Ciarán D’Arcy
Members of Ireland's Paralympic team, who claimed 11 medals at the Rio Games, received a rousing reception on their return to Dublin Airport on Wednesday.
Hundreds of people were greeted the squad as they arrived with emotions high as spouses embraced their partners and children hugged their athlete parents.
Wearing a tricolour tutu, Evie Smyth, daughter of sprinter Jason Smyth, was somewhat overwhelmed as her father, now a five-time gold medallist, led the team out.
“She definitely doesn’t know what to do with all the noise, once we walked in with all the screaming she started crying,” said Smyth, who is legally blind.
Rio appears to be in the past already for Smyth, who seemed focued on potentially extending his unbeaten career run in Tokyo in 2020. "It's a bit like a fairytale, it just keeps happening but you wonder when it's going to end."
There were widely publicised concerns about health and safety prior to the games. Smyth acknowledged the organisation of the event, and the crowds present, were not at the same level as in London in 2012 but said it was about “making the best of what your situation is” and that it was a good experience.
His roommate Michael McKillop was so concerned about the adverse coverage in the lead-up to the games that he asked his family and fiancée to stay in Co Antrim, where they watched as he won a fourth gold medal, this time in the 1500m T37 class.
“I think my fiancée would have loved to have watched me in a Paralympic Games but I think the media attention that Rio got before the Olympics was worrying and I didn’t want to have to worry about my friends and my family,” said McKillop, who has cerebral palsy.
It was also a successful tournament for Irish cyclists who brought home five medals, and tandem riders Eve McCrystal and Katie-George Dunlevy can still hardly believe their gold-winning performance in the Women’s B Time Trial a week ago.
“We’re still kind of pinching ourselves that it happened,” said Dunlevy. “After all the hard work we’ve done and the sacrifices it’s something you aim for, but to actually achieve it is just something special so I’m blown away.”