Ireland’s silver lining at the Rio Olympics

RIO is known for its carnival but it had nothing on Skibbereen last night as the West Cork town celebrated Ireland’s Olympic silver lining after local brothers Gary and Paul O’Donovan won Ireland’s first ever Olympic rowing medal.

Their success in winning silver medals was part of an historic breakthrough for Irish rowing after two crews qualified, one from Donegal and Dublin, the other from Cork.

Sinead Jennings and Claire Lambe deserve great credit for the effort they made in getting to the final, although they missed out on the medals, finishing sixth.