‘Face’ of Special Olympics honoured

THE “face” of the Special Olympics national fundraising drive has been named Cork person of the month for April.

Pat Dorgan, 44, from Redemption Road in Blackpool, now goes forward to contest for the overall 2009 Cork person of the year award.

Not only is Pat the public face of the 2009 fundraising campaign for Special Olympics Ireland, he is also part of an awareness campaign designed to increase participation in sport by people with an intellectual disability.

He was one of Ireland’s star performers at the Special Olympics World Summer Games at Shanghai in 2007.

Having won provincial and national gold in table tennis, he went on to beat some of China’s top athletes in their favourite sport at the World Games, taking a bronze medal in mixed doubles and another bronze in the singles competition.

Such was the force of Pat’s personality that he became, for some, the face of those 2007 games, appearing on broadcast and print media at home and abroad.

Pat won a recent Munster Championship on behalf of his club Beech Hill, in Montenotte, where is he trained by Terence McSweeney.

Pat is part of a well-known Cork family of 16, and his brother, poet and author, Theo Dorgan, was a previous Cork person of the month winner.

“I’m very happy to get this award. I’m proud of myself for winning my medals in Shanghai and proud of Special Olympics. Thank you very much,” Pat said.

His older brother, Chris, said: “We are all delighted for Pat to receive this award, not just for his sporting achievements but for the impact he has had by sheer force of his personality.”

The 2009 Cork person of the year will be named at a lunch in the Sheraton Fota Island Hotel on January 22, 2010, with President Mary McAleese as guest of honour.