irish priest hijacks the marathon

**the 12 th man** · 30/08/2004, 10:54 AM

in surely the most bizarre incident ever.
the brazilian runner was in the lead about 2.5 miles from the finish when he was rugby tackled by fr horan into the crowd.
he went on to finish 3rd

**max power** · 30/08/2004, 10:55 AM

it was you, wasn't it

**dortie** · 30/08/2004, 10:58 AM

Fair play to him, at least he made it exciting for those mad enough to sit and watch a Marathon.

**max power** · 30/08/2004, 10:59 AM

yeah but thats all well and good for some poor soul who has just ran 26 miles for an olympic gold, only to be stopped by a mad priest

i'll have to keep an eye on the 12th man tonight

**the 12 th man** · 30/08/2004, 11:31 AM

Originally Posted by max power

it was you, wasn't it

while i do admit to dressing in a similar fashion to fr horan,however,the good father being a sports lover, would never do such a thing (except if glen crowe is one- on- one with our goal keeper tonight

)

**De Town** · 30/08/2004, 11:40 AM

I heard it was the same fella who stopped the grand prix at silverstone last year?

**the 12 th man** · 30/08/2004, 12:11 PM

Originally Posted by DE TOWN

I heard it was the same fella who stopped the grand prix at silverstone last year?

twas him ok,that outfit is a killer

**strangeirish** · 30/08/2004, 12:24 PM

What an idiot...you are supposed to tackle around the waist, not the shoulders

**A face** · 30/08/2004, 8:44 PM

Originally Posted by max power

yeah but thats all well and good for some poor soul who has just ran 26 miles for an olympic gold, only to be stopped by a mad priest

The same guy had already been knocked down five miles back by a marshal on a motorbike aswell apparantly, i mean c'mon .... he was never going to get there !!

**tiktok** · 30/08/2004, 8:54 PM

The guy has interrupted Horse races and A Grand Prix in the past.
Why was he left on a plane to Greece while the Olypmics were on? Surely he has to be on some kind of troublemakers list.

I know the man is 'touched', but if he's well enough to travel to Greece and cost a man a Gold Medal, he's well enough to spend a few weeks in a greek jail, I can't believe he got away with a suspended sentence.

**A face** · 30/08/2004, 9:04 PM

Originally Posted by tiktok

I know the man is 'touched', but if he's well enough to travel to Greece and cost a man a Gold Medal, he's well enough to spend a few weeks in a greek jail, I can't believe he got away with a suspended sentence.

Totally agree, the man went there with the intention of causing trouble, and that is a long way to go to cause trouble. It is alright the first few times but he is a menace at this stage.

**jofyisgod** · 31/08/2004, 11:24 AM

The guy got a 12 month suspended sentence and a �3000 fine!
They let him off due to his 'mental state'

They pawned the Brazilian fella off with the 'Olympic Fair Play' award- a bit scant on him alright. His committeewant to appeal to the IOC but what's the point ffs, the race has already been run, they're hardly gonna do it again!

**Colm** · 31/08/2004, 11:40 AM

It's the old stereotypical 'Father Ted' type image of Ireland, a drunken Irish priest disrupts olympic event in order to spread some bizarre religious belief of his. How embarrassing this is.

It's hard to have any sympathy for this guy. He may be mentally disturbed but he flew all the way to Greece to deliberately make a nuisance of himself and then spent the afternoon of the race drinking in a local taverna before going out and possibly costing an athlete the gold medal he trained for years to achieve.
He should have been stopped at Heathrow. Surely he must be on some sort of blacklist after his actions at the Grand Prix yet it didn't set off any alarm bells when he was flying to another major sporting event. A serious lapse in security there I'd say.

**pete** · 31/08/2004, 12:14 PM

The Athens Olympics had the biggest security operation probably ever & a mad former priest just runs onto the road & disrupts the race

AFAIK the US can revoke their citizens passports (di it to that former chess champion they arrested in japan a while ago) & i think we need to add it to irish constitution so could remove citizenship to an idiot like this.

His brother was on the radio & said he been "examined" but they "couldn't find anything wrong with him" but that he also on meds but he also didn't think he was taking them.

Any chance we could say hes english as didn't he spend a lot of time over there?

**Closed Account 2** · 31/08/2004, 12:37 PM

Originally Posted by pete

AFAIK the US can revoke their citizens passports (di it to that former chess champion they arrested in japan a while ago) & i think we need to add it to irish constitution so could remove citizenship to an idiot like this.

Maybe taking his passport away would be a good idea, but to remove his citizenship ?? Where would he then be a citizen of ??

Also dont forget Greece is in the EU, so it would have been very difficult to stop him from going (than say compared with going to the US, Canada, Australia etc). The other thing to bear in mind is the guy could have gone to another EU contry and then gone on to Greece from there without having his passport checked (Schlengen Agreement etc).

**tiktok** · 31/08/2004, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by cfdh_edmundo

....other thing to bear in mind is the guy could have gone to another EU contry and then gone on to Greece from there without having his passport checked (Schlengen Agreement etc).

I'm not sure if you're asking or pointing out that stopping him at source left him with alternatives, but for the record, he flew London to Athens. The authorities should have been alive to his history and stopped him travelling.

**sadloserkid** · 31/08/2004, 12:54 PM

Horan deserves a good kicking to be honest. Jail him or commit him but don't let off because he's a bit simple or touched or whatever buzzword he prefers. He's an idiot, plain and simple and the lad from Brazil must be gutted and rightly so.

With any bit of luck Horan will go back to a grand prix and get hit this time...

**sadloserkid** · 31/08/2004, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by Conor74

All this talk about security, the man is not Carlos the Jackal.

He's just a slightly bonkers priest from Scartaglen who just figured that Brazilian runners are easier to take out than Formula 1 cars...

True but if he pushed John O'Flynn to one side just as the perpetually injured one was about to slot home a league winning gold I'd doubt you'd be as amused.

**pete** · 31/08/2004, 1:46 PM

IMO hes not very good at the PR either. When ran in front of the F1 cars he had banner on his chest but had his back to the camera & seemed to ber something similar with Olympics. He needs to be more aware of the camera position in future & no doubt here will be appear again somewhere...

hes so bad at getting his message across that no one really knws what he protesting about, all i heard something to be with end of world or second coming of somebody...