Irish pride as Olympic squad touches down in Dublin
The Minister for Sport promised to fight for more funding as he welcome Ireland’s Olympians home at a small reception in Dublin Airport this afternoon.
WITH FIVE PRECIOUS pieces of additional luggage in tow, Team Ireland’s Olympic squad arrived home on Monday afternoon after playing their part in the country’s most successful Games since 1956.
The public clamour of Italia 90 was noticeable by its absence in Dublin Airport but the welcome back to Irish shores was no less warm as proud friends and family packed out a small reception to greet sons, daughters, brothers and sisters — their heroes.
Olympic champion Katie Taylor led the team off the chartered Aer Lingus aircraft shortly before 2pm, flanked by her fellow boxing medallists John Joe Nevin, Michael Conlan and Paddy Barnes.
Cian O’Connor, who returned home to Ireland last week after winning showjumping bronze, joined the rest of his team-mates for the first part of what will surely be a long list of homecoming celebrations.
Advertisement
Minister for Sport Michael Ring TD, Northern Ireland Sports Minister Carál Ní Chuilín and Lord Mayor of Dublin Naoise Ó Muirí were among those present.
With an official welcome scheduled for Dublin’s Mansion House on Wednesday, members of the public were advised not to travel to Dublin Airport.
Anxious to catch a glimpse of the squad, more than a hundred fans ignored that warning and waited patiently in the Terminal 2 arrivals hall for the athletes to filter through.
Beyond the barrier, Olympic Council of Ireland President Pat Hickey proclaimed the Games to have been “a tremendous success” for Ireland.
“We went away as a team and we came back as a stronger team,” Hickey said. “A family team with no problems between anybody, with great comradeship and we’re so happy to be back.”
Chef de Mission Sonia O’Sullivan also highlighted the bond between the athletes for particular praise.
It’s very easy for us to focus on our medal winners — Katie, Paddy, John Joe, Michael and Cian – but I believe that their success was helped along the way by the very positive team spirit and positive energy that I always hoped would be the core element of each team member’s experience of these Olympic Games.
I’m very proud to have been part of this team and I believe for the first time in all of my Olympic experiences, the Olympic spirit transpired throughout the team in the visible support and encouragement the athletes gave to each other.
“Heroes” was the word used by Minister Ring as he saluted the returning team.
“I as Minster for Sport have a job to go in and negotiate for funding every year,” he said.
“I will have to go back to government again and I want to thank the team. I want to thank everyone who took part in the Olympics in London because any government minister, whether he’s in finance or any other department, cannot but give me more money now after the success we had.
“Money’s big in sport. It’s better than putting it into hospitals, into consultants, into doctors. The more that we can get people participating in sport, the better.”
The homecoming celebrations will continue into Monday evening with local events planned in Bray, Mullingar and Belfast.
Michael Ring is full of crap. He is using the National Lottery profits as a slush fund for Mayo- grants increased by 71% for that county in the last year alone. Westport has 11 swimming pools in various hotels but he diverted funding for another one. And all the while Katie Taylor trains in a gym with no toilets or showers.
So Mayo, a county known for GAA teams who choke on big occasions, gets top class facilities. And as a result world champions suffer. As usual the gombeen politician rewards mediocrity and punishes success. And then goes on to claim they were responsible for the success, it is straight out of a George Orwell novel. He should be ashamed of himself.
@ Rodrigo: Define a “proper sport”. Is there anything about this country you actually like?
People should have choices in what sports they play, although I agree that encouraging more people to take an interest in sport and fitness is a good idea – hopefully from an early age, in primary school. A proper curriculum would help, allowing children to try out a wide range of sports.
Re the facilities in Mayo, yes it is a problem that Ministers are too focused on their constituencies, as they focus on getting re-elected. All politics is local, none more so than in Ireland it seems. This is something that I’d love the Constitutional Convention to look at, but alas they won’t. Either Ministers resign on becoming a Minister – and possibly get a free pass into the next Dáil similar to the Ceann Comhairle – or there is some kind of mixed system, as SF have proposed. But trying to change the electoral system would be a divisive nightmare as there are so many options and people would feel their vote might not be as important as it is now. After all many people vote – rightly or wrongly – on the basis of who will be a Minister, and thus get to funnel money to the constituency.
Anyway, back on topic and congrats to ALL the team.
Forget the money for a moment (but just a moment), would he mind telling the Irish Sports Council to recognise all the Olympic Governing Bodies? The NTSA’s brought home medals for Ireland this year from international competition and has represented Ireland in the games in Atlanta and Sydney, but the ISC won’t recognise them because of piddling politics… and he could fix that with one phone call.
?Money?s big in sport. It?s better than putting it into hospitals, into consultants, into doctors.
Jaysus I heard him say this live. Is that whats representing us.
The *theory* is that investing in sports facilities and promoting sport raises the general health of the average person, thus combating chronic conditions like obesity and type two diabetes which are otherwise going to overwhelm the healthcare system shortly, and so investing in sport leads to savings in healthcare spending in the long term.
The theory does *not* say that we don’t need A&E units or surgeons…
…shame the Minister put both feet in it when trying to express that!
He explained it incredibly poorly (and possibly there was more to the quote or it was in response to a question asked by a journalist), but the theory as Mark says is a good one:
“Extrapolation from authoritative UK data suggests that these numbers could now amount to more than 300,000 overweight and obese children on the island of Ireland and they are probably rising at a rate of over 10,000 per year.”
“This year about 2,000 premature deaths in Ireland will be attributed to obesity and the numbers are growing relentlessly. Diseases which proportionally more obese people suffer from than the general population include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, angina, heart attack and osteoarthritis. There are indirect costs also such as days lost to the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death. Using the accepted EU environmental cost benefit method, these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.”
- Department of Health and Children, National Taskforce on Obesity
I think you are giving him abit too much credit there lads. Nobody asked him a question, after being invited on stage he just start shouting what seemed of the top of his head. Surely Enda’s speech writer could have sorted him out. Im sure it was a mistake rather than an intelligently thought out plan.
Farrell's Lions party still likely to have strong Irish influence
2 hrs ago
15
Freerecognition
4 nominees confirmed for 6 Nations Player of the Tournament
3 hrs ago
12
Leinster Schools Senior Cup
Clancy kicks Blackrock to Leinster senior cup glory in tight battle with Terenure
7 hrs ago
12
Sign in or create a free account
To continue reading create a free account
Or sign into an existing account
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 157 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.Privacy Policy
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 109 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 141 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 111 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 83 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 38 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 34 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 132 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 60 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 74 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 83 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 38 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 46 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 27 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 97 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 72 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 53 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 86 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 68 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
Michael Ring is full of crap. He is using the National Lottery profits as a slush fund for Mayo- grants increased by 71% for that county in the last year alone. Westport has 11 swimming pools in various hotels but he diverted funding for another one. And all the while Katie Taylor trains in a gym with no toilets or showers.
So Mayo, a county known for GAA teams who choke on big occasions, gets top class facilities. And as a result world champions suffer. As usual the gombeen politician rewards mediocrity and punishes success. And then goes on to claim they were responsible for the success, it is straight out of a George Orwell novel. He should be ashamed of himself.
Well done Katie.
I say we abandon all GAA and get our people to play proper sports!
Yet again a speech worthy of an episode of val falvey T D hop on the band wagon and ride it to hell !!!
@ Rodrigo: Define a “proper sport”. Is there anything about this country you actually like?
People should have choices in what sports they play, although I agree that encouraging more people to take an interest in sport and fitness is a good idea – hopefully from an early age, in primary school. A proper curriculum would help, allowing children to try out a wide range of sports.
Re the facilities in Mayo, yes it is a problem that Ministers are too focused on their constituencies, as they focus on getting re-elected. All politics is local, none more so than in Ireland it seems. This is something that I’d love the Constitutional Convention to look at, but alas they won’t. Either Ministers resign on becoming a Minister – and possibly get a free pass into the next Dáil similar to the Ceann Comhairle – or there is some kind of mixed system, as SF have proposed. But trying to change the electoral system would be a divisive nightmare as there are so many options and people would feel their vote might not be as important as it is now. After all many people vote – rightly or wrongly – on the basis of who will be a Minister, and thus get to funnel money to the constituency.
Anyway, back on topic and congrats to ALL the team.
If only other sports were promoted as much as the GAA ….
Well done one and all. Each and every one of those athletes are a credit to their nation.
Hear, hear, and ignore the trolls!
Just can’t avoid the politicians. “i will try to get more money”. Some promise…..
Forget the money for a moment (but just a moment), would he mind telling the Irish Sports Council to recognise all the Olympic Governing Bodies? The NTSA’s brought home medals for Ireland this year from international competition and has represented Ireland in the games in Atlanta and Sydney, but the ISC won’t recognise them because of piddling politics… and he could fix that with one phone call.
?Money?s big in sport. It?s better than putting it into hospitals, into consultants, into doctors.
Jaysus I heard him say this live. Is that whats representing us.
The *theory* is that investing in sports facilities and promoting sport raises the general health of the average person, thus combating chronic conditions like obesity and type two diabetes which are otherwise going to overwhelm the healthcare system shortly, and so investing in sport leads to savings in healthcare spending in the long term.
The theory does *not* say that we don’t need A&E units or surgeons…
…shame the Minister put both feet in it when trying to express that!
He explained it incredibly poorly (and possibly there was more to the quote or it was in response to a question asked by a journalist), but the theory as Mark says is a good one:
“Extrapolation from authoritative UK data suggests that these numbers could now amount to more than 300,000 overweight and obese children on the island of Ireland and they are probably rising at a rate of over 10,000 per year.”
“This year about 2,000 premature deaths in Ireland will be attributed to obesity and the numbers are growing relentlessly. Diseases which proportionally more obese people suffer from than the general population include hypertension, type 2 diabetes, angina, heart attack and osteoarthritis. There are indirect costs also such as days lost to the workplace due to illness arising from obesity and output foregone as a result of premature death. Using the accepted EU environmental cost benefit method, these deaths alone may be costing the state as much as €4bn per year.”
- Department of Health and Children, National Taskforce on Obesity
I think you are giving him abit too much credit there lads. Nobody asked him a question, after being invited on stage he just start shouting what seemed of the top of his head. Surely Enda’s speech writer could have sorted him out. Im sure it was a mistake rather than an intelligently thought out plan.
It’s actually something they’ve been saying for a while Seamus, but it was horribly mangled there…
I think the more important question here is why the hell does the front window of the airplane roll down?!
In case the pilot needs a fag
In case the pilot or captain need to communicate with ground crew and don’t have a radio link, amongst other things…
Emergency exit
Golf will be in the Olympics 2016 Rio !
Golf is more of a game than a sport.
Rory crowned King and Katie crowned Queen. What a family they’d make, the new Irish Royalty.
and its an escape facility
why is Katie Taylor in a fake plane?