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THERE WAS MUCH made of the opening ceremony at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
On the day almost three weeks ago now, as athletes cruised down the River Seine waving their countries’ flags with pride, the torrential rain was said to have put a bit of a dampener on the occasion.
But there was no wet weather in Dublin this afternoon. Rather, a sea of green, white and orange as thousands descended on O’Connell Street to welcome home Team Ireland’s 137 sportsmen and women.
The glorious sunshine went hand-in-hand with the electric atmosphere, the buzz of excitement in the air, the fact that this was Ireland’s most successful performance at an Olympic Games in history not lost on anyone.
Seven medals – four gold and three bronze. Nineteenth in the overall medal table. A record-breaking finish.
Ray Larkin got the 7am train from Tullamore, Co Offaly to the country’s capital to see the homecoming. Clad in an Ireland jersey and cowboy hat and waving a tricolour, he could barely contain his excitement as he spoke to The Journal.
“These are legends. These are heroes,” he said.
“The effort that they have put in, they have all given us a massive lift. We had something to look forward to for a change. We went through Covid, and we never thought that we’d see these days. These are legends.
“You look at some of the athletes, they trained for four years for maybe two minutes to perform, and they kept going. Unbelievable.
We’re going to party for a few days now.
The atmosphere only built as a DJ hyped up the crowd with hits like Mr Brightside, Freed from Desire – a tune that is never far from a sports celebration – and David Bowie’s Heroes.
Dancers also took to the stage to entertain those who had made the journey before the athletes’ arrival.
Nicky from Dublin came to the event with her daughters Alex and Grace.
“I just felt it was important to come out and support them, they’ve done amazingly well, in all the sports. They were unbelievable,” she said.
Alice and Grace are both runners themselves. Unsurprisingly, they said that their favourite event at the games was the athletics – specifically the track and field events. Their favourite athlete? Rhasidat Adeleke.
Children held signs celebrating Harrington’s second gold medal and one girl was seen holding an “I heart Mona” banner to celebrate swimmer McSharry’s bronze medal.
Others sat in windowsills and looked out from above rooftops to catch a glimpse at the celebration.
There were young and old at the front of the barriers, but mostly young. Children of all ages, some on their parent’s shoulders, cheered and held up homemade signs, eager to see their sporting heroes.
This mood was captured by Taoiseach Simon Harris, who spoke briefly before the athletes were introduced.
“We’ve talked a lot about lighting flames, and really what these men and women have done is lit a flame in all of the young people right across Ireland,” he said.
There are so many little tiny kids, including my own, who now believe they too can be the very best in the world, that they can represent Ireland, that they can win medals.
“That’s what they’ve done, and what we will do now is invest in sport because we believe in these athletes and that’s going to be the legacy of these Paris games.”
If these Games have shown anything, it is that they can.
Not long after Harris spoke, they arrived – and the atmosphere went up another notch.
Those athletes that the country had cheered on from their television screens for the last two weeks made their way onto the stage, and O’Connell Street erupted.
It caught some of them by surprise. “When I heard there was a homecoming, I thought it would be a bit like a birthday party when you’re scared no one is gonna show up,” Sophie Becker confessed, before thanking the crowd for their support.
The biggest cheers were for swimming Bronze medalist Mona McSharry, and the Gold medalists: rower Fintan McCarthy, gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, boxer Kellie Harrington and swimmer Daniel Wiffen.
After chants of ‘Kellie, Kellie, Kellie’, the double Olympic champion also hailed the support of the crowd – and the country.
“We’re a small nation, but we’re a mighty nation,” she said.
“To have the support now of this nation for all of us, from the bottom of every one of our hearts, it really does mean the world. Whether we win, lose or draw, to have you all there to pick us up, to dust us off and to help us go again, that’s what matters, so thank you.”
Daniel Wiffen made a prediction when asked whether his twin brother Nathan – who is also a swimmer – might challenge him at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
“I’m sure in LA we’ll be both on the podium,” he said, adding that he hoped the country would be able to cheer the two of them on.
“We’ll make Ireland proud with hopefully a gold and a silver – he can have the silver.”
Donegal native Breege Condy came home from Australia last week to visit family, including sisters Mary Bennett and Kathleen Campbell. There was no way she was missing the Team Ireland homecoming.
Wrapped in her county flag, she told The Journal that she watched most of the Games in Australia, including the swimming. Team Oz won 18 medals in the water, including seven Golds.
“Australia is really good at swimming and you very rarely see other countries, but when I saw Wiffen, I went ‘oh my god!’.
“It was just the most incredible thing to be an Irish person living in Australia and seeing an Irish person tip the wall. It was 5am in the morning my time. Then I was awake!”
Mary barely missed a minute of the Games. “I’ve watched for the last two weeks – up from seven o’clock every morning, television on all day. It was absolutely brilliant,” she told The Journal.
“When you think of the effort that these guys have put in to get to here so we can watch them winning a medal and be experts on the couch. It’s just incredible.”
So, what about Los Angeles 2028? “We’ll all be going to LA for the next one. We’re going to book our tickets today,” Condy said.
“Roll on LA.”
We’ll all be watching.
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A well deserved reception.credit to all the Irish team
Rock on LA 2028
It should have been the President welcoming our athletes home. Not Harris , or any other political leader, grabbing the limelight. Events such as these should be above politics, exactly the kind of role we have a president for.
@Ciaran Bolger: One leprechaun shaftin another leprechaun is stuffs of legends going forward in Irish folklore tho lol.
Investment generally does pay off and we have always been really bad for infrastructure etc. Even in our main sports. It’s always a that’ll do kind of approach. It was a great Olympics but say NZ with about the same population as us won 18 medals. We can do a lot better than we even did here.
@John Moore: all our money goes to the GAA
@Margaret Deacon: We get a lot of bang for our buck from the GAA. The horse and greyhound “industries”, if you can call them that, shouldn’t get a penny of public money
@Jason Memail: Explain what we get exactly for our buck from the GAA What does the GAA offer to a person that participates in their sports that other sports don’t?
@Leonard Barry: Accessibility/capacity for one.. What if we all decided in the morning to take our children from one of the main physical/sporting activities in this country and to head down to the local rowing club, gymnasium, athletics track, or swimming pool… hazzard a guess as to what would happen. The GAA is our national sport. Now let that sit for a moment before we look at the infrastructure in place generated by over a century of being, to support the numbers of people we want to play sport. Nobody is saying, at least I’m not, that one sport is better than another. But ask me what the GAA offers that other sports can’t.. well in terms of structure, capacity, and facilities throughout all age groups, then it’s second to none. Bang enough for your buck? But feel free to explain how you would spend sports funding and devise a program that saw all our children/adults had access to physical activity/sport.
@Margaret Deacon: Definitely GAA gets prioritised ahead of other sports and it shouldn’t really. It’s parochial and nobody outside of Ireland cares and it just harms our international ambitions in other sports. We also seem absolutely incapable of putting up a stadium surrounded by seats on all 4 sides for some reason. Morton stadium as the national athletics stadium is pretty poor. The list goes on.
@Leonard Barry: ur obviously ,not very educated or bright. Go around the country and look at gaa clubs ..like just of a cold January night and country the thousands and thousands and thousands of parents and children out playing and training in woful weather. . Has to take some one anti national sport to post a comment like u dick
@Jason Memail: we get nothing from the GAA, when compared to Olympic sports.
@Andy Gibson: The GAA have provided sports facilities in every parish in this country when there was no funding in sports.
They provide a community focal point and have done so for generations.
Let’s get back to the main event and give a tumultuous welcome home to our wonderful athletes who gave us so much pleasure in our homes in the days we have witnessed.
@Phillip Smyth: ye seem be the main event at the moment Philip. Iam out..
Genuinely great mood in France last 2 weeks
But the doomsdayers are not wasting any time. I blame all medias and their customers, for the state of the world. It’s an idea that needs to be looked at.
This is only a comments section un
@offside again: Even your phone cut you off for typing utter rubbish!
@Stephen Heffernan: seems I have a smarter phone than yours :-)
NZ is in the southern hemisphere and so has better weather and facilities to facilitate sport. Population can not be a comparison factor in taking part as to Eire
@Phillip Smyth: Leave the weather out of it altogether. Get the infrastructure right, and future Irish althetes will prevail .
@Phillip Smyth: if you look at some of the New Zealand meddlers in the field events. I remember they had a guy win the high jump. We used to have a tradition of top quality throwers of hammer shot put etc but now how many children get to try these events properly because we don’t have the facilities to allow them to do it ..
New Zealand have a very diverse culture.
Beguiling as it may be weather plays an extremely significant part in the games and its infrastructure to prepare same athletes nutre in good weather and also in cold weather hence the Winter Olympics.
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