Flame’s visit sparks Olympic spirit

It might be the closest Ireland ever gets to hosting the Olympics, but the visit of the Olympic torch to Dublin today is being celebrated like an Irish gold medal in the London games later this summer.

Dublin is the only city outside the UK to be given the honour of being part of the tour of the torch to mark the countdown to the 2012 games.

Following a handover at the border at 6.30am, a group of 40 torch bearers, including Ireland’s first Olympic gold medallist, Ronnie Delany, will take part in a two-hour relay through the streets of the capital before the Olympic flame returns to Belfast.

Pat Hickey, president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, yesterday outlined the OCI’s efforts arrange the historic visit, which will culminate with a festival in St Stephen’s Green.

New rules introduced by the International Olympic Committee following the Beijing Games in 2008 restrict the running of the Olympic torch to within the host country. However, Mr Hickey said he persuaded the IOC to bend the rules.

Mr Hickey said it would have been a shame if the Olympic torch could not have visited both sides of the border, given the OCI represents the island of Ireland, and especially in light of the progress in the peace process over the past 15 years.

“We will never have the Olympic Games in Dublin and the nearest we are ever going to come to it is the London Games,” he said.

Mr Hickey thanked the chairman of the organising committee of the London Olympics, Sebastian Coe, who was instrumental in approving the cross-border visit of the torch, and joked that it might have something to do with Mr Coe, a four-time Olympic medallist, having a great-grandfather from Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny.

Deborah Hale of the London Olympics committee said the relay was symbolic of a rallying cry to the athletes of the world to come together in peace and to get ready to become an Olympic nation. However, Ms Hale claimed that the “true spirit” of the relay is its celebration of communities and inspirational individuals.

Among the torch bearers, who will each carry the torch around 300 metres, are popstars Jedward; Dublin footballer Bernard Brogan; former rugby stars Shane Horgan and Denis Hickie; Irish soccer legend Paul McGrath; and jockey Ruby Walsh.

Joan Freeman, the founder of suicide prevention group Pieta House, said she was shocked to be asked to carry the torch but felt greatly honoured.

Olivia O’Toole, a Dublin City Council employee who works with local communities and a former Irish ladies soccer international, said she felt privileged to get to carry the Olympic flame down Sherriff St where she grew up.

The proceedings will begin with a handover at the border at 6.30am by two Irish Olympic boxing medallists, Wayne McCullough of Belfast and Dublin’s Michael Carruth.

President Michael D Higgins will welcome the Olympic flame at a special ceremony at the OCI headquarters in Howth at 8am, while the official relay begins at 9.08am, when Kilkenny hurler Henry Shefflin carries the torch along the new skyline walkway on the roof of Croke Park.

Ronnie Delany, who won gold in the 1,500m at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, will carry the flame past Taoiseach Enda Kenny at Government Buildings, while Dublin’s lord mayor, Andrew Montague, will greet the final torch bearer, Sonia O’Sullivan at 11.45am, before the Cobh athlete lights an Olympic cauldron in St Stephen’s Green.

Gardaí have warned that there will be rolling road closures in the Dublin city centre area throughout the first half of the day to facilitate the relay.