Tipperary man raises almost €9,000 for Vision Ireland as part of ongoing effort

Tipperary man Brendan Shields has been working tirelessly over the last 16 years raising money for Vision Ireland by cycling the Trip to Tipp each year.

This year, Brendan’s efforts saw him raise €8,700 for the charity.

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Brendan’s has been raising money for the charity for almost 30 years, taking part in his first cycle back in 1997, which took him from Thurles to Dundrum, through Cashel, before arriving back in Thurles.

He cited his mother as being of huge support for him in his early years of fundraising, getting him involved in it through his love for cycling in his younger years.

Brendan has raised roughly €40,000 for Vision Ireland throughout the years, however his efforts with the charity had humble beginnings.

“I went from door to door with sponsorship cards, and I used to raise about £300. I used to do it every summer, I used to do it for a few weeks,” he said.

“Then, sadly, I lost my mother back in 2014. She got bad news and she passed away three weeks later, god rest her. My brother Dermot, with special needs, he sadly went blind that Christmas day before she died, by too much hitting his eyes, he’s autistic and Down Syndrome, so he’s visually impaired. So because of Mam dying, and because of Dermot losing his sight, I wanted to do something special. So I increased it up to over €500, and then the following year, 2015, I raised €1,568 if I remember correctly, and that was all by going door to door with sponsorship cards fundraising for the blind.”

Brendan’s raised funds continued to climb to a peak in 2019, which saw him raised €12,250, coming off the back of raising €10,000 and €11,000 in 2017 and 2018 respectively, having devoted his entire summer to the cause, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought his massive efforts to an untimely halt.

Following the passing of his father in 2022, Brendan took some time away from fundraising, stating that his father was a huge support to him and his cause over the years.

He decided to get back in the saddle in 2024 to honour the memory of his late mother and father, having spoken to a man who reminded him of all of the money he raised down throughout the years.

In his first attempt back, he raised roughly €9,000, before coming back again this year and raising €8,700.

Brendan says he is grateful of the fact that he gets to help those in need through his work, stating that he believes that because he is capable of making such an effort, that he should be making such an effort.

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“I do often have worries of my own, which we all do, and then suddenly, when I look around, and I see someone going around with a cane or a guide dog and I’ll think ‘whatever my worries are, they’ll pass. Those poor craters, they’re depending on a cane or a guide dog,’ and I often say to people that ‘please God I’ll never need Vision Ireland.’

“My father used to say to me all the time that there’s somebody worse-off all the time, so it feels good that I’m helping someone, and it also feels good that the support is out there, that the money I’m raising is going to a very good cause.”

Brendan’s next cycle will take place next March, and he is hoping to put everything behind it and raise as much money as possible for the charity.

He wished to extend his appreciation to all of those who sponsored him throughout the years, all of his colleagues in Dunnes Stores, those who accompanied him on the windy and rainy days going door-to-door raising funds, to Billy Shanahan, his wife Bridget and their daughter Catherine, and to his mother and father, saying that none of this would have happened without their unwavering support.