IT’S not often that Phil Healy is caught for words, but the Irish sprint star was blown away by her homecoming held in Ballineen and Enniskeane on Thursday night.
Phil, from Knockaneady, went to national school in Enniskeane, worked in the local Centra store, so her roots are firmly embedded in her home patch – that’s why it meant so much to come home after her heroics at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Phil and the Irish women’s 4x400m relay team finished fourth in the Olympic final, an agonising 0.18 of a second away from a medal, while in June with the same quartet Phil won a silver medal at the European Athletics Championships.
‘It was unbelievable to come back home, to see the amount of people out on the streets with their flags and jerseys, to see the excitement on all of the kids’ faces was unbelievable,’ Phil told The Southern Star.
‘We had our homecoming in Dublin on Monday but to come home to your village and your area is very, very special.
‘I remember working in the Centra in Enniskeane and you know all the regular people and faces, so being back in the community is very special. I don't get to come home too often so to come home to such excitement is unreal.’
It was a fitting hero’s welcome for the Ballineen Bullet, who was paraded through the Ballineen and Enniskeane in a Rolls Royce convertible!
