Athlone priest enlists top sports stars in support of children"s charity initiative

Local Franciscan priest Fr John O"Brien is enlisting the support of Irish Six Nations star Ronan O"Gara, along with several other well-known figures, in a bid to develop services to help impoverished and neglected children. A spiritual mentor to the likes of London Wasps head coach Shaun Edwards and former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, Fr John is seeking support from a number of sports figures, as well as from the general public, in order to establish an Athlone arm of the charity Children First and help fund it nationally. He hopes to help establish services such as providing food, clothing and counselling to impoverished or otherwise neglected children, and to implement locally the Children First "graduate" programme which sees donors sponsoring educational and social services received by children in need. Fr John has recently been in discussions with Children First about establishing fundraising structures for the charity and implementing its services in the Athlone area. The priest is to join the British and Irish Lions camp on its tour of South Africa this summer in a role he described as 'mascot/spiritual director,' and he has been drawing on his contacts in the world of sport in order to establish support for the charity initiative. '(Wasps and England star) Danny Cipriani has said he"s willing to help out, as have (his Wasps teammate) Dave Walder and Ronan O"Gara. (Ex-football manager) Roddy Collins is also on board, and so too are Shaun Edwards, Lawrence Dallaglio and Heather Small of (pop group) M People,' said Fr John. '(Former England player) Andy Ripley has agreed to help us. In addition to his sporting background he has a PhD in economics from Cambridge. He"s said that our first step should be to generate publicity and set up structures to generate income. 'This is a fresh start, so anybody at all who has ideas on how to help is more than welcome to come forward and share them,' he said. Fr John has written a number of books over the years, all of which are currently out of print. One fundraising initiative for Children First will see three of his books ("My One Friend Is Darkness", "Love Rescue Me" and "Cry Me A River") being reprinted and sold with all proceeds going to the charity. 'Some local people also want to print a book of my sermons, and I have written a book of children"s stories which I"m hoping to publish,' he said. 'All of these will either be published privately or else maybe we"ll find a publisher who knows the market and can help us out.' Fr John said he was conscious that groups such as Athlone Community Taskforce provide services to children in the area but that he and others working with Children First would liaise with all local groups to ensure that there was no duplication of services currently being provided. 'The whole idea is to invest in people for the future and children are the future,' he said. Anybody who wishes to contact Fr John in relation to establishing Children First services in Athlone can do so by phoning: 086 2401240. Alternatively, contact Tom Farrell, CEO of Children First, on 086 2534673, or see www.childrenfirst.ie for further details.