Daniel ready to answer Ireland’s call

A YOUNG sports fanatic is looking forward to leading out the Irish rugby team in their crunch tie with

Daniel Moloney from Youghal, Co Cork, has been counting down the days since hearing the news last Friday that he has been selected as the team mascot for the crunch tie.

The seven-year-old suffers from cystic hygroma, a condition which has left part of his face disfigured by a large cyst. The condition means he has limited speech and breathes with the help of a tracheotomy, a tube from a hole in his neck to his lungs.

But none of that prevents him from playing hurling, rugby and sports like any other boy of his age.

However, he will be the envy of every child in the country when he walks out on the turf on GAA headquarters shortly before Saturday’s 5.30pm kick-off, watched by proud parents Will and Anne, sister Niamh and brother Gary.

“He has met the lads from the Munster team before and they know him well from having their photo taken with him, particularly when they came back to Cork with the Heineken Cup,” said proud dad Will.

He received a call from the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) last Friday, asking if Daniel would be available for the job, a question which the pupil of Gortroe National School did not have to be asked twice.

Ironically, his father had just hung up the phone from the IRFU when somebody from Cork University Hospital where Daniel is an outpatient rang to say he had won a draw for a trip to Euro Disney in Paris next May.

He has already visited GAA HQ for Cork matches and Will has also brought him to games involving his native Waterford.

“We’ve seen Daniel critically ill over the years but he hasn’t been kept in hospital for a number of years. So it’s just impossible to describe what it will be like to see him running out with Brian O’Driscoll and the lads on Saturday,” said Will.