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May 27, 2014

Dame Mary Peters Visits Wexford Rotary

Wexford Rotary was delighted to welcome Mary to Wexford.  She was an extremely interesting and gracious guest and was very  generous with her time.  Madeleine Quirke, on behalf of Wexford Rotary, presented Mary with a handmade pendant depicting Wexford’s Twin Spires, made by Martins Jewellers.  A copy of Nicky Furlong’s book ‘County Wexford in the Rare Old Times’ was also presented to Mary and the author, Nicky Furlong, gave a short summary of the history of the twin churches which were opened in 1858 and the effort that spanned over three decades to pay for them.

Dame Mary Peters, is a former British athlete, best known as a competitor in the pentathlon.  Mary Peters was born in Lancashire, but moved to Ballymena (and later Belfast) at age eleven. In the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Peters competing for Great Britain and Northern Ireland won the gold medal in the women’s pentathlon. She had finished 4th in 1964 and 9th in 1968. She represented Northern Ireland at every Commonwealth Games between 1958 and 1974. In these games she won 2 gold medals for the pentathlon, plus a gold and silver medal for the shot put.

Following her successful career in athletics, Mary became a Trustee of The Outward Bound Trust in May 2001 .  She is Vice-President of the Northern Ireland Outward Bound Association and  is also Patron of Springhill Hospice in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.

Mary has received a number of honours in recognition of her many achievements:-

  • In 1973, Peters was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to athletics.
  • In the 1990 Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was promoted to Commander (CBE) “for services to Sport”
  • In the 2000 Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was promoted to Dame Commander (DBE) “for services to Sport and to the community in Northern Ireland”
  • In April 2009 she was named the Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast
  • Peters is a Freeman of the Cities of Lisburn and Belfast.

Thank you to Mary Peters for taking the time to visit Wexford Rotary and continued success in her role as Lord Lieutenant of the City of Belfast.

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