JOAN DELANY, THE wife of Olympic gold medallist Ronnie Delany, has died just ten days after the death of her husband.

Her family described her as a “kind and loving presence in the lives of all who knew her” and that she will be remembered for “beauty, warmth, grace and quiet strength”.

Her death notice on RIP.ie said that she died peacefully surrounded by her family at Blackrock Clinic.  

Ronnie and Joan were married for 64 years. Ronnie died at the age of 91 – he won a gold medal for the 1500m race in the Melbourne Summer Olympics in 1956 when he was 21.

The Irish athlete later earned a bronze medal in the 1500 metres event at the 1958 European Athletics Championships in Stockholm.

He also competed in the Rome Olympics four years later, and was an 800m gold medallist at the World University Games in Sofia in 1961.

Originally from Arklow, Co Wicklow, Delany and his family moved to the Dublin suburb of Sandymount when he was six. He attended secondary school in Dublin before studying commerce and finance at Villanova University in the US.

The Olympian retired from competitive athletics in 1962. He was conferred with the Dublin Freedom of the City award in 2006.