Tom Leahy hails from Ballyhooly in North Cork. He is one of Ireland’s most decorated Paralympians, winning a total of eight medals at the Paralympic Games, including three gold (1984, 1988, and 2000) and competed at a record eight successive Paralympic Games from 1984 to 2012. He is a five time world record holder and has won over 50 medals for Ireland on the international stage throughout his long career. He is now a full time artist, with his paintings appearing in many public exhibitions.<\/p>\n
Here For A Reason<\/em> describes his sporting odyssey and Paralympic glory days, but also deals honestly and openly with the challenges of growing up with a disability in the 60’s and 70’s in an Ireland where the rights of the disabled were not properly recognised.<\/p>\n Tom Leahy’s story is one of succeeding against the odds, about overcoming signifigant physical disabilities and creating a successful and meaningful life. Here For A Reason<\/em> shows how determination, focus, a strong will and the support of one’s nearest and dearest can allow is all to live our very best lives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tom Leahy hails from Ballyhooly in North Cork. He is one of Ireland’s most decorated Paralympians, winning a total of eight medals at the Paralympic Games, including three gold (1984, 1988, and 2000) and competed at a record eight successive Paralympic Games from 1984 to 2012. He is a five time world record holder and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13766,"template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[93,2003,109],"product_tag":[2162,2163],"class_list":{"0":"post-13765","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-general-books","7":"product_cat-local-authors","8":"product_cat-local-interest","9":"product_tag-emmet-coffey","10":"product_tag-tom-leahy","12":"first","13":"instock","14":"taxable","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product\/13765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_brand&post=13765"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_cat&post=13765"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipsbookshop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fproduct_tag&post=13765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}