THE LEINSTER rugby team’s comeback in Cardiff on Saturday should be an inspiration to the country, according to Tyrone football manager Mickey Harte.
It showed there was no such thing as a lost cause and that by people working together they could get out of a bad place.
Harte made his comments after giving a motivational talk to members of the Irish team who will take part in the 18th World Transplant Games in Sweden next month.
The youngest member of the team is Oisín O’Gorman (9), from Lismore, Co Waterford, who required a kidney transplant in 2009 after falling off his bike.
The handlebars struck his side leaving him with a lacerated kidney which had to be immediately removed. It was then discovered he had been born with only one kidney. He had dialysis for a number of months before his dad Kieran donated his kidney.
“No one person would have taken Leinster out of that problem yesterday but the team took them out,” said Harte.
“So no one person on their own will take us out of the general malaise that we’re in at the minute but collectively if everybody puts their mind to it they can contribute positively to the beginnings of that journey,” he said.
“It was a great template if you like for the whole country to say yes, we’re in a bad place, but you know we can get out of this together,” he added.
Harte said it was a privilege to speak to the 34 athletes on the team. He would be more motivated by them than the other way round, he said, as they were people who had faced adversity and had come back with a positive response.
There was no point worrying about trivialities when one thought of what those awaiting transplants had to endure, he said, before urging people to carry organ donor cards.