Katie shines at emotional homecoming

All the unedifying disputes about official ceremonies for Ireland’s Olympic team couldn’t take the sheen off the country’s golden girl, Katie Taylor, as she and the other medallists enjoyed an emotional return on their arrival home from London.

Celebrations, untarnished by the fallout between the Olympic Council of Ireland and various other bodies, took place yesterday in Katie’s hometown of Bray to honour her crowning as Olympic champion.

Similar events were held in Mullingar and Belfast to mark the other medal successes of boxers John Joe Nevin, Paddy Barnes, and Michael Conlan, and the Irish team’s general performance at the London 2012 Games — one only ever equalled by the five-medal haul in Melbourne in 1956.