An hour before Katie Taylor edged closer to an Olympic dream in the Excel Arena, another Irish woman’s medal hopes were blown out over 144 miles away.

The absence of yachts from Dublin Bay on a bank holiday Monday in August was the first sign that it was no ordinary day for Ireland’s sailing community.

Sailing has used the successes of Ireland’s amateur boxers as the template to raise standards within the sport.

A top Olympian feared Irish athletes competing in the boycotted 1980 Moscow Games would stage an IRA-inspired demonstration.

* January 6: Three members of UDR killed by an IRA landmine near Castlewellan, Co Down.