25 years is a long time, where to begin! St. Marks’s Taekwon-Do School was established in 1982 by Ms. Valerie Keane with the help of the community of Springfield, Tallaght, and the backing of many sponsors throughout the community. Since then it has been a whirlwind of success on numerous levels.
I don’t think anyone in the local area doesn’t know someone who has trained in St. Mark’s.
We have claimed the Tallaght St. Patrick’s Day Parade Martial Arts Award too many times to remember, rain hale or snow we were there as was all the on-looking supporters. In 2006 we won the overall Trophy in the Parade, for the best participants!
Ms. Keane herself has had so many successful memories over the years, becoming Coach to the 1st ever Republic of Ireland Taekwon-Do Association (RITA) National Junior Black Belt Team, who successfully took home a record 16, medals from the Europeans in Spain 1993. Ranking Ireland 4th in the World a record yet to be beaten. Mr. Floyd Keane who is Ms. Keane’s son and one of the reasons St. Mark’s was established, took the position as the RITA National Coach with yet again too many successes to remember until his resignation from the post in 2005.
As a Taekwon-Do family we have travelled the globe to spectacular events, such as the 1st General Choi Memorial Cup held in Ottawa, Canada in 2003, male and female of all ages the atmosphere and reception we got was outstanding.
The sporting side of Taekwon-Do is our Tournaments the successes of which are far too many to recall both at National and International events, St. Mark’s students love to support the Taekwon-Do family worldwide and making new friends, so we all learn and pass our experience on to future students.
One that stands out is, two students from St. Mark’s who travelled to Malaysia for the 1st ITF Veterans World Championships, one of the first of its kind and both taking home trophies, such an achievement for them & St. Mark’s.
Outside of the sporting fun St. Mark’s has had the honour of so many visitors to our Dojang. The Ultimate of which was our Founder General Choi Hong Hi in 1992, on our 10th Anniversary when we hosted a Cheese and Wine reception to introduce General Choi to so many students from all over the country and to some very special dignitaries who were invited to the reception. To actually meet the man responsible for Taekwon-Do all over the world is I think the highlight for all the Instructors & students in St. Marks!
Our pioneer founder in Ireland GrandMaster Rhee Ki Ha many years ago was the Examiner to all RITA grading’s and it was an honour to have Grand Master Rhee grade St. Mark’s students at the time. GM Rhee still visits Ireland to conduct International Seminars last year we had the honour of hosting an International Seminar Conducted by him. Grand Master Leon Wai Ming a high ranking Grand Master in the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) also visited St. Mark’s whilst over in Ireland conducting an International Seminar, he also paid a visit to Ms. Keane’s house and was so natural and at ease hopped up on the exercise bike as he was talking, leaving us looking in amazement. We also had the pleasure of doing some sight seeing, listening to the stories and philosophies was so humbling and fantastic I will never forget it.
The RITA hosted the European Championships in 2005 held in the National Basketball Arena, Tallaght, once again for the 1st time in the history of the RITA we had a female Team competing, Ms. Keane as National Coach proudly took her Team of females to winning Silver in the Patterns & Bronze in the Power!
Master Mitchell from Grenada (West Indies) attended as Umpire and we invited him to St. Marks to conduct a class, on the very night 11th April’05 when Taekwon-Do was celebrating 50 years of ITF Taekwon-Do world wide!
We also have the pleasure of our very own RITA Senior Masters, Senior Master Howard, Senior Master Phelan & Senior Master Barrett visiting our Dojang every year as we host the RITA National Patterns /Power Seminar the only one of its kind in the Association.
St. Mark’s also introduced a Team Challenge again the only one of its kind bringing together adults and children of all grades to share in the family fun. It is always a fantastic event, some of its main supporters and competitors to this event are Ms. Keane’s Taekwon-Do grand children, students which are instructed by Black Belt Instructors from St. Mark’s helping more people learn the Art and pass on to live in a better more peaceful world.
Throughout the years we all have different special memories, for some it is the their first training session, for others it’s a special win in a tournament or fulfilling a goal, all the different laughs from T.V. appearances and demonstrations throughout the years, to all our travelling stories, from the Bus to the country packed with laughter at 5.00am in the morning on our days outing, to the far parts of the world like Grenada, (West Indies) Canada, Russia, Malaysia.
The Ultimate for some was going to our Dear Fathers homeland, Pyongyang in North Korea where TaeKwon-Do was born, to witness the International Martial Arts Games, which was always a dream of General Choi’s to see all martial arts together is such a phenomenal irreplaceable memory.
The Taekwon-Do Palace, the people the Opening Ceremony, seeing the Irish marble Clock on display in the memorial room, given to Our Father while visiting St. Marks’s on our 10th Anniversary. Of course we just had to keep
St. Mark’s on the map and place a photo of us in the Palace, taken at General Choi’s grave side this is on display for future students to see in the coming years!
Some of us even got to compete in the Taekwon-Do Palace you can only imagine the feeling inside, while watching Ms. Keane judging the patterns I’d say topped the inner feeling she felt to the time she got to judge the Finals in the patterns section in the World Championships in Greece 2004 when the Czech Republic V DPR Korea both Teams rated the best in the World.
To see General Choi’s final resting place and to pay our respects to our Taekwon-Do Father is a speechless experience.
The last 25 years, so full of fantastic times, experiences and unforgettable memories for all of us without the support of all to try and keep our family atmosphere nothing survives. Togetherness, support and motivation has proven to keep our Taekwon-Do family in St. Mark’s strong and we can only follow General Choi and his beliefs and grow.
By Deborah Manning 3rd Degree
St. Mark’s Student |
