The Ireland team go through their paces ahead of the European Senior Games in Copenhagen.
The senior citizens of Summerill in Country Meath are training hard, and enjoying themselves in the process. The twenty two women and one man are members of the Irish Senior Games team are looking forward to taking part in the games in four weeks time with over two thousand of their peers from across Europe.
Leader of the Summerhill Active Retirement Group Mary Nally believes that they are changing the way the community perceives older people.
People are flabbergasted, they just can't believe...that their mothers and fathers are taking off, it's great.
When teenager Yvonne Gray heard the news, she thought her grandmother was joking, but
She asked me for a loan of my sleeping bag, and then I knew she was really serious about going.
The European Senior Games schedule, includes walking, movement to music, and country games. These include such traditional past times such as hopscotch and marbles. There is also room for other activities such as the string game 'Snow White’s Bed’ as demonstrated by Therese Nagle.
Keeping active is especially important for older people, and the Senior Games are well suited for this age cohort, the country past times in particular, as
All that bending and stretching is good exercise for aging limbs.
Age really is all in your mind, says May Quinn who does not feel her seventy three years at all. Tony McKay who is not bothered that he is the the only man in the group.
Ah sure what the hell about it.
The team is sponsored by Go For Life, the national programme for sport and physical activity for older people and Cospoir, the sports council at the Department of Education. Frank Fahy TD at the Department of Sport says the days of our senior citizens sitting by the fire are gone.
There's a whole movement...of older people who know the value of exercise and physical activity in their lives.
This report for ‘Nationwide’ was broadcast on 29 May 1996. The reporter is Anne-Marie Smyth.
