County Monaghan can lay claim, in part, to the bronze medal won by Ire;land's rowers in the Paris Olympics today. Daire Lynch and Phillip Doyle claimed bronze in the double sculls for Team Ireland earlier this morning.
Daire is the son of Joanna Ward-Lynch whose family still runs Ward's Pharmacy on Market Street, Monaghan Town. Daire's grandfather Noel and his wife, Rosaleen, owned the pharmacy before his uncle, Greg Ward, took the family business over. While staff at Ward's gathered around a big screen at 10:30 brought into the shop to watch Daire and Dr Phillip Doyle from Banbridge battle it out for third place, Greg was in Paris with other family members watching the action in scorching Parisian heat.
It's not the first time the Wards of Monaghan Town have known rowing success as Chris McAree from the pharmacy explains: "Daire has a Monaghan connection in that his mum, Joanne Lynch, is Gregory's sister. His grandfather, Noel Ward, who along with his wife, Rosaleen Ward, founded this pharmacy is actually a member of the All-Ireland B Title rowing champions," Chris told Northern Sound from Ward's shop, "It's nothing short of a miracle that they won because they only actually formed a team 15 months ago. They've done absolutely fantastically since; we're all hugely proud of them. All business stopped while the race was going on and we brought a few customers in to watch it on a big screen here."
