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THE 1972 Olympics are featured in a controversial Steven Spielberg movie called Munich later this month - but pentathlon athlete Margaret Murphy was there at the real games.

Now, she's skipping over a county border from the edge of Co Cork to the Kerry coast. Margaret and husband Paud are selling their home of 41 years in Ballyvourney in Co Cork.

Her Olympic training was done on roads, hills, slopes and boreens of Ballyvourney in the 1960s and she competed in the 1972 Munich games, possibly the most famous sporting event of all time. Eight Arab commandos broke into the Olympic village and killed two Israeli team members and took nine hostages. All nine died later in a shoot-out with German police.

The games re-started after a 24-hour mourning period.

The XXth Olympiad was famous for the arrival of diminutive Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut, the sporting prowess of multi-medal winner swimmer Mark Spitz, a Jew, who withdrew from competition after the attack.

Belfast's Mary Peters took gold in the pentathlon - also Margaret Murphy's event - at the age of 33 years.

Margaret was aged 27 when she competed against Peters in the shot-putt, long jump, high jump, 100m hurdles and 200m flat run. "I didn't figure in the medals, but I had a personal best," she recalls of the golden sporting moments which slotted in between winning numerous national Irish athletics titles.

Margaret, nee Barry from Cork city, took up athletics in her late teens after playing camogie. She married teacher Paud Murphy at 19 and had two children before her Olympic debut and had two more children afterwards.

"At the time, the ladies' Olympic village was almost like a fortress, but the whole thing was a fabulous experience. The high point for me was probably walking into the stadium at the start of the games, it awed me."

About a dozen athletes competed for Ireland, among them a priest, Fr Paddy Coyle, in the marathon.

Margaret and Paud built their home from scratch on the side of a then furze-covered Cork hillside. When she decided to go for Olympic competition, she got to know every rood and perch of the gaeltacht parish as training facilities and tracks were non-existent.

She and Paud, (who's retired, but is still the senior Leaving Cert mathematics marker for the Department of Education) are moving to Ardfert near eldest daughter Deirdre and some of their grandchildren.

They are rowing in to help with school runs, sports training, scout visits and more, and may even jog a bit on the miles of sand on Banna Strand where they have a mobile home.

Local estate agent Micheal Creedon is selling their four-bed, detached home, Cuan Baoi, which in a scenic rural setting 30 minutes from Killarney and 45 minutes from Cork city.

With a price guide of €350,000, it has kitchen, living room with patio and garden access, a large sitting room, family bathroom and four bedrooms, on a large site with rockery and garage, within a sprint of Ballymakeera village.

Medals and sporting memorabilia not included, carpets and curtains are negotiable.