Craftsman John honours our sporting heroes in his Clonmel garden overlooking Blueway

Just like everybody else living in the country, admiration, pride and great joy would have been the emotions that sports enthusiast John Shanahan would have experienced as he watched Ireland’s Olympians compete in Japan.
Those emotions were to be expected given the amazing feats of Ireland’s representatives on the world stage but John had other things on his mind as he sat and watched the events from Tokyo unfold on television.
His train of thought would have also taken him in a completely different direction to everyone else as he contemplated his next move following the Olympic exploits of the Irish.
From his kitchen window at the family home on the Waterford Road overlooking the River Suir and the Blueway John was eyeing up the trees on the river bank.
He was looking for the right tree as thoughts of how he would honour gold medallist Kellie Harrington began to take shape.
He needed to identify the perfect piece of wood to create the next addition to his growing collection of artistic wood carvings of sporting heroes that adorn his back garden wall on full view to all who walk or cycle on the Blueway just outside the town.
His collection of iconic sporting figures is becoming quite the attraction on the Blueway as curious visitors stop to explore John’s display.
The collection captures some of the most glorious moments in Irish sport and is a hugely popular stopping point for young children and adults alike as they stop to look at the figures of Tipperary woman Rachael Blackmore riding home Minella Times in the Grand National, boxer Katie Taylor, cyclist Sam Bennett, athlete Sonia O’Sullivan and now gold Olympic medallist boxer Kelly Harrington.
Creating the figures is a labour of love for John, a retired carpenter, as it is a hobby that combines his love of sport, working with wood and the river.
“I love meeting people when they stop to have a look, the kids get off their bikes and have a good look around and they ask loads of questions. Since the pandemic started the amount of people using the Blueway has grown so much and we have made so many new friends who stop to chat and have a look at the collection,” said John,who is married to Peggy and they have four children Catherine, Olivia, Paul and John.
John’s love of sport would have come from his father Tommy who played football for the Tipperary Stars back in the twenties. John himself played hurling with Marlfield winning a number of South championships and Eire Og, a combination of St Luke’s and St Mary’s that won the Mayors Fund Tournament in 1961.
John also enjoyed county championship success with with Commercials.
His sons John and Paul and daughter Olivia and grandchildren Hazel and Megan, would all be involved with sporting clubs in the town including Moyle Rovers, Clonmel Town and Clonmel Celtic and his wife Peggy is a member of the Hewitt family who would also have contributed significantly to the rich sporting tradition in the town.
John has great memories of playing hurling with Marlfield and was honoured to play with his all time favourite Tipperary hurler Theo English.
“He was one of the very best as far as I am concerned. He was like a steam train,” said John.
“I was one of the young lads on the Marlfield team and I remember Theo telling us not to be going to the Collins Hall and no drinking, but he was wasting his time there,” said John.
John had the pleasure of playing football with Christy Moore with Commercials when Christy worked as a bank clerk in Clonmel.
“Christy was great craic, he was always singing long before he became famous. We would have played football a lot out in Cahir around those years and we would tog out in a shed at the back of Butlers pub and we would go into the pub after the game and Christy would sing away, we would be there till all hours,” said John.
Anybody passing by the Blueway will pick out a Christy among the collection. Even though the figure has a red top on it, it is not Christy Ring but John’s friend Christy Moore, the only musician to make the cut for the collection.
Another person who features in the collection who he would have personally known is his cousin Sonia O’Sullivan.
“We had great times watching Sonia race on the television and going down to Cobh to meet her,” said John.
John’s mother Catherine Casey was a sister of Sonia’s mother Mary and they were from Ballyporeen.
John and Peggy were married in 1974 and settled at at Laganore on the Waterford road after buying the site from Ferryhouse .
“ We gave our honeymoon down in Cobh and Sonia was in a pram at the time,” said John, a carpenter for sixty years.
“I am working with wood all my life. The next on the list is Theo and I am looking out for the right tree to do the two Olympic rowers. You would need a certain shape fork in a tree to do the lads sitting in a boat, that one is going to be hard to find,” said John.