Rebel Wheelers was established in 2008 to facilitate children who were eager to participate in all types of physical activities with an emphasis on sports. The club has grown from 5 to 50 members, ages range from 5+ and both girls and boys.
Given the broad range of disabilities present within the club, and ABILITY’S members have attended courses and brought in experts to ensure we can tailor the activities to include all. Some of the children have experienced exclusion because of their disability, and so the core ethos of the club is to promote inclusion, self-esteem, fun and team work all the while reaping the health benefits of participation in sport.
We, the parents, run weekly meetings, mostly held in facilities in the grounds of COPE foundation wherein the children participate in a myriad of activities, including:
- Wheelchair Rugby
- Wheelchair Basketball
- Athletics
- Hand cycling
- Boccia
- Soccer
- Table Tennis
We constantly strive to expand our children’s engagement and enjoyment of the wider world of sports and other activities:
- Traveling to competitions
- Meeting Paralympians
- Hand cycle races with local cycling clubs
- Participating in Public Parades such as St Patricks
- Horse riding
- Summer camp
While engagement and development for all is the core goal, we have members that have excelled in sport and the club has won numerous awards.
Members have excelled over the years Alan Dineen has represented Ireland in Wheelchair Rugby and is Captain of the Irish Team. Cian O’Neill has been awarded Irish Wheelchair Association Junior Athlete of the year 2013, and watch this space as more of their team are on their way to join them.
Most importantly Rebel Wheelers is fun and the children come first and foremost, take a look at the great pictures in their Facebook page and see for yourself.
We have also appeared in the RTE production, Secret Millionaire which helped raise our profile.