Kieran Shannon: Ciara Mageean seized all the days, right up to the last

Olympian Ciara Mageean with over 400 young participants during a run to recognise her achievements to Irish Athletics during day two of the 123.ie National Senior Track & Field Championships 2026 at Morton Stadium in Dublin. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

We never met her. We never even saw her race in the flesh; most Olympic events, when you think of it, are staged in faraway, half-empty theatres until once every four years they combine to become the greatest show on earth. And yet we all felt like we knew her. Though you might only have seen snatches of her over the years – like when she showed and talked about those camogie elbows that got her out of that jam in Rome, or scaling Costa Rican ridges with Michael Darragh Macauley and Ray Goggins, the ablest, strongest sick person you’d ever seen – you knew enough. That through her grit and her grace and her geniality, Ciara Mageean was a gem.

Rarely has the passing of an Irish sportsperson felt this devastating. Though we had been given notice that the day would eventually come, the definitive news on Sunday arrived with the blunt force of a shock, leaving us stunned in the same hollow way we were when word broke that Cormac McAnallen and Anthony Foley were no longer with us. Like them, she was gone far too soon.