Special Olympics changed attitudes but there’s still much more to do

I TRAVELLED a bit of the country over the weekend, accompanying the Special Olympics torch run. It’s an event that has been on the go for a good many years now.

In the days running up to any Special Olympics national event, a group of officers from the Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland get together to carry the Olympic torch around Ireland. Sometimes they raise funds along the way, sometimes (as this year) the emphasis is on public awareness.

Wherever they go, they represent, in their own way, a fantastic example of cooperation, of the ability to put aside differences in the interests of something bigger.