Longford gets defibrillators upgraded after Honda 50 & Motorbike Fun Run

Ballymahon Niftys enjoyed their 4th annual Honda 50 & Motorbike Fun Run on Sunday, July 6 and this year’s event was in aid of Ballymahon Defibrillator Group for the upkeep of eleven defibrillators and it generated €3,650.

On average Ballymahon Defibrillator Group could spend anything between €3,000 and €4,000 a year replacing out of date batteries and pads. So the money raised from the bike run will be a huge help to the group to keep their defibrillators maintained.

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Ballymahon Defibrillator Group covers three parishes, the parish of Shrule (five defibrillators are located in Ballymahon - one at the three filling stations, one at Alex Stanley's house near the Redbridge and one at Foigha Bar & Lounge on the Lanesboro Road).

There are three defibrillators in Tang, one at Tang church, Tang GAA pitch and at Murray's Pub, Maghera. There are two defibrillators in Forgney, one at Forgney church and the other at Forgney school and GAA pitch. Darren Mulledy also carries one while he is off duty as he's on the text system for off duty paramedics.

Ballymahon Nifty's front men, Mike Egan and Darren Mulledy were delighted to have Peter Hanley Motors as their main sponsor. “Both Peter and David were a huge support to us, allowing us to use their premises for the bike run,” explained Darren.

Registration began at 10.30am inside the showroom and bikers then enjoyed light refreshments before the run.

Seventy-eight bikes registered and left Peter Hanley Motors in the direction of Ballymahon, doing a 80k round route stopping at Mace Ballinalack for their main fuel/rest stop. The owner of the shop asked one of the bikers if they were on a charity run and she was introduced to Darren who explained what the run was in aid of.

Darren added, “She was very thankful for the business and gave us two €50 vouchers for the shop. We thanked her and told her that the vouchers would be used in the bikers raffle.”

The bikers left Ballinalack in the direction of Edgeworthstown turning out the Ballymahon road. A short stop at Carrickboy shop and filling station before finishing the final leg of the run.

They arrived back at Peter Hanley Motors where the ladies were flat out preparing for the bikers return. Thanks was expressed to Pauric Connolly Cars who sponsored scones and sandwiches and Big Bites, Ballymahon who sponsored lovely hot finger food. The raffles took place afterwards.

Darren said ‘the whole day was a great community event seeing everyone coming together’.

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He remarked, “Special word of thanks to all the ladies who served and donated food, those who took in the registration and sold raffle tickets. Thanks to our lead safety vehicle driven by Noel Egan, our two breakdown vehicles Michael Dalton and JP Compton. Thanks to our marshals who did a super job keeping us safe on the road.Thanks to Damien Quinn who provided a PA system for us. It takes a lot of people for an event like this to work.”