Golf returns to the Olympic Games next year after more than a century in the wilderness but a ceremony conducted on the fifth tee at Ballybunion over the weekend served as a reminder that the game has made a small contribution to Irish sporting success on the world’s biggest stage.

In 1982, screenwriter Colin Welland famously decreed, “The British are coming!” as he collected his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, shortly before ‘Chariots Of Fire’ surprised everyone by taking home the statuette for Best Picture.