Record number of Sanctuary Runners gear up for Sunday's Cork City Marathon

Sanctuary Runners will launch its GB organisation in the UK on June 18

Included on Sanctuary Runners team at this year's Cork City Marathon will be 200 runners from direct provision centres across Cork City and County as well as others visiting from Dublin, Athlone and Limerick.

A record number of Sanctuary Runners are getting in some last-minute training in preparation for this year's Cork City Marathon on Sunday, June 1

More than 1,200 Sanctuary Runners, proudly wearing their distinctive blue t-shirts, will be on the starting line for this year's race. 

More than 1,200 Sanctuary Runners, proudly wearing their distinctive blue t-shirts, will be on the starting line for this year's Cork City Marathon.

The group will include 52 different nationalities in what will be the largest ever Sanctuary Runners team, running a mix of the 10km, half and full marathon.

Sanctuary Runners first took part in the Cork City Marathon in 2018, when 200 ran in the event, and the 'blue wave' of solidarity has continued to grow since then. 

“The level of support for the Sanctuary Runners this year has blown us away,” said Graham Clifford, the journalist and broadcaster who founded the hugely popular solidarity-through-sport organisation. 

Mr Clifford was recently awarded the Lord Mayor’s Trophy for his service to the marathon, integration and the community, following a public vote.

He said:

What we have really noticed this year is a desire by people in Cork to wear the blue and show their solidarity with people who have moved to Ireland from other countries, celebrating diversity, embracing our multicultural city and sending out a clear message to the world that decency, kindness and welcome flow through these streets.

Included on Sanctuary Runners team will be 200 runners from direct provision centres across Cork City and County as well as others visiting from Dublin, Athlone and Limerick.

There will be 30 Ukrainian participants in Sanctuary Runner blue - as well as some 70 transition-year students from Coláiste and Phiarsaigh in Glanmire and Midleton CBS.

Sanctuary Runners, now a registered charity, has welcomed some 35,000 people to events since it first began on Leeside in 2018 and has 42 groups operating across Ireland.

Earlier this month it was named ‘Community Organisation of the Year’ at the Irish Red Cross Humanitarian Awards whose patron is now President Michael D Higgins.

Sanctuary Runners, now a registered charity, has welcomed some 35,000 people to events since it first began on Leeside in 2018 and has 42 groups operating across Ireland.

It also has a group in Brighton and will launch its new Sanctuary Runners GB organisation in the UK on June 18.

It will hold the annual Global Solidarity Run on October 11 to allow people across the world to demonstrate solidarity with all those who are forcibly displaced or living in extreme poverty. Last year participants in 75-countries took part in the initiative and this year organisers hope to grow that number to over 100 countries. The Global Solidarity Run is supported by Irish Aid, the Ireland Funds and the European Commission.