Gallery: ‘Run with Ray’ draws the crowds in Buncrana

There was great excitement on Monday at Buncrana shorefront as a big RTE bus arrived and was stationed at the playpark car park for the day. 

By 2.30pm, Ray D’Arcy had arrived and was broadcasting his radio show from Buncrana in preparation for his Run with Ray event which is being held in different locations throughout the country every day this week, starting off in sunny Buncrana! Please click on the arrows to go through the gallery

Some 175 people participated in the run, wearing the blue ‘Run with Ray’ t-shirts. Ray also helped launch Sanctuary Runners Buncrana, and interviewed Olena from Ukraine, Bunmi from Nigeria who is a member of Sanctuary Runners Letterkenny, and Liz Kearney Le Masurier of Buncrana Parkrun.

“We’re setting up Sanctuary Runners in Inishowen to support people seeking International Protection, asylum seekers and refugees,” Liz said.

“It’s about solidarity, respect and friendship. The way it works is that these Sanctuary Runners groups often meet at parkrun weekly, and also joins other running events like 10k and half marathons or marathons throughout the year. 

“However, it’s open to everyone and you are welcome to walk, to volunteer or just to join us for a chat and a coffee – it’s really all about the coffee afterwards - as Paul Sinton-Hewitt, the founder of Parkrun said. It’s about mental health, friendship, fun as well as a way to get fit and healthy.

“We are delighted to provide a way to get to welcome and to get to know newcomers to our community, and to help reassure them that they have arrived in a welcoming community that empathises with them and who they have so much in common with.

“I was walking past the new 'Sailor’s Rest' Emergency Accommodation in Buncrana for the last several weeks and I wanted to reach out to them, support them, and get to know them, and when my friend Caroline Kuyper suggested setting up a Sanctuary Runners in Buncrana it seemed like the ideal way to welcome them, to facilitate people in the area to support them and offer friendship to them, as it has done in so many other communities throughout Ireland so I’m thrilled and honoured to be able to be involved in helping out. 

“So many positive things can come out of this. It will create a positive synergy in the community the way Buncrana Parkrun has, creating friendships and networks that will be vital in helping people to find their feet in the community as quickly as possible. 

“We want to reach out to our new community members and help them to integrate into our communities. This is a model that is already in place in 30 locations throughout Ireland. 

“I’ve spoken to Kelly Bonner who set up Sanctuary Runners in Letterkenny about two years ago and it’s been a great support to people and to help them to integrate into the community. It sounds like it’s been fantastic. It’s been key to helping people settle in and to form networks and friendships.  Ailis McSweeney and Dermot McDermott have been a great support in getting it set up. It’s going to be a great success in Inishowen too I’m sure, and I’m really excited about it.”

Parkrun in Buncrana is a very friendly community and will warmly welcome these newcomers to the area and I am looking forward to the gang welcoming our new friends to the community. 

“We also have Seamus McDaid on our core group who is a member of Inishowen Athletics and will be able to put us in contact with all the other events in the athletics calendar that are going on,” Liz added. “Parkrun is a great means to break down barriers and bring people together. 

“Everyone has the same hopes and dreams and worries and concerns, including those people new to our community fleeing war and persecution in other countries. Irish people, and Donegal people, are decent, generous and empathic people who understand what it’s like to be a migrant, and how grateful you are to have people reaching out to you when you live abroad. 

“We’ve experienced the fears and loneliness ourselves of living as exiles in another country and we have a huge capacity for empathy, knowing the history of our own people being forced to emigrate - understanding the terrible plight those in other countries face. 

“Irish people are known for their friendliness and warmth. We are famous for our generosity and Sanctuary Runners groups have been really well accepted and supported since they were set up in Ireland in 2018, including in Letterkenny, and we greatly look forward to being part of it in Inishowen.”