After years of preparation and training, the Special Olympics is finally on its marks. Those responsible for ensuring there are no false starts talk to Rosita Boland
OPENING CEREMONY/Rupert Murray, creative director of the opening cermony, for Tyrone Productions: "I've sat down and written letters over the last year I never thought I'd write," says Rupert Murray, who has been working on the project for 18 months. "I wrote to 'Dear Tiger Woods', but unfortunately he was busy."
But "Dear Nelson Mandela", "Dear U2" and "Dear Cranberries" all said they would happily participate.
The logistics are fiendish: 2,000 performers at Croke Park from all over the country, most of them gathering together for the first and last time on the day itself, June 21st. Groups of performers are rehearsing across Ireland, from 350 people in Belfast to 80, with Macnas, in Galway. All the host towns will be involved also, each sending two performers to the opening pageant.
"The scale of it all is obviously a challenge, and the disparate nature of it. People participating are literally all over the world at present, so we're having to be in contact with South Africa and Nelson Mandela one moment, 150 performers with learning difficulties in Belfast the next. Inevitably, we'll be winging it on the night, to a certain degree. But we're in the business of creating a celebration!" Murray says confidently.
VOLUNTEERS/Peter O'Brien, director of support services and volunteers: The quota of 35,000 volunteers was over-subscribed back in February, and people are now picking up their accreditation passes and uniforms, although, in our tardy Irish way, only 5,000 people turned up in the first week, and a late surge is expected.
"Those who got in early enough were able to indicate a preference for what areas they wanted to work in," says Peter O'Brien. "The most popular events to volunteer for have been the sports events themselves: athletics, and swimming, and there's a big interest in the golf."
O'Brien has to oversee this small army, who will work split shifts, starting at 7 a.m. and going on until 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. At the accommodation centres, there will be 24-hour cover. "Once volunteers are assigned to a job and a venue, they'll stay there for the duration of the games. They don't move around," O'Brien says.
A big part of his job is over now, with all the volunteers selected, orientated, trained and assigned to venues. What he and his colleagues might find tricky when the games get going, though, is making sure the no-smoking-on-duty rule is implemented. "Oh, that one will be difficult, yes."
LANGUAGES/Margaret Bourke, language services general manager: "We've been working on this for two years," says Margaret Bourke. She has to facilitate 52 languages, including the Pashto, the language of Afghanistan. The six official languages are English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Mandarin. There are 1,200 volunteers working in the language services area. Most, but not all, of the translators are native speakers. So who are they?
"Recruiting people to do this 10 years ago wouldn't have been possible, but now we have such diversity in our population," Bourke says. "There are a lot of foreigners working in call centres or here with engineering companies. We found one lady from Uzbekistan that way; the only one we have! The people who have come to live here feel it's a way of giving something back to the country. And there are also a lot of Irish who worked abroad for a few years and learned the language of the country they were in," she says.
In addition to translating, the language volunteers will help key members of visiting delegations with any queries. Some 170 people will be working only in translation, while 1,000 will be working with the teams, from meeting them at the airport to helping them find venues and orient themselves. Team USA, for example, will get 10 volunteers to itself because, at 1,200, its delegation is so big.
MEDICAL/Annette Codd, medical services general manager: Annette Codd has been seconded from her nursing job at Stewart's Hospital in Palmerstown, Dublin, for almost two years to oversee the 3,000 medical volunteers. There are 300 doctors alone, all of whom are taking holidays or time off work for the games. The rest of the volunteers are physiotherapists, ambulance workers, nurses, first-aid staff and massage therapists.
"My challenge is to ensure the health and safety of everyone at all venues," Codd says. She has to co-ordinate all her volunteers and will be on a constant shuttle around the venues to check on them. Each accommodation centre and sporting venue will have a medical centre, and there will be 30 doctors on duty each day. There are also two "poly-centres" (at the Bon Secours and Cappagh hospitals), which will take care of pressing but non-surgical problems such as asthma or diabetic attacks. In addition, all the existing hospitals will offer their services if needed. "And there will be first-aid teams available at all venues for spectators," Codd says.
TRANSPORT/Micahel Aguillar, transportation project manager: We seem to have given up on traffic, so it's unsurprising that the transport project manager is an unsuspecting American. Aguilar works for a Las Vegas-based company, International Event Services, and his last big job was organising transport for the Salt Lake Winter Olympics. Dublin and its perennial traffic problems will be a different story.How will he get thousands of athletes and spectators to venues on time each day? "I can't change the existing problems in a municipality," he says diplomatically.
There are 600 volunteer drivers; 265 cars and minibuses on loan from Toyota; 300 special buses; and 21 sporting venues to get them to. Dublin Bus employees have agreed to cancel all leave for the games, which means that a peak schedule will be maintained all day on the routes that service the venues.
Aguilar's main job is to look after the delegations' transport needs rather than those of the public. There will be no free shuttle-bus service, even for volunteers, but Dublin Bus is providing discounted passes for the duration. It does mean that people will be tempted to drive to venues, and this is Aguilar's biggest worry.
"At most of the sports venues there is little or no parking, so we're encouraging people to take buses," he says. You have been warned.