Outsider Man Of The Year 2023

Adventurous, aspirational and downright amazing. There have been so many incredible achievements by men in the Irish outdoor community this year. We put a call out to you, our readers to send us your nominations for the Outsider Man Of The Year Award and you certainly did not disappoint!

If you’re a nominee, consider yourself cordially invited to our annual awards ceremony on the evening of Wednesday 21 February 2024 in the Sugar Club, Dublin. We are thrilled skinny to announce that our fab sponsors are on board to help us celebrate all that is great and good about the Irish adventure scene, so it’s guaranteed to be a good party.

Our hugely generous title sponsor for the Outsider Awards 2023 is Sport Ireland Outdoors, our other supporting sponsors are Craghoppers, Leave No Trace, Salewa, Vagabond Tours, Sustainable Travel Ireland and Nuasan.

For everyone else, a limited number of tickets are on sale through the link below. Subscribe to our email newsletter on our homepage to hear more about the Outsider Awards 2023.

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We were bowled over by both the quality and quantity of the stories you sent us. So sit down, get your notebook out and read about these epic outdoor events who are now officially on the long list of nominees for the #OutsiderAwards.

Ian O’Brien, climber

Inspirational Ian O’Brien (43) responded to his Parkinson’s diagnosis with an astounding feat of physical strength, endurance, and tenacity – he scaled 28 of Europe’s highest peaks in 28 days, raising over €90k for charity.

When Waterford-resident Ian went to see his friend Brian Roche – who works as a physical therapist – shortly after being told he had Early Onset Parkinson’s disease (EOTD), Brian’s reaction was not what he expected. “We’re going to climb Carrauntoohil together next week,” his friend told him.

Ian had always enjoyed the outdoors and kept himself fit but in the years leading up to his diagnosis he’d lost a lot of weight, experienced regular bouts of fatigue and suffered from anxiety and depression. “Climbing Ireland’s highest mountain was certainly not on my bucket list,” he says, but he went along with Brian and, to his surprise, he enjoyed the experience a lot.

It also awakened a desire in him to fight back against his condition. “I thought: ‘If I can get on top of Ireland’s highest mountain, I can get on top of my diagnosis and change people’s perception that it’s an old person’s disease’,” he says.

Ian decided to scale the highest peak in all 27 EU countries and the UK in 28 days, starting in France with Mont Blanc and finishing at Carrauntoohil in Kerry to highlight the importance of exercise for those affected with the disease. While doing so he would raise money for a charity, EOPD Ireland, which he’d co-founded to support people diagnosed with the condition; his current total is over €90k.

What has the experience taught him? “Don’t wait until something negative happens in your life before you decide to start living more. Do something big, go on an adventure, or tell someone about the crazy idea you have. And don’t forget to involve family and friends. People love to help, and they will want you to succeed even more than you do.”

Iain Ward, runner and cyclist

Indomitable Iain Ward (34) continued his quest to “stick two fingers up to cancer” this year by cycling across America, while raising huge sums for charity.

When Iain, AKA The King of Chemo, from Dublin, was told he had terminal brain cancer in 2020, he wasn’t interested in having a “pity party”, as he called it when speaking to CNN in April. “Instead, I saw an opportunity and felt duty-bound to go for it,” he says.

The passionate runner and weightlifter decided to try and make as much money for charity as he could through a series of gruelling but headline-grabbing endurance feats, including running the fastest marathon time dressed as a video game character, raising the most money for a marathon by a single individual, cycling 3,400 miles from New York to LA and running or cycling 52km in every county in Ireland.

In 2024, he plans to run seven marathons in seven days in each of the seven continents of the world.

Aside from the scale and the sheer number of his endeavours, what makes Iain’s approach to fundraising unique is that he doesn’t ask people to donate directly. Instead he encourages them to watch, like and share his posts on TikTok and Instagram, so that he can then pull in advertising money which he then gives to charity.

Throughout it all, you get the sense that Iain really enjoys taking on these challenges and pushing himself to the limit. “Every time you’re thinking: ‘This is stupid, why am I doing this unpleasant sh**?’, you need to think of how much you’d miss it if you couldn’t do it,” he says. “You don’t HAVE to do things, you GET to do them.”

Sean Tobin, runner

Adventurous runner and seasoned athlete, Sean Tobin (29), is known for his prowess on both track and road. He recently embraced a unique challenge—the Antarctic Marathon. Having battled a persistent hamstring issue over the past two years, Sean, who is from Tipperary, saw this frigid endeavour as a chance to ease back into competitive running under the guidance of Richard Donovan, the race director. Despite the apparent departure from high-stakes races, the Antarctic Marathon proved to be a more formidable challenge than anticipated.

In terms of preparation, Sean opted for a more holistic approach to rebuild his fitness post-injury. Cautious not to aggravate his hamstring, he refrained from intense, race-specific training. Uniquely, preparing for an Antarctic Marathon involves unpredictable conditions, making it impossible to plan for every scenario. Sean leaned on Donovan’s advice for the race, especially regarding heat management. Striking a delicate balance between avoiding sweating, which could lead to freezing, and preventing over-exposure, he layered up with four lightweight layers, arm sleeves, half tights, and running pants—a combination that proved to be nearly perfect in the extreme conditions.

Navigating the Antarctic’s challenging terrain led Sean through emotional turbulence, triggering memories and reflections on lost loved ones, such as his brother in 2019 and his mother’s battle with Parkinson’s. Yet, fuelled by these emotions, Sean found the strength to persevere, crossing the finish line with a rush of overwhelming emotions in a record time of 2:53.33.

Looking ahead, Sean says he would be keen on tackling similar adventurous races in the future. The North Pole Marathon, which is rumoured to be even more arduous, is firmly on Sean’s radar for the future.

Paul Tierney, adventure racer

Paul Tierney, a 44-year-old endurance athlete and father from Ballina, County Tipperary, undertook an extraordinary summer challenge. Paul cycled between and climbed the 23 highest peaks in Ireland, and he accomplished this feat entirely self-supported. Without the aid of a support vehicle, he carried all necessary supplies on his bike, including a tent, all his clothes and his food. He covered an astonishing 1,200km on his bike and 180km of running on the tallest peaks in Ireland.

Battling severe weather conditions, including the challenges posed by Storm Francis, Paul successfully reached his finish line in Blue Ball, where he had started, on 18 August, completing the entire journey in just 11 days.

Paul was deeply affected by the tragic murder of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old woman from Tullamore. Ashling was the niece of a very close friend of Paul’s. Motivated by a desire to bring the smallest amount of happiness to Ashling’s family, Paul embarked on this challenging endeavour. Throughout the journey, he raised a staggering €28,000 for the Ashling Murphy Memorial Fund.

Damien Wildes, swimmer

Damien Wildes (35) achieved an astonishing feat of swimming endurance this year when he swam 1km in every Irish county over the course of a weekend.

Damien – from Glasnamullen in County Wicklow – was looking for a swim-related mission for 2023. He’d seen other people take on running 32 marathons in 32 days and wondered what the swimming equivalent would be.

“I spent a lot of time looking at maps and nautical charts identifying possible routes to swim or paddle and quickly realised, with reasonably sized water bodies in every county of the country, it could be possible to swim in each one,” he says. “However, it only really became a challenge when we put a time frame against it. As far as I know, no one had done it before.”

Damien thrived on swimming in so many scenic and iconic locations around the country. “Lough Derg was a real high point, a stunning evening in super glassy, clear waters and the coastal swims in Cork, Waterford and Wexford were amazing,” he says. “Being an island nation, we are super lucky to be surrounded by water, and there are endless opportunities for people to explore.”

And while it was tough at times, he believes it’s far easier to suffer through something you’re passionate about than to take on something you have no interest in. “You don’t necessarily need to cross a finish line or get a medal to feel like you have achieved something, so think outside the box and identify goals you are passionate about,” he says.

Dave Berry, swimmer

Dave Berry, a 49-year-old Dubliner and father of two, embraces challenges with unwavering determination. Despite only taking up marathon swimming two years ago, Dave has become the only man to conquer three prestigious swimming triple crowns. These include the Irish Triple Crown (19.1km Fastnet Swim, 21km Galway Bay Swim two way, and 34.5km North Channel Swim), the Original Triple Crown (32.3km English Channel, 34.5km North Channel, and 29.4km Bristol Channel in the UK), and the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming (32.5km English Channel, 32.3km Catalina Channel, and 48km Manhattan Island Marathon Swim). Dave has completed a whopping 20 marathon swims in 20 months.

Remarkably, this athletic journey only began when Dave turned 40 and decided to prioritise fitness to ward off the “dad’s belly”. COVID-induced restrictions led him from basic gym routines and the odd pool session to open-water sea swimming, and in 2021, he set a goal to swim a million metres in Irish open waters, equivalent to 19km per week.

Dave says his career in marathon swimming happened purely by chance. Somebody told him it would take years to complete a Triple Crown – he completed seven marathon swims that year.

Despite facing challenges, such as being pulled from the North Channel 4km short of the 38km mark, Dave’s unwillingness to give up led him to return and finish the swim later that summer. “Somebody told me that failure only occurs when one walks away or refuses to try again,” says Dave.

“After 12 hours and 30 minutes, I swam into Portpatrick Harbour in Scotland. At the end of the swim, I felt I had loads left in the tank. I wasn’t cold and felt good. To me, that is the sign of a stress- free swim, but it was a rough night of twitches with the jellyfish stings.”

Patrick Curley, mountain runner

Patrick Curley (40) pulled off a serious feat this year when he broke the County High Points record, running up all 26 peaks in the country, in a time that was seven hours faster than the existing record, which had stood since 2017.

Patrick – from Gorey in County Wexford – has a huge passion for running in general, but there’s something about running in the mountains, he says, that takes it to a whole new level.

In 2022, he’d been looking on the FKT (Fastest Known Time) website, when he came across the 4 peaks record, which is the fastest time possible to climb the 4 highest peaks in the 4 provinces. He broke the existing record and decided he’d like to give the 26 peaks record a go.

Patrick lives at the base of Croghan mountain, which is 606m, with 10k of running, and for his training he set himself the challenge of running it consecutively for 50 days straight, while also scouting some of the other 26 peaks. “Some mornings at 12am I would run my normal route on Croghan, then drive to recce, for example, the peaks of Tipperary, Clare, Galway, Sligo Leitrim, Roscommon…” he says. “But I also needed to be back home before midnight to run Croghan again.”

Such dedication to training paid off, despite his legs almost giving way on Carrauntoohil, only his fourth mountain in the series, and usually one of his favourites to climb. But he kept his belief, trusted his process, and pushed on. “Once you have belief in yourself then absolutely anything is possible,” he says.

Joe Barr, Ultra Cycling

At 64 years of age, ultra-cyclist Joe Barr from Co Donegal, is showing no sign of slowing down. He has just been crowned Ultra-Cycling World Cup Champion 2023, despite shattering his pelvis in eight places just 10 weeks before his final event.

“I chose not to believe that this was a season- or career-ending injury,” explains Barr. ”I crashed in the US and was bombarded with the need for surgery but I knew intuitively that this may not be the case. I trusted myself. I was lucky in that, while my pelvis was broken in eight places, it was not displaced. Surgery wouldn’t have aligned it any better so time was to be my healer. I started to plan my final race of the season as soon as I could sit on a saddle.”

Becoming the Ultra Cycling World Champion is no easy feat. It is a season-long competition where ultra-cyclists compete over four events, two of which are timed and two of which are distance. The two timed events are 12 and 24 hours and the aim is to cycle as far as you possibly can during those timeframes.

Barr took up endurance cycling at the age of 49 when his six-month old baby, Ross, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma. Thankfully Ross beat the odds and Joe has been cycling ever since to raise money for children’s cancer.

Over the course of his 15-year career, Barr has won the Race Around Ireland twice, become the 500-mile World Champion, completed the Race Across America twice, published an autobiography, become a Guinness World Record holder for cycling the entire Wild Atlantic Way without stopping and is, of course, a current Ultra Cycling World Cup champion.

Barr shows no signs of collecting his bus pass anytime soon, “One last milestone for me is to become the first 60+ cyclist to go through 500-miles in 24 hours. 2024 seems like a good year to do that,” says Barr.

Liam Cox, runner

In 2023, Liam Cox (29) achieved the mighty impressive feat of running the length of Ireland’s coastline, raising heaps of money for a suicide prevention charity in the process. That’s more than 2,500 kms in total!

When Liam – from Carrick on Shannon in County Leitrim – had some paid leave to use up he knew he didn’t want to spend that time just sitting around on a beach. “It had to be some kind of adventure,” he says.

In 2020, he had raised an amazing €35,000 for North West Stop by running 12 marathons in 12 days. “I knew I wanted to raise money for them again as I believe they are such an important charity in the north west region,” he says. So, he decided to run the “Lap of the map” – around the circumference of Ireland.

The running was tough, he’d average seven hours on his feet each day and faced a wide range of weather during his 43 days, from heatwaves to storms. “When I was in Kerry, I ran up the Conor Pass during Storm Agnes, so that was definitely memorable!” he says.

But he loved the experience – the stunning scenery and the people he met along the way. “I had strangers welcome me into their home and got to stay in friends’ houses who I hadn’t seen in years,” he says. “I also heard a lot of stories from people about their experiences of mental health challenges and losing loved ones from suicide, which was very sad but gave me great motivation to keep going to raise as much money as possible for an amazing charity.”