Smooth ride hopes for Olympic torch
The Irish Olympic Council has been inundated with requests to take part but only 40 people will get the opportunity south of the border.
Eighteen of those places will be filled through nominations made by the relay’s official sponsors — Coca-Cola, Samsung, and Lloyds Bank — and an official announcement is expected early next month.
“All the names have to be vetted by the gardaí first and we can’t release the list until then,” said council president Pat Hickey. “It is the same in Britain. The London Metropolitan Police get all the torchbearers’ details.
“It was funny. We had a meeting in the Mansion House there recently with LOCOG [London 2012 Organising Committee] and a few others and LOCOG have short memories. They said, ‘Sure, nobody in Ireland would disrupt the torch relay’.”
“Someone else in the room reminded them of a little Irish priest in a skirt who caused a big disruption in the Athens marathon. We don’t want that but the gardaí are very professional and are vetting every torchbearer.”
Hickey was referring to Neil Horan, who pushed Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima to the side of the road when he was leading the marathon in the 2004 Games in Greece with just four miles to go. De Lima ultimately claimed bronze.
There was more controversy four years ago when the Olympic torch’s global procession prior to the Beijing Games was marred by human rights protests and arrests in Paris, London, and San Francisco.
Such scenes had originally prompted organisers to restrict the 2012 relay to Britain and Northern Ireland until provision was made for a flying visit across the border and on to Dublin. In all, the torch will spend five days on the island of Ireland.
LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe has previously gone on record to dismiss the likelihood that activists would attempt to use the event as a vehicle of protest this time around, and Hickey struck a similar chord.
“The system with the torchbearer is that there is a pool of runners around the torchbearer. In Britain it is the London Metropolitan Police and here it will be gardaí from the SDU [Special Detective Unit].
“So, there is a zone of protection. They are always worried about some situation but I personally don’t think that will happen. I think it is going to be a very fun, happy, joyous occasion.”
Belfast-born Wayne McCullough will hand the torch over to Dubliner and fellow Olympic medallist from the 1992 Barcelona Games, Michael Carruth, on the border between Newry and Dundalk.
From there, it will travel by convoy to the Irish Olympic Council headquarters in Howth where it is hoped President Michael D Higgins will receive it. After that, it will be on to Croke Park before the first of the bearers takes possession for the route around the city.
