Stars accept second billing to the athletes

REMARKABLY there was still soap left in the men’s toilets for an almighty scrubbing up job had been done on Colin Farrell’s tongue.

Breaths were held all over Croke Park when the heart-throb hell-raiser with the habit of turning the air forty shades of blue bounced into view like a housebound collie getting his first walk in days.

But though he shot about the stage as if chasing imaginary cars, he didn’t bark, he didn’t bite and there wasn’t an expletive to be heard.

Farrell, whose entrance to the venue at the head of the Pakistani delegation was overshadowed by a frenetic dancer in traditional costume leaping and twirling his way up the field like his feet were on fire, wasn’t the only one out to prove celebrity bad boys have good hearts.

Soccer tough guys Roy Keane and Vinnie Jones were so angelic as they paraded out with the athletes, they made Damien Duff look like trouble.

But then this was a night when even those who live the appearance fee life accepted the spotlights that streamed from the roofs of Croker were not for them.

Stars who have bodyguards for their bodyguards let their barriers down and walked as one with athletes, some of whom arrived here without so much as a change of track wear, and for once the millions of miles that separates their worlds was reduced to a pace.

Proof of their easy going charm was the way they cheerfully desisted from hitting the ground and screaming for help every time they were assailed by the hyperactive microphone wielding Kathryn Thomas of RTÉ.

Heather Locklear was lovely, Dylan McDermott was dignified, and Jon Bon Jovi and his crew looked so sweet they could have easily been mistaken for a John Denver tribute band.

Formula One ace Eddie Irvine wasn’t taking any chances and kept his shades on but Bono wore a lighter pair than usual so his starry eyed expression was there for all to see.

He didn’t even talk much, such was the normally loquacious U2 frontman’s enchantment with the occasion.

His few words were well chosen though and he made the most of the honour of introducing Nelson Mandela to the crowd by affording him the accolade of the world’s ‘President of Freedom’.

Mr Mandela’s appearance brought the crowd to its feet just as the arrival, by golf cart, of the other great living legend of the night, Muhammad Ali, had brought tears to their eyes.

Ali, last in Croke Park for his thunderous bout against Al Lewis 31 years earlier, greeted the crowd in jest like he used to meet his challengers, with his characteristic finger-pointing as if to say: ‘I see you. You see me? You see me looking at you?’

The crowd saw and admired, as they did another icon of sporting endeavour, gymnast Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who attained the world’s first perfect 10 score with her ground-breaking performance in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Ireland’s own heroes, Ronnie Delaney, Eamon Coughlan, John Treacy, Catriona McKiernan and Michael Carruth, also took their places at the heads of visiting delegations along with DJ Carey, Packie Bonner and Brian Kerr.

Ronan Keating joined in too and, keeping his priorities in check, manfully managed to restrain himself from licking the shoes of legendary record producer Quincy Jones.

It was, as Colin Farrell put it, ‘pure’. And there weren’t any bubbles when he said it.