Memories of this joyous, thrilling week will never leave us (2024)

A JOYOUS, THRILLING and captivating week at the European Athletics Championships in Rome is over.

The memories and emotion and the sense of pride that filled our hearts thanks to the Irish athletes will not leave us.

Seven days of smiles and inspiration.

And medals.

Gold for Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley in the mixed 4x400m relay last Friday night.

Gold for Ciara Mageean in the 1500 metres.

Silver for Adeleke in the 400m and another for the women’s 4x400m team of Sophie Becker, Adeleke, Phil Healy and Mawdsley, as well as Lauren Cadden who raced in the semi-final.

A record haul of medals at these championships that surpassed the three in 1998, two of which were golds for Sonia O’Sullivan, who just happened to be watching on from the RTÉ studio, beaming like the rest of us.

Now, though, a confession: the win last Friday that was the catalyst for this deep dive of emotion completely passed me by when it played out live.

Is it OK now to admit that?

Surely there are others who missed it on the RTÉ Player because, truthfully, the names and faces of those who have lit up our screens and drained every ounce of brutal, horrid scepticism from our pores have not been fully imprinted on the consciousness.

Until now.

Some of us have not been aware of their journey; of the struggles and challenges they have overcome to reach this point.

Now we feel as though their stories are part of us.

The feelings of pride, the excitement and sense of anticipation building towards their races followed by the sheer thrill and nervousness of watching them in action.

Hoping and then believing.

The summer of 2024 belongs to Irish Athletics.

Maybe even Adeleke’s white hairband.

It feels as if the whole country has embraced not only what they have achieved, but how they have achieved it.

Ciara Mageean after crossing the line to win gold in the women's 1500m. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Last Friday, in the moments after that first batch of “glittering, glittering gold” (just one of many immortal lines from RTÉ commentator Greg Allen), timelines on social media made it clear something special happened.

Then we watched, after the fact but still in awe, incapable of truly understanding the technical proficiency, tactical nous and physical duress. All you could do is judge what you were seeing by how it made you feel.

And it was special. It was spine-tingling.

Allen took us all along for the ride, making us feel part of our Irish athletes’ journey of a lifetime.

We felt like we belonged, some of us watching through a haze of imposter syndrome.

And then the description from Allen that roped so many in as Mawdsley got Belgium’s Helena Ponette in her sights and began to overtake on the final dash for the line.

“She is strength, she is elegance . . . Just hold your nerve, she’s holding her nerve.”

My God. They are words delivered with a warmth that somehow brings the moment to an even higher level. They are part of its history.

Sharlene Mawdsley’s face after crossing the line was one of astonishment, admitting afterwards that she didn’t think they would do it.

Even that is such an Irish reaction; of being there and being capable to deliver on that stage but perhaps not possessing with conviction that something great can be achieved.

Now we all believe.

And that was just the first night.

Ciara Mageean has dedicated her life and sacrificed so much, yet could have walked down any road in Ireland other than in her homeplace of Portaferry without causing a stir.

Not now. Now she is a star we all adore.

From left: Ireland's 4x400m relay team of Sophie Becker, Rhasidat Adeleke, Phil Healy, Sharlene Mawdsley and Lauren Cadden on the podium with their silver medals. Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

The 32-year-old earned bronze and silver in the 1500m at these championships previously but in Rome she broke her glass ceiling.

And a British hard border.

Sitting on the edge of the couch and in the height of ignorance, there was nothing but frustration and almost anger at the British pair, Georgia Bell and Jemma Reekie, slowing the pace from the front in a tight compact shape that Gareth Southgate would want from his England defenders at Euro 2024.

“F***ing move it!”

Mageean, of course, was in control, those years of toil and experience that we cannot even comprehend standing to her.

She was prepared to wait the extra second needed for the gap to appear and now it is a moment that is timeless.

“I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in,” she told RTÉ’s David Gillick, beaming.

Maybe it’s the week that’s in it, too, with the local and European elections, that have provided a contrast to this joy.

It has been impossible to ignore the posters and grim rhetoric belonging to candidates from the far right.

There are racists who see a triumphant, powerful Irish woman like Rhasidat Adeleke, smiling and happy and successful while draped in green, white and orange, and they weep pathetically for an ideologically vacuous Ireland.

The rest of us have shed tears of joy and felt a warmth we didn’t imagine having been captivated by Ireland’s new heroes.

Whatever is to come at the Olympics in Paris, we will always have Rome.