IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

[anton pulisov]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

and even sweden, who throw money at handball, swimming, ping-pong and god knows what else, only produced the one gold medal.

[Diable Rouge]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Still, we know well we'll never win athletics medals, so best to concentrate on canoeing, showjumping, walking and sailing where we might have success.

[Reed John]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Is MMA popular in Ireland? Or is boxing still the combat sport of choice there?

That thing where they whip a steel ball down the road and almost kill the spectators - that should be in the Olympics. They play it in New England too.

I have a great interest in "local" sports.

[Duncan Gardner]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Reed John wrote: That thing where they whip a steel ball down the road and almost kill the spectators - that should be in the Olympics. They play it in New England too

That would be in the Armaghlympics. And rural Cork, IIRC.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

They play a game called road bowling or pronounced "boweling" Where you have to get a metal ball from point A on a winding country road to point b. curling it around bends, or lofting it over. It's big in west cork, and armagh.

It's dangerous if you accidentally drive into the middle of the game though.

Boxing is the major combat sport of choice, and it has a fairly intense and reasonably substantial following. But it's absolutely tiny compared to football and the GAA.

[anton pulisov]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Hehe, my mother calls 10 pin bowling "boweling" as well.

[Duncan Gardner]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done Kelly. I'll never again be able to say '[Random internet conspiracy] is about as realistic as an Irish ski-slope'...

[Diable Rouge]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

And if she was from Louth, she might have made our news.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Britain. She won.

[Donnchadh Ghairdinéir]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Right, here we go. As ever, I'll keep an eye on the athletics, swimming and the NI competitors. Although less enthusiastically than in the past. It's a mix of reasons: athletics is bent beyond parody, the Team GB hysteria, and various locals are just twats (of both Orange Order and Cartoon Provo varieties).

But mainly I'm just pissed off with international sport and generally. Bring it on.

[Incandenza]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm rooting for Irish pole vaulter Tori Pena--she graduated from UCLA. She grew up in Southern California, so I'm guessing she qualifies for Ireland through her parents or grandparents.

[elguapo4]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Rumour on Rte news that an Irish boxer has failed a drug test ,hopefully not but unfortunately wouldn't be surprised

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm rooting for Irish pole vaulter Tori Pena--she graduated from UCLA. She grew up in Southern California, so I'm guessing she qualifies for Ireland through her parents or grandparents.

Apparently it's a granny from Derry. Her wikipedia page says that she danced in the world Irish dancing championship in 2003, so I reckon that makes her pretty Irish. (this would also apply to someone from China, who saw riverdance, and learned it from youtube.)

[Sam]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

It really does. One of my girlfriend's friends won a medal (third place, I think - we watched her but I left before the places were handed out) in one of the Under-27 categories of the South American Irish Dancing Championship earlier this year.

Not only does she not have a drop of Irish blood in her body, she wasn't even Under-27.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Her passport, and free Semi-detached estate house in leitrim await her collection. being really into Irish dancing, while not actually being irish, is a bit like keeping Kosher, and attending temple, without actually being jewish. Technically you may not be, but you've gone so far down the road, that people will happily extend membership of the group to you.

It's the same with Gaelic Games. Check out the convoluted Cultural signifiers in This clip

and Age cheating so so gloriously old school. Like a west limerick Junior Football match in the 1950's.

[garcia]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

i met tori pena at the london olympics and came away wondering why the irish sports council was spending money so a mediocre american pole vaulter could live her dream of becoming an olympian. amazed she's back for another go.

[Duncan Gardner]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

I met an East German Pole Vault champion while working over there as a student. We lost touch, but then the following year she turned up as a West German Pole Vault Champion...

So, do we know who the super-steroided boxer is yet?

[Southport Zeb]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael O'Reilly apparently

[Lang Spoon]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Now dublin at least has some decent swimming facilities, I'd have thought they'd look to building that sport up, if even Scots can win medals in the water it might be a profitable area to invest in (or did Innocent Michelle kill any enthusiasm for it?). There's also the problem that at least half the dubs I know never learnt to swim properly (maybe the kids are wee fishes these days, I've no idea).

[Donnchadh Ghairdinéir]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Thread favorite Ginger Spide MBE won't be adding to the tally after losing in the paperweight boxing first round

Couldn't sweat down to the limit apparently?

[Ray de Galles]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

He got really beaten up in that final round, three Olympics is pushing it a bit far though.

I wonder if McIlroy will be laughing after the stick he was getting from him.

[Duncan Gardner]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps, although Curlyboy might prefer a temporarily low profile of his own after all the bollocks he spouted about first Zika, then contradictingly how he didn't have any responsibility to grow the game etc. etc.

Not to mention form- he's doing the Cutter more often than a Bunnymen trib act at the moment.

[Borracho]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

RTE had an unprofessional little snipe at Barnes a few minutes ago while showing highlights of his defeat, the voiceover person noting snidely that the Spanish lad who beat him "isn't on Twitter".

There is bad blood there apparently.

[Sam]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

The Awesome Berbaslug!!! wrote: Her passport, and free Semi-detached estate house in leitrim await her collection. being really into Irish dancing, while not actually being irish, is a bit like keeping Kosher, and attending temple, without actually being jewish. Technically you may not be, but you've gone so far down the road, that people will happily extend membership of the group to you.

It's the same with Gaelic Games. Check out the convoluted Cultural signifiers in This clip

and Age cheating so so gloriously old school. Like a west limerick Junior Football match in the 1950's.

That's the thing, she wasn't even cheating. It was something daft like they were a pair short in that age group so the organisers stuck them in the U-27 competition and told them not to say anything to any of the other competitors, or something.

At any rate I'll let her know about the free residency. Being an Argentine who's not my girlfriend I assume she's eligible for an Italian passport, but another one can't hurt.

[Duncan Gardner]

IRELAND HAVE WON A MEDAL!!!!!!!!!!!

Borracho wrote: RTE had an unprofessional little snipe at Barnes a few minutes ago while showing highlights of his defeat, the voiceover person noting snidely that the Spanish lad who beat him "isn't on Twitter".

There is bad blood there apparently

PB is a funny one. His knack for annoying people extends beyond the predictable NI fans, as de Galles suggests. Yet he impressed someone enough to get invited to lunch by Betty Windsor.

Whatever you think of Barnes, RTE are just being dicks. Plenty of journos and bloggers (present company excepted) talk far more shite on social media than chippy sportsmen.