Cork’s golden boys: Skibbereen ‘buzzing’ for local lads

If it takes a village to raise a child, maybe it takes a town to raise two Olympic gold medallists.

That town is Skibbereen and it is “buzzing” following the lightweight double-sculls rowing gold medal won by the two Skibbereen Rowing Club , Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy, at the Paris Olympics yesterday.

The West Cork pair also won the gold at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

O’Donovan is now the only Irish athlete to have won a medal at three successive Olympic games.

More than 300 ers filed into the West Cork town’s hall, which was decked out in green, to cheer on the local sports stars on TV.

While, as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival, the town hall was the official screening venue for the final, every pub, shop, and even the local AIB bank had a screen and hosted a slew of ers eager to catch a glimpse of the race.

The cheers from ers were deafening as the now three-time and two-time Olympian duo “pulled like dogs” and crossed the finish line in first place, clinching their Olympic gold medals in the event.

Pride emanated from each and every one of the 300 fans in the town hall, with the chairperson of Skibbereen Rowing Club, Sean Murran, saying: “There is an enormous sense of pride.

“From the founding of the club, the committee, through to all the coaches, parents, and the community here itself, there is a massive amount of work and put in to help the club reach the heights that it does.

“Rowing is not a cheap sport, but we try to keep it affordable for all young people.

“It’s because of the from the community that we are able to do that.”

Mr Murran added: “It feels fantastic. In a word, it is just fantastic.

“They are great ambassadors for the club.”

Reacting to the win, Skibbereen Rowing Club member and former Youth Olympics contender Denise Walsh told The Echo: “It is super-exciting.

“The lads really have power and they powered through the middle and finally won in clear water, dominating.

“It was great to end so strong.

“The town is buzzing. I was driving into town this morning and I was like ‘Who are all these people wearing the Skibb rowing tops?’ So, it is so exciting.

“Every place in town is watching it, there are crowds everywhere.”

The rowing club member said that, despite the nerves ahead of the race, they were confident in the duo’s ability — adding that their win will inspire generations of rowers.

“It’s awful to say that we have that expectation for them to win, they have done so well, but it’s not taken for granted.

“They are so successful that it is so inspiring that the younger kids will have that growing up,” she said.

The secretary of Skibbereen Rowing Club, TJ Ryan, was left feeling nostalgic, recalling the hard work and dedication put in by both athletes to achieve such a feat.

He said: “We are very proud of the lads this morning.

“I was just thinking about it there this morning — it has been some journey over the last nine years. We qualified by about a foot in 2015, went on to win the silver medal in the following Games, gold five years later, and gold this time.”

Skibbereen is set to party in style over the coming weeks, leading up to the rowers’ return. On this, Mr Ryan said: “We said we wouldn’t plan anything until this evening when we knew.

“We will probably go into battle mode now to plan ahead for the celebrations.”

The O’Donovan and McCarthy pair weren’t the only Cork athletes taking part in yesterday’s racing, as competing in the women’s lightweight double sculls A final were two-time Olympic rowing duo Aoife Casey and Margaret Cremen.

Despite their best efforts, the Cork women missed out on the podium — placing fifth overall — but beating the seventh place finish they acquired in the 2020 Olympic games held in Tokyo.

Sharon Murphy, a coach at Skibbereen Rowing Club, said: “I’d say rowing was just a natural thing for us.

“We have an incredible river, we are a nation of rowers, from rowing in and out of the islands.

“In Skibbereen, the tradition of rowing is sand boats, and islanders, fishermen, lobstermen.

“It was all done by rowing in the past.

“But there’s something about Skibbereen.

“Ireland as a country came into this Olympics with 38 medals, and now four of them are from one club.”