Austerity Games had lighter side

There are tough times and there are truly tough times and, as the Olympic Games returns to London, it bears remembering just how difficult life was when the global extravaganza last pitched up in the English capital.

It is not for nothing that 1948 is referred to as the Austerity Games.

Yesterday, the 11 surviving members of that year’s Irish team were honoured at a luncheon in Farmleigh House where crab cakes, smoked salmon, sirloin steak and fruit crumble were consumed as they backtracked down memory lane.