John Dowling: Big celebration of life of Sheffield champion race walker and Irish music lover

John Dowling, also known as Jack, died aged 93 in hospital, surrounded by his family, following a long illness.

He had an amazing career as an ultra-distance walker and holds the record as the only person to have walked both the length of Ireland and from John O’Groats to Land’s End, one of many records he held.

Able to complete race walks of 100 miles in under 24 hours – he raced six or seven times a year – he was selected to take part in big events such as the famous Paris to Roubaix race walking challenge and the Race of the Century, a 1,000-mile event in New York in 1988.

John turned up alone, without the back-up that other competitors had, and it is widely acknowledged that he should have been an Olympic athlete. His niece Madge O’Callaghan made a radio documentary about him, called My Uncle Jack.

He said in the documentary that his first impression of Sheffield was that it was a dark place but he grew to love it.

She traces the story of John’s race-walking career and gruelling early years, taken away from his widowed father, aged five, and put in an orphanage. Aged 11, he went from that happy time to the brutal Greenmount Industrial School in Cork, where he suffered terrible violence, finally managing to get away as a teenager.

John later campaigned for justice and met Irish president Mary McAleese to receive an apology for what happened. He was compensated by the Residential Institutions Redress Board, which looked into the abuse suffered by children in industrial schools and other institutions.

When is John Dowling’s funeral?

John, who lived in Gleadless Valley, came to Sheffield in 1949 from Waterford in Ireland to work as a miner. He didn’t like the pits and, following a spell in the RAF, became an insurance agent. A chance meeting with someone who saw his potential led to his race-walking career, firstly as a member of Sheffield United Harriers.

John also used his sporting ability over the years to raise many thousands of pounds for charities including the NSPCC and for St Luke’s Hospice, which looked after his daughter Theresa when she was terminally ill with cancer.

He and late wife Dorothy, who he met in Sheffield, would have been married for 70 years this month. Dorothy, who was deaf and wrote the first children’s book featuring British Sign Language, died 11 years ago. The couple had four children – Pat, Robert, who also died from cancer, Theresa and Jacquie.

The family stretched over five generations with the arrival of John's great great grandson, Oscar. He also leaves 13 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.

John was very well known as a singer, musician and music teacher in the Irish tradition. For decades he played in Monday night sessions at the Sheffield Irish Centre in Pitsmoor, the Dog and Partridge and most recently at The Grapes, both on Trippet Lane.

Bucket list trip with Sheffield Eagles

One of John’s other sporting passions was rugby club Sheffield Eagles, of which he was a lifetime member. His daughter Pat Crabtree remembered that in 2019 John, who by then was suffering poor health, managed to travel to Wembley to see them beat Widnes Vikings in the RFL 1895 Cup.

The trip was on his bucket list, along with a special visit home.

Pat said: “A couple of years ago, for his 90th birthday, we took him to Ireland for his ‘existing wake’, a party with his relatives. He had a really bad chest infection. He wanted to go but he was was really ill when he got there.

“He sat there and played music and really enjoyed the craic!”

The same determination got John to The Grapes every week for his music sessions. The last one was shortly before his death.

Pat said: “The wonderful stories that I've had since my dad died - everybody saying the inspiration that that man’s been in Sheffield, what’s he’s done for the Irish community, the money he’s raised for charities and St Luke’s.”

John’s funeral will take place at Hutcliffe Wood Crematorium on March 11 at 11am and his wake at The Grapes will be filled with the live music he loved. Landlady Ann Flynn is putting up a marquee outside the pub with Guinness bars to cope with the crowds.

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