Ajax Orienteering and Hill Running Club – the small club with big ideas
It seems fitting that the lifespan of Ajax Orienteering and Hill Running Club was bookended by the club running two successful Leinster Orienteering Championships – in the Vale of Clara in February 2025 and in Aughavannagh in 1980 (which was the club’s first time hosting an event).
Ajax Orienteering and Athletic Club was founded in Dublin in 1979 by Eoin Rothery, Declan O’Callaghan and Carey May, and they first ran under the Ajax name at Cratloe on 11th March 1979. From the onset there was a key focus on running and physical training. Ajax was a Greek hero in the Trojan war.
The club quickly targeted promising juniors, with members joining from Muckross Park, De la Salle and Coláiste Íosagáin. A number of the junior girls were encouraged to run up a class or two. Within a couple of years these juniors were competing in the top open class (then M/W19). A number of people from mountaineering and climbing backgrounds and their families also became key Ajax members.
Ajax has produced a number of Irish champions in both junior and senior categories over the years. In the senior category, these included Carey May (1979, 1980), Eoin Rothery (1982), Orla Cooke (1984, 1986), Déirdre Ní Challanáin (1985, 1988, 1989), Peter Kernan (1986, 1989), Colm Rothery (1996), John Feehan (2001), and Róisín Long (2018 – Classic distance). Many Ajax orienteers have also represented Ireland at the highest level including world junior, senior and master’s championships. And let’s not forget Eoin Rothery’s infamous 19 second win over former World Champion Jörgen Mårtensson – at the 1984 Leinster Champs!
Eoin Rothery was the brain behind the club’s orienteering mapping projects in the early years and Ajax produced some groundbreaking maps for that era, including Curracloe, Co Wexford and the Featherbeds in Wicklow. The club also registered the Dublin parks and set about mapping them in the early 1980s, with Eoin producing what was at the time the world’s smallest orienteering map, Merrion Square at 1:10000. Ajax ran the innovative park orienteering series, which was sponsored by Kangaroos – ‘the shoes with pockets’. The superb map of Bull Island was surveyed and drawn by Aonghus O’Cléirigh for the 2006 Leinster Championships. Bull Island had been right there for all the Dublin clubs to see for decades before Aonghus went ahead and mapped it.
Curracloe was where Ajax ran their first Irish Championships in 1981, attracting a number of international orienteers to Ireland for the event. Ajax ran the Irish Orienteering Championships on two other occasions – Glendalough in 1997 and Brockagh, Co Wicklow in 2011.
Another Ajax innovation was the introduction of colour-coded events in 1980, with colour-coded badges being awarded to participants. This was a big hit with juniors particularly.
Martin Flynn, now of WEGO, was involved in developing and promoting the very successful “Dublin by Night” NightO league and also in staging some Bike-O events.
Who remembers The Orienteers Calendar? The brilliant drawings by Adam May (3ROC), featured month by month adventures of Ajax’s helmeted crusader, based on the club’s original logo, which was designed by Frank Horan.
‘Routes – Techniques of Orienteering’, was published by Eoin Rothery in the 1980s, ensuring a great reference book for experienced and beginner orienteers alike.
Ajax can also be credited with introducing hill running to Ireland, organising the first series of fell runs in Ireland, as they were then known. The Fairy Chase (Ticknock – Fairy Castle) fell run was the first ever fell race and took place on May 22, 1980. The club continued its association with athletics and in 1983 organised the Ajax Summit Run from Ballinteer, with Dundrum Athletics Club. Many Ajax members competed in affiliated BLE (now Athletics Ireland) events, and Ajax members had success in cross country, on the road and track, and on the hills. Carey May was a record breaking Irish female athlete and held the national women’s marathon record of 2.28.07 for 12 years. She also represented Ireland in the first women’s Olympic marathon in Los Angeles in 1984. Robbie Bryson (now FermO) had phenomenal national and international success in Mountain Running.
The club had its own in-house kit designers and manufacturers. Niall Rice produced some great double-layered (brown!) o-leggings and Eddie Niland was always a wizard on an industrial sewing machine. Sadly Eddie died far too young but the memory of his loud cackle at Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’ in a London cinema during an LOK weekend lives on.
From the onset Ajax members were big attendees at international events such as the JK, Scottish 6 day, Welsh 6-day and the Swedish O-Ringen, with the odd bit of partying thrown in.
Over the years two Ajax members have stepped up to the role of IOA chairperson – Marcus Geoghegan (2006, 2007, 2008) and Brendan O’Brien (now KerryO) (2009, 2010, 2011). Several Ajax members have also contributed to the development of the sport in the IOA Mapping Officer, Technical Officer and Junior Affairs roles.
As was (and is) typical of Irish society, travel and emigration played a big role in the club’s culture and Ajax’s members have travelled far and wide for work and study purposes with its original, early and later members to be found in all corners of the globe.
But overall Ajax was about the fun and friendships, both here and abroad. Friendships that have survived and thrived over almost five decades of orienteering and life.
