West Cork ready to salute its Olympic rowers next month

SKIBBEREEN’S Olympic rowing heroes are set for the mother of all homecomings on Sunday afternoon September 1st as West Cork salutes its heroic athletes.

Two-time Olympic gold medallists Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, Aoife Casey, Emily Hegarty and coach Dominic Casey will attend the event being organised by Skibbereen Rowing Club. It is expected that the homecoming will follow a similar plan to the homecoming in 2016 with further details to be released in the coming weeks.

At Dublin’s homecoming on Monday, with crowds of over 20,000 in attendance, Paul O’Donovan was absent from the podium as he had already returned to work as a junior doctor in CUH last week. Fintan McCarthy said: ‘We’ll leave him off, he’s doing a really good job at home in CUH. We miss him, of course, but we will be reunited soon.’

Paul, who is now a three-time Irish Olympic medallist, is preparing for the World Championships in Canada next week, where he will line out in the lightweight men’s single sculls.

Fintan, along with bronze swimming medallist Mona McSharry, led Team Ireland at the closing ceremony on Sunday night in Paris, due to Daniel Wiffen taking ill. Daniel’s mum’s family, the O’Keeffes, were originally from Kinsale, but settled in Wirral in the UK.

Paul and Fintan’s homecoming into Dublin Airport last week almost garnered more attention than their gold medal success after they received a spin back to Cork with a fellow passenger, Kieran Duggan. He was surprised when they told him on the flight that they were planning to get the Aircoach back to Cork, if it ‘wasn’t booked out’.

Speaking on the Southern Star Olympic Podcast last week, Fintan said they hadn’t really organised anything going home, as he was heading back out to Paris the next day again.

‘I just came back to drop a million bags, but thank God Kieran, who we met on our flight from Paris, saved the day. We were going to get the Aircoach but he said he would take us back to Cork,’ said Fintan.

‘We got a door-to-door service from Kieran and he dropped me and Natalie Long to Ballincollig, and Paul to Douglas.’

Meanwhile, locals in Kilbrittain came out in their droves on Monday evening to welcome home their Olympic hero, Nicola Tuthill, as part of the Kilbrittain Summer Festival. The 20-year-old athlete, who was the youngest competitor in the women’s hammer in Paris, finished 16th in the Stade de France last Sunday morning.

The Kilbrittain Festival Committee that organised a reception  for Nicola Tuthill on Monday night to mark her outstanding achievements at the Olympic Games; from left, Denis O'Brien, Barry Madden, Louise Hayes, Ollie Ahern, Mary O'Nell, Olympian Nicola Tuthill, Catriona O'Driscoll, Theresa Maloney, Cathrine Harrington, Michelle Cronin and Ann-Marie O'Mahony.
(Photo: Donie Hurley)