Getting the balls rolling: charity event puts fun into fundraising

PAMPLONA MAY be famed for its annual bull-running festival, but community organisers in Cobh, Co Cork, have come up with their own take on the Spanish tradition, replacing bulls with plastic balls.

The annual Barrack Hill Ball Roll, a charity fundraiser now in its fifth year, involved almost 6,700 plastic balls being released at the top of the West View area of the town at 4pm yesterday.

The balls made their way down several hundred metres of roadway, with locals gathered along the route helping to nudge the balls along. Taking the definition of the Cork phrase “ball hop” to greater heights, the mass of coloured spheres bounced towards the cheering crowds as stewards tried to keep children from intervening.

Each ball was numbered and over recent weeks locals had been able to purchase a ball for €2. The owners of the first five balls to arrive on Casement Square and be captured in special funnels took prizes of between €100 and €500. All proceeds went to the oncology unit at the South Infirmary hospital in Cork and Brainwave, the Irish Epilepsy Association. Some €11,000 was raised.

The balls were bought in toy stores in Cork and stored during the year. Once the first five were past the post, local children broke through the stewards and joined in the fun, throwing the balls at each other and helping some make a bid for freedom.

Up to 700 locals turned out despite the weather. “My brother was living in Cornwall and they tried it, but the hills were not steep enough so we decided to give it a go,” said Cobh councillor Paddy Histon.

“If there’s one thing Cobh has in abundance, it’s hills. We did it the first year and it’s become bigger and bigger since then.”