people’s groups from 17 Local Sport Partnership areas: Meath, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kilkenny, Tipperary South, Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Offaly, Laois, Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, South Dublin and Fingal. Teams have been supported locally by theirLocal Sports Partnership and the HSE.
Offaly’s Flisk Winning Team: First row L-R: John Shehan, Martin Ward, Gerry Kelly. Second row L-R: Paul McCabe, Go For Life tutor, Mary Harkin, Go For Life Programme Manager, Tom Cooke, Vanessa Brown and Tony McCarthy, member of the Go For Life Steering Committee.
At the event Mary Harkin, Go For Life Programme Manager, said ‘It was a grand sight to see 300 older people in their county colours taking over the sports centre in DCU on Saturday. There was such a great atmosphere that everyone, on and off the courts, was smiling for the whole day. Even though we place more emphasis on celebration rather than competition the friendly ribbing and rivalry was great fun’. ‘According to the recent research by the University of Limerick less than half of those in their 60s do over 2.5 hours of exercise per week, and there is a huge need for events like Go For Life Games which encourage people to get more active’ she added.
Full Offaly Team.
The aim of the Go For Life Games is to involve older people in recreational sport. In 2014 18 teams (2 from Dublin City) took part in comparison to 14 in 2013. The games are run in partnership with Local Sports Partnerships and the HSE. Video from the 2013 Games:https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Go for Life is the national programme for sport and physical activity for older people. Over ten years, we have helped more older people to be more active, more often. We now have 40,000 people taking part in Go for Life activities annually.
Go for Life is an Age & Opportunity initiative supported by the Irish Sports Council.
About Age and Opportunity:
Age & Opportunity is the national organisation that works to inspire and to create opportunities so that Irish people can live healthy and fulfilling lives as they age.
They do this by working with other national and local bodies to provide access to a wide range of activities, events and training opportunities in:
• arts and culture
• sport and physical activity
• education and active citizenship
Age & Opportunity aims to contribute to changes in attitudes and practices in relation to ageing and older people in Ireland such that as people age they can develop their full potential on three levels – the personal, the societal and the civic – to the extent that each individual chooses.
This is informed by international public policy initiatives as well as research showing that participating in society is good for individual health and well-being, and good for communities through the building of social capital.
