{"id":623339,"date":"2026-09-13T11:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T11:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623339\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T11:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T11:20:14","slug":"heros-welcome-for-waterford-man-after-30000km-cycle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/623339\/","title":{"rendered":"Hero&#8217;s welcome for Waterford man after 30,000km cycle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Waterford man has arrived home following a 30,000km cycle around the world in memory of his late brother.<\/p>\n<p>Mikey Phelan set off in April 2025 for what was initially intended to be a cycle from Dungarvan to Athens with his friend and teaching colleague, Mark Cummins.<\/p>\n<p>However, having reached their destination, Mr Phelan wasn&#8217;t ready to come home.<\/p>\n<p>His brother, Owen, had passed away in November 2024 from a degenerative nervous system condition similar to multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Owen Phelan who suffered from a degenerative nervous system condition\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00250030-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nOwen Phelan suffered from a degenerative nervous system condition<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Cycle for Owen&#8221; campaign has since raised \u20ac30,000 for St John&#8217;s Special School in Dungarvan.<\/p>\n<p>Owen was a beloved past pupil and the funds raised will be used to create a state-of-the-art sensory garden at the school in his honour.<\/p>\n<p>The money will also be used to build a weather station at the school, reflecting Owen&#8217;s life-long passion for weather forecasts.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Mickey Phelan during his Indonesian cyle\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/00250031-614.jpg\"\/><br \/>\nMikey Phelan and supporters during his cycle through Indonesia<\/p>\n<p>The final leg of Mr Phelan&#8217;s round-the-world cycle saw him travel from Cork to Dungarvan yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>The secondary school teacher from Ballinameela was accompanied by a colourful convoy that included school buses and an escort from the Black Sheep Motorbike Club.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Phelan was greeted with a hero&#8217;s welcome from a large gathering of family, members of local GAA clubs, and school supporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Waterford man has arrived home following a 30,000km cycle around the world in memory of his late&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-623339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623339","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=623339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}