Kip Ireland Iowa

Wheels down for roller derby team in North Iowa Fairgrounds home opener

Mason City - the people of Northern Iowa got their first look at new women Mason City roller derby flat team Saturday night.

The Ladies of River City of Anarchy divided into two teams - the Squeelers Wheelin and Big Bad Wolves - for a fight at the North Iowa Fair.

There was a lot of spills. Most of the time, skaters fell got right back up and kept going, but there were several injuries.

The 25 women Ladies of Anarchy, which has been fighting in Oskaloosa and Rolfe before home game Saturday, range from 18 to 43. 

They include students, nurses, a massage therapist and a school guidance counselor.

 Sandy Lahner, of Nora Springs, who works as an elementary school counselor in Charles City by day, goes by the nickname “SandStorm” for roller derby. 

“I wear face paint and fishnets and hit people and knock them down,” she said.

Amy Peckham, of Clear Lake, whose nickname is “Caped Cru-Sk8er,” said she tried out for the team because she fell in love with roller derby after seeing the movie “Whip It.”

“It fits my personality,” she said. “I have tattoos and I’m kind of a brute.”

Her husband, Darell Peckham, aka “Other Brother Darell,” is one of the coaches. Her children attend every practice.

The other coach for Dames of Anarchy is Kip Ireland, aka “Skatin’ Worshiper.”  

Lahner said she enjoys the camaraderie of the sport, noting it is all about empowering women.

“We work our tails off really hard in practice three days a week,” she said. 

Renee Oliva, aka “Jane Gretzky,” just moved to Mason City from Minneapolis.

She said she tried out for a team in the Twin Cities, but didn’t make it.

“When I heard there was a derby team down here, I came running,” she said.

Oliva said she was excited by the turnout at the team’s home opener, noting the place was already nearly packed half an hour before the bout started.

Jera Lee Follmuth, of Mason City, brought her 1-year-old daughter, Vinalee, to the bout.

“I’m here because my daughter needs to see roller derby,” Follmuth said.

Follmuth is familiar with roller derby because her sister used to play. She said she appreciates the sport because it shows women can be tough.

Jamie Klunder, of Mason City, said he came to the bout because, “It’s a new thing for the community and I’d like to see it stay around here.

kip: Ireland: part deux

The train from Dublin to Killarney was really pretty, lots of countryside and farmland and irishness. The connecting trais was mega-irish (for those of you who are not aware "irish" when being used to describe things like public transportation means "shit, late, or they've missed an important element out all together") and by that i mean there was nowhere to put our luggage, so it got to sit with us. silly irish. people on trains have bags. places to put bags are good. when we got to killarney we found out that we went to the wrong hostel, got wacky directions from the unintelligible lady there, and carried our bags much farther than we should have. Killarney was gorgeous, mountainy and less scarey than dublin and pretty. Our hostel was SO NICE. it was like a hotel, we had a queen sized bed (the first time sam and i have slept in a bed that was actually made for 2 people in the 3 months we've been sleeping in the same bed-we've been spoiled now) and it was clean and not an ugly clour and un-skanky, and it was cheaper than our more-skanky hostel in dublin, and yummy breakfast was included. Unfortunately, our hostel was the only reasonably priced thing in dublin, we went by a takeaway that had 9 inch pizzas for Fifteen Euros so sam and i ate from the gorcery store a lot. On our day out in Killarney we walked into the national park, which took a long time to wak into (most people take horse carts out there or rent bikes) but we saw a herd of red deer on the way and it was pretty, so it was ok. The park was gorgeous, Lots of trees and mountains and a lake and birds and it was very very good to be out in nature again. we had a picnic and i saw a HIGHLAND COW! i went to scotland with the sole goal to see a wooly cow, and i finally completed my mission 2 years later in Ireland. this amuses me. We walked around the ruins of an abbey from the 15th century and out to an old house, where our tired feet failed us... so we split a horse cart back into town with an old irish grandmother and her two granddaughters, both of whom had foul moths for young kids (about 4 and 5 is my guess), as they mentioned the horses shit a lot, in those words, and asked sam and i a question about how we played together which we couldn't understand because they were irish kids, but which sounded very rude and which made the grandmother smile somewhat evilly.

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