By Jonathan Brown
This autumn in Japan, brothers-in-law Sean McDowell and Aidan Burns are set to represent Ireland as part of the Old Wesley visually impaired (VI) rugby team.
The duo will travel to Tokyo for the Visually Impaired Rugby World Championship at the Komazawa Olympic Stadium from 6-7 November, with Sean taking part as a player and Aidan travelling as a coach.
This Saturday night at 8.30pm, Castlewellan GAC will play host to a ‘Night at the Races’ to help raise funds for the trip.
Sean and Aidan’s involvement with visually impaired rugby stretches back to September 2021, when Sean saw a post on Facebook advertising a pilot programme for the sport and an introductory training session at the grounds of Old Wesley RFC.
Sean suffered a haemorrhagic stroke in June 2020 and underwent emergency brain surgery. When he woke up, he was suffering from sight loss, hearing loss and significant mobility challenges.
A huge rugby fan and a keen Gaelic and soccer player before his stroke, Sean travelled to Dublin with his wife Aine and Aidan to take part in the training session, which was organised by Vision Sports Ireland, the national governing body for sport and leisure activities for blind and visually impaired people in Ireland, in partnership with the IRFU.
Glasdrumman native Sean described taking part in that first training session as the first step in his recovery process.
“I was a bit lost and isolated until I went down to give it a go.
“It was the first thing that gave me a bit of a boost and from that it helped massively in my recovery. When I left that day, I was buzzing, I couldn’t wait to go back to the next training session.”
The road to recovery for Sean after his stroke was a long one, and he says visually impaired rugby had a massive role to play in helping him along the way.
“It’s hard to explain how much VI rugby has done for me and my recovery, it’s the boost I needed to push on with my rehab, and when you have Aidan and Aine and the rest of the family there chipping in to help you, it makes it a lot easier.
“It was a big driving force in me pushing myself and it’s definitely something that I’m thankful for.”
