KIERAN McCARTHY on the latest glorious chapter in the Skibbereen Rowing Club as Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy become Olympic gods
PUSHING a trolley through the arrivals hall of Dublin Airport on Tuesday evening with four suitcases packed full of Olympic gear – and, no doubt, the precious cargo of Olympic gold medals – Fintan McCarthy’s understated arrival back on Irish soil was a total contradiction to the mayhem he had caused in his hometown of Skibbereen on Friday morning.
Ditto for Paul O’Donovan, in a tee-shirt and shorts, hands in his pockets, strolling alongside Fintan, like a holiday-maker after getting home from a week in the sun and trying to figure out where he parked the car.
The back-to-back Olympic gold medallists had hoped to row in under the radar before catching the aircoach back home to Cork, but these famous sons of Skibbereen were quickly recognised.
These two Olympic gods-turned-immortals were on the journey back to their hometown that has enjoyed more Olympic success than most – and CSO figures back up that Skibb is the town of Olympians – yet each triumph by locals on the world stage is treated with the enthusiasm and fervour as if it is the first.
Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy with their gold medals.(Photo: Morgan Treacy/INPHO)
Judging by the scenes in Skibbereen on Friday morning as three locals rowers competed in medal races in Paris – Aoife Casey was in the lightweight women’s doubles final – there’s no Olympic fatigue in the town, though if Paul and Fintan were longing for the familiar comforts of their beds at home on Tuesday night, given their exertions in Paris, that’s understandable. Row like kings, then party like kings.
That they grabbed a lift back to Cork off a stranger they had met on the flight from Paris to Dublin – instead of their planned aircoach – is another anecdote to add to a long list, but also a reminder that success hasn’t changed these two.
On land, their feet remain grounded. On water, they are lords of their world. But they wear their crowns lightly.
This was the Olympics where these two Aughadown men, raised in the same parish and forged into medal-winning machines in the same rowing club, elevated themselves to a new level. The golden wonders who have won the Olympic titles in Tokyo and Paris will now be Olympic champions for eternity, given lightweight rowing has been dropped from the Games.
Much like the planned homecoming in Skibbereen, post the World Rowing Championships in Canada where Paul will be in action, will be an occasion they’ll never forget, the memory of their Friday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium will live long too, for the men in the boat, their families and the army of fans, including the half of Skibbereen the swapped Field’s bread for French baguettes and the half that minded the house at home.
The air crackled with anticipation in Skibbereen on Friday morning, and though the early-morning sun was nudged to one side by darker clouds, it wasn’t a forewarning from the gods.
Founding member Richard and Susan Hosford with Mairead O'Shea at Skibbereen Town Hall for the rowing finals on Friday morning.(Photo: Anne Minihane)
Instead, the locals left in Skibbereen were singing in the rain by 11.10am after Paul and Fintan powered across the finish line after a glorious row that lasted six minutes and 10.99 seconds, with their success inevitable once the Irish lightweight double made its move around the halfway mark.
In the closing 500 metres, the whooping and hollering and cheering and roaring grew louder in the town hall in Skibbereen, all eyes transfixed on the giant TV screen, as Paul and Fintan put clear water between themselves and Italy in second (6:13.33) and eventually Greece in third (6:13.44), with European champions Switzerland surprisingly missing out on a medal.
‘I really felt like we were back at our best for this race,’ Fintan beamed afterwards, a nod to the less-than-perfect build-up to these Olympics given he missed the Europeans through illness. The great sports stories need jeopardy, and there was a sprinkling of it before the men’s lightweight double began in Paris, but as the heats and semi-finals played out, the signs looked ominous.
‘We had a rocky enough season,’ Fintan explained, ‘Well, I did. Paul’s obviously been consistent as hell throughout the whole year. But yeah, it was just really nice to get a few good races under our belt early in the regatta. Coming out for the final, there were no nerves.’
Back home pre-race there was a confidence tinged with nervousness, but the unwavering belief that if Paul and Fintan brought their A-game, no rival would keep pace with them. They all know Paul too well at home to have fallen for his pull-like-an-underdog yerrahing; these two men are Goliaths, never Davids. There’s a certainty to Paul and Fintan, given the Olympic and World medals they have helped pave the streets of Skibb with, and this script played out as planned, a fitting end to the Skibbereen Rowing Club’s Olympic lightweight chapter that began with Eugene Coakley in Athens 2004 and now ends with a glorious gold in Paris 20 years later.
Fitting, too, that one of the club’s founding members back in 1970, Richard Hosford, took pride of place in the town hall on Friday morning. Dressed for the occasion, with his Skibbereen Rowing Club red and white tie, Richard’s smile and pride echoed that of an entire town and community that has been brought closer together by its local rowing club that conquered the world. A nod to Richard, Donie Fitzgerald and the late Danny Murphy who set the seed for a club that has grown into a juggernaut, on national and international levels. The three local men who made all this possible.
Not all of the club’s main characters were in Paris on Friday morning. The town hall in Skibb had its fair share, too, including former world finalist Denise Walsh who found herself designated with media duties from the national press. Drawing on her knowledge, by the halfway mark she knew Paul and Fintan weren’t going to be denied. Later that day, her dad Tony Walsh, the popular local postman, and Dave O’Brien, part of the rowing club crew that cycled from Skibb to Paris ahead of the Games, serenaded Paul and Fintan with a rendition of Dear Old Skibbereen outside the Olympic rowing venue in Paris; the familiar sound of home a soundtrack to this day of glory.
Hannah and Sarah Hurley, cousins of rower Paul O'Donovan, cheered him on at the town hall in Skibbereen.(Photo: Anne Minihane)
Back in Skibb, Beijing Olympian Richard Coakley, who planned his family holiday home to perfection, wasn’t surprised by this latest Olympic victory. A rower turned coach, he knows class when he sees it – and it drips from Paul and Fintan, on and off the water.
Not even the rain drops that fell from the sky in Skibb could dampen the mood after Paul and Fintan’s Olympic glorious success was followed by Aoife Casey and Mags Cremen’s brilliant fifth place in their lightweight women’s double final – Skibbereen Rowing Club starring on the world stage, again. The town hall, Access Credit Union and PTSB on Main Street, and more establishments dotted throughout the town, were packed to the rafters for this latest history-making exploit.
One of their sons, Paul, is now the most successful Irish Olympian ever with three Olympic medals from three successive Games. Silver. Gold. Gold. Another of Skibb’s sons, Fintan, now has two Olympic gold medals, a member of a very small club that includes Dr Pat O’Callaghan, Kellie Harrington and Paul. It’s the stuff of legend.
Like the River Ilen never rests, neither do two of its most famous students, and there’s the promise of more to come. For now, it’s time to bask in the story of two local men who are on top of the world, by heeding the advice of one of the greatest Olympians of all time, Simone Biles.
‘You guys really gotta stop asking athletes what’s next after they win a medal at the Olympics. Let us soak up the moment we’ve worked our whole lives for,’ the incredible American gymnast said – and the homecoming in Skibbereen will be the ideal chance to show these two locals just how much their stories and success has resonated.
It won’t be as low key as their surprise arrival in Dublin Airport that caught everyone unawares on Tuesday evening. Expect more wildness and mayhem in Skibb that evening, the town whose sons and daughters have put it on the map.
Something in the water, alright.
