In a West Cork Minute - Justin Ryan

After watching the moving ‘documentary’, Happy Feet, Skibbereen Rowing Club’s Justin Ryan (26), a teacher in Naas, wants to teach a penguin how to dance … That could work out well for both of them!

What’s the one thing you can’t live without? My iPod, the only way to get through a long training session in the gym is with music.

What would I find in your fridge right now? Lots of vegetables and a noticeable absence of chocolate and alcohol.

Name one element your sport could/should take from another? It would be great if we could make rowing more spectator friendly and get people watching and supporting it like football, hurling, rugby and soccer manage.

What do you think about when you’re alone in your car? The clever responses I should have said.

Who has been the biggest influence on your sporting career (and why)? My parents. Rowing is all about hard work and I couldn’t have had a better example of work ethic then either of them.

Pick two celebrities to be your parents: Paul O’Connell and Bill Gates. Money, brains and sporting genes seems like a good mix – plus they’d be a hilariously odd couple that you’d be in stitches at all the time.

What do you think cats dream of? A day when somebody invents a tin opener that can be operated with paws so they no longer need humans. 

If you could play any other sport for one day what would it be? Rugby, I always loved watching it. 

If you joined a circus, what would you perform? Well, I’m completely tone deaf so I’d play a musical instrument and claim I was a clown.

If you could get rid of one county in Ireland what would it be and why? Well, the obvious one would be Kerry but then Kerryman jokes wouldn’t be as funny so I’m going for Offaly – take it out and we’d have a lovely lake in the middle of the country.

What would you do if you found a penguin in your freezer? First comment is that global warming is after getting very bad if penguins are resorting to freezers. Then I’d teach it to dance because I saw a documentaryabout a dancing penguin called Happy Feet and that seemed to work out well for the penguin.

Before we let you go, teach us something that we don’t know: Ireland’s official national colour is St Patrick’s blue. Ten percent of Irish people are red heads. It’s illegal in the UK to insult somebody’s religion and Jedi is an official religion so, technically, it’s illegal to insult the Star Wars movies … .