Two Irish Daughters - Finding Role Models for Irish Girls

                                                      Mona McSharry's breakthrough Tokyo Olympic achievements correctly have her as the name on the lips of anyone mentioning Irish Swimming and the surreal Gold medals of Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy have been rightly lauded and held up to give us a such a buzz this week, delighting the masses and giving pride at seeing our boys and girls do so well.   Conspicuous by its absence is the mention of the Olympian who won 3 gold medals and 1 bronze at the Atlanta Games in 1996 - Michelle Smith De Bruin. One time national hero consigned to the whispered equivalent of Voldemort. So many conflictions offered by supporters and detractors. Some make sense, others border on the idiotic. Conspiracy theories aplenty, friends now foes. I will hold my hands up - I want to bel...

When you fully believe in yourself, anything is possible.    Bronze medals for Aifric Keogh, Fiona Murtagh, Emily Hegarty and Eimear Lambe - Ireland's first of the games.  They knew, they just knew they had it in themselves to drive on in the 2nd half of the race, comforting themselves in the knowledge their aerobic fitness would see them get onto the podium. It is a gruelling and demanding sport with no hiding spots. Who could ever forget the documentary of Steve Redgrave of GB's Olympic training where he regularly collapsed with exhaustion. That is what it takes, and that is why these girls deserve our full admiration and respect. The girls had demonstrated how hard they finished earlier in the season and their competitors knew this thereby racing out early to try and blow off the Irish threat.  The hard training yards, realisation of their capabilities and trust in the Group meant the Irish girls could storm the 2nd half of the race, finishing with aplomb and over...

  Every time the Olympics comes around, there are the conflicting senses of optimism and pessimism.   We know the likes of the USA, China, GB, Russia (ROC), japan and Germany will dominate to an extent, and our race is pretty much ran before we get there.  But, and there is always a but, Team Ireland has that way of always doing you proud, fighting to the end, plucky minnow against the commercial beasts. This Olympics is no different. Still in its infant week, the sensational win by the women's hockey team over South Africa sparked the onset of belief that this tournament could be another World Cup repeat.  The defeat to the Netherlands while expected, showed the team are developing and improving tactically  all the time.  Ayeisha McFerran was simply brilliant as she repelled one attack after another, ably assisted by her crew who fought valiantly against the best team in the World.   It was rear-guard action at times, but that's what we expe...