A Galway hurling legend is auctioning off a host of memorabilia from his glory days – to help make life better for a group of blind children in Africa.

Iggy Clarke is helping to raise funds for a Galway charity called Building for Children who, since 2006, have worked abroad, building and refurbishing children’s accommodation in orphanages, hospitals and schools.

Driven by David Mulrooney from Ballygar, their current project is to fully renovate two dormitories for the Sebeta Blind School in Ethiopia for 80 blind and visually impaired girls and boys.

And that’s where Iggy and his wife Mariel Forde Clarke have signed up to help – by organising both a Golf Classic this month and a Festival of Dance and Music in November.

But, as part of the fundraising initiative, Iggy is also parting with some of his treasured possessions from those glory days of the seventies and eighties as the county’s hurlers emerged from the sporting wilderness into the spotlight.

Iggy is auctioning off a number seven jersey from 1980 with most of the team’s signatures on it – including the late Joe McDonagh, Niall McInerney, Finbar Gantley and John Ryan – and a pic of Iggy wearing it to go with it.

Also up for grabs is his All-Stars jacket and tie from 1975 from the trip to New York, and a hurley will all of the All-Stars names signed on it and the scores recorded from that game.

There are other items as well – including match-worn togs and socks and a unique wall hanging presented to that All-Ireland-winning squad of 1980 – which will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Building for Children group’s next trip to Ethiopia which takes place in the first week of January.

This is a shortened preview version of this story. To read the rest of the article, see the October 20 edition of the Connacht Tribune. You can support our journalism and buy a digital edition HERE.