{"id":476965,"date":"2026-06-01T04:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/476965\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T04:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:40:10","slug":"young-runner-who-died-at-cork-city-marathon-remembered-at-this-years-event-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/476965\/","title":{"rendered":"Young runner who died at Cork City Marathon remembered at this year\u2019s event \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people turned out to pay tribute at this year\u2019s Cork City Marathon to Ellen Cassidy<\/a> (24), a runner who collapsed and died at last year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

Cassidy\u2019s parents, Tom and Violet, spoke before the race about participating in this year\u2019s half marathon to remember their daughter, who suffered a fatal cardiac event as she rounded Finn\u2019s Corner on the Grand Parade near the finish line in Cork city centre in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cEllen would have liked to run the marathon or the half marathon every year \u2013 she\u2019s not around to do that but Violet and myself said we want to do that along with her family and a lot of her friends,\u201d Tom told Today with David McCullagh on RT\u00c9<\/a> Radio 1 earlier this week.<\/p>\n

Violet recalled her last phone conversation with their daughter on the morning of the race. They were visiting relatives in Kerry and were unable to cheer her on as a last-minute entrant.<\/p>\n

She said she promised her daughter \u201cwe will be there for you for your next marathon\u201d, adding: \u201cShe is not with us on Sunday but there are over 200 of us who will run it or walk it \u2013 we will be there for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellen Cassidy was an Irish international swimmer and among those who ran the half marathon on Sunday in special yellow T-shirts were friends and fellow swimmers Isabelle Gibbs and Aoife Leahy from Galway, Rebecca Lowe from Westmeath, and Amy Fitzpatrick from Tipperary.<\/p>\n

\"FriendsFriends of Ellen Cassidy: Amy Fitzpatrick, Rebecca Lowe, Isabelle Gibbs and Aoife Leahy after completing the half marathon in Cork city. Photograph: Darragh Kane <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was emotional,\u201d said Gibbs. \u201cThe streets were all yellow with balloons and banners and just seeing her name \u2013 everyone came out and everyone was just so supportive which was great because Ellen was always just the most outgoing and supportive person, telling people to always keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like she was with us every step of the way with everyone cheering us on,\u201d said Lowe. \u201cYou could feel her the whole way through \u2013 it was just so special for her family to come here and run themselves and see the support for them \u2013 it was so inspiring for everyone who knew Ellen.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Athlete who died shortly after finishing Cork marathon \u2018led with open arms\u2019, says fatherOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Also running to remember Ellen, who was from the Old Mallow Road on the outskirts of Cork city, was her friend, Sadhbh Buckley from Whitechurch who went to school with Ellen at St Angela\u2019s in Cork city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very emotional at the start listening to Violet talking but with the balloons and the music going and we had a big bunch around us, we just took off and we knew Ellen was there with us and we just pushed through \u2013 it was just amazing to be able to do it in memory of Ellen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Former lord mayor of Cork Cllr John Sheehan was running his 13th marathon and was struck by how many among the 12,300 runners and 25,000 spectators were aware of what it meant for the Cassidy family. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of emotion because we were remembering Ellen and that hugely added to the occasion \u2013 going through Ballyphehane, the roads were a sea of yellow, it was so emotional and it was just an honour to be taking part in the marathon today,\u201d said Sheehan who finished in 4.29.<\/p>\n

Some 3,000 runners took part in the full marathon with Stephen McAuley, a native of Ballymena, Co Antrim, who is now based in Co Donegal, winning the men\u2019s race in 2.22.42 and Chris Jeuken of Derg AC in 2.24.20 and Wayne Waldron in 2:26.22.<\/p>\n

Melissa Gibson from Australia won the women\u2019s marathon in 2:40.41 ahead of two Cork athletes, Andrea Aza Villamor of Glanmire AC, who finished second in 2:48:05, and April Quinn of Togher AC who took third place in 2:56:01.<\/p>\n

Some 500 sanctuary runners drawn from asylum seekers and other members of the immigrant community also participated in this year\u2019s race including Dave Walsh (86) from Pouladuff Road in Cork. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people turned out to pay tribute at this year\u2019s Cork City Marathon to Ellen Cassidy (24),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[46,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-476965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cork","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=476965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}