Well, you don’t get to welcome home Olympic medalists every day of the week.

On Skibbereen Main Street, ladies in bustles saluted each other over the heads of the crowd as a vintage Punch and Judy show got underway. Vegetable sellers and urchins argued loudly as RIC officers turned a blind eye.

A seafarers’ monument born out of a fishing tragedy in Union Hall that claimed five lives will be unveiled in the village this weekend.