THEY KNEW THE result with over 1,000m to go.
Victory was imminent, as the roar of the crowd soared higher and higher with each stroke. History was unfolding before them on the large TV screen.
And as Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy glided through the finish line to become back-to-back Olympic champions, the ground shook inside the Skibbereen Town Hall. An eruption of community pride. Members of the local rowing club shared tearful embraces. Ireland flags shook frantically above happy faces.
The RTÉ cameras were lined up with lights shining brightly, ready to broadcast the outpouring of emotion to the nation.
A fourth locally produced Olympic medal for the small town in West Cork. Seven in total once you break it down to each individual recipient, including Paul’s brother Gary and Emily Hegarty’s Tokyo success. For the third Games in a row, they will be looking forward to an Olympic homecoming.
“That was the last Olympic lightweight race, and they won by clear water,” Denise Walsh, a long serving member of the Skibbereen Rowing club told The 42, summing up the wider significance of the result.
From just after 10am, the fans started arriving at the Town Hall for the live screening of the men’s double sculls final, which was organised brilliantly by the Skibbereen Arts Festival. By 10.20, the seats in the foreground and the gallery were rapidly filling up. And by 10.30, there was no practically no room at the inn. The late arrivals had to settle for a standing position wherever they could find space. Organisers were eventually forced to turn people away at the door.
Two of the last seats available were taken up by a local couple beside this writer. Two of their sons once rowed in an eight-man boat with the O’Donovan brothers. They’ve been to every screening of an Olympic rowing final in Skibbereen, showing their support for their local stars.
Those connections to the two men in the boat were dotted throughout the hall. The front rows were reserved for members of the Rowing club, including one of its founding members, Richard Hosford.
And it wasn’t just the Town Hall that was packed with supporters.
“They’ve filled out two other venues as well – the PTSB and the Credit Union,” Skibbereen Rowing club chairman Sean Murran said. “The whole town is out to support the lads.”
“I’m amazed there’s this many people here. I thought half of Skibbereen was over in Paris already.”
With about 20 minutes to go before the race, RTÉ’s Southern Correspondent Pascal Sheehy addressed the crowd. He willed them to empty their lungs and forget about the cameras.
“Be the extra man and woman in the boat,” he said, triggering a mighty cheer.
Throughout the week, Paul O’Donovan bristled at Ireland’s place in the seedings. He leaned into the David and Goliath analogy to illustrate his disdain at the fact that they were “way down the list”, as he put it. Skibbereen’s Murran reckons some of that talk was laced with some of O’Donovan’s trademark “tongue-in-cheek” character.
But Walsh suspects he may have been sincerely put out by it.
“I think he maybe was. And fair play to him: they’re Olympic champions, they’ve won so many races. And to base the seedings off one race, I think it maybe got under their teeth. But that’s good, they wanted to show everyone. And I think they did.”
O’Donovan and McCarthy weren’t the only Skibbereen rowers competing in a final today. Aoife Casey, daughter of coach Dominic, was in the lightweight women’s double sculls final, sitting behind Margaret Cremen in the boat.
Their final was directly after the men’s final, and not one person vacated their seat in the Skibbereen Town Hall. Everyone channelled their excitement into Casey and cheered her all the way. At one point, they were fourth in a stacked river of world-class crews. They eventually crossed the line in fifth with everyone at home applauding them down the final 500m.
“I don’t think they could have done anymore,” Walsh said. “I don’t think they went under 39/40 [strokes per minute]. That’s what you do for sprints so they really gave it everything. To be in the Olympic final is one thing and then they just raced their hearts out. That was such a fast race. Even some of the crews they beat are Olympic medalists. I hope they’re happy with that.”
She gave a mention to another Skibb representative Emily Hegarty, who was part of the Irish team won yesterday’s Women’s Four B final. Skibbereen’s imprint is all over Ireland’s terrific performance at this Olympic Games.
“They raced really well. They took control of the race to finish on a high so that was good.”
The rain was coming down in Skibbereen at the end of this morning’s rowing session in Paris, but that won’t interfere with plans here. Murran assuredly said that the town will party hard in spite of the weather. There will be a homecoming to mark the achievement at some point after Paul competes at the World Rowing Championship in Canada later this month. That leaves a short space of time for him to celebrate his most recent Olympic triumph, but Murran knows that is how he likes it.
“It’s his own choice. He wants to go. He wants more and more all the time.”
The Skibbereen crowd still had plenty of energy to sing Amhrán na bhFiann with a full voice during the medal ceremony as O’Donovan and McCarthy were decorated in gold. And they all took their time dispersing out the door when the coverage finished up, happy to take in every second of a historic day.
For the rowing club. For Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy. For Skibbereen.
