IT was an action-packed weekend for Fermanagh man Ian Birney, from organising the Spooktacular which took place on Friday night to running the Dublin Marathon on Sunday alongside Hollywood star Colin Farrell.
Ian has been organising the Spooktacular all year and was delighted to see the turnout on Friday night.
“The 100 kids running the mini spook was amazing and just under 1600 runners taking part in the main event, it was brilliant,” he said. “We were delighted it sold out five weeks ago and people were still looking to enter right up to the day of the event. We were delighted with the turnout and with the people dressed up.”
On Sunday Ian put on his trainers as he prepared to take on the Dublin Marathon as a pacer for Hollywood actor Colin Farrell.
“My brother Trevor Birney is a film producer and he is making a documentary on Colin Farell and then I was asked to go along and run alongside and pace him, I brought Paul Carron and Mary Keenan as well so we were brought there with Colin Farrell to pace him through Dublin Marathon,” said Ian.
The big screen star ran the last four kilometres of the run with close friend Emma Fogarty, who lives with epidermolysis bullosa, an incurable genetic condition that affects the skin. Each of the final four kilometres of the race represented a decade of Miss Fogarty’s life. Now aged 40, doctors originally told her parents she’d be unlikely to live longer than a week.
“The plan was to push her the last four kilometres of the Dublin Marathon and that’s what we did. He [Colin] got Emma a specially designed wheelchair and we ran the last four kilometres with her,” said Ian.
Farrell finished the 42km (26-mile) run in four hours, six minutes and 45 seconds and has raised over €694,000 (£578,000).
“It was a great privilege for Enniskillen Running Club to be a part of that event and to be able to do it alongside Colin Farrell and Emma,” Ian said.
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