Irish Olympic team to arrive back in Dublin

Gold medal winner Cian O’Connor leads the homecoming today for a 39-strong Irish Olympic team.

Sports Minister John O’Donoghue and scores of friends and family will greet the team as they arrive back at Dublin airport this afternoon.

Triumphant show-jumper O’Connor and the group form part of a mass exodus from Athens airport today which sees some 9,000 athletes leave on 600 flights.

The Irish contingent is expected to enjoy official State receptions later this week hosted by the Government and President Mary McAleese.

But despite being buoyed by one gold medal, team officials will face tough questions today following a disappointing overall performance.

Former sports minister Jim McDaid has already called for the president of the Olympic Council of Ireland, Pat Hickey, to step down, claiming he is disruptive and confrontational.

The team also returns amid a scandal which overshadowed the closing moments of the Athens Games.

Former Irish priest Cornelius Horan pulled a stunt which could have cost Brazil a gold medal, jumping out of the crowd and attacking front-runner Vanderlei de Lima four miles from the finishing line of the men’s marathon.

Brazil appealed, unsuccessfully, for a replica gold medal after de Lima went on to lose his lead, coming in third.

Horan, from Scartaglen, Co Kerry, will be questioned by the Greek authorities today.

He is known to have psychiatric problems, having disrupted the British Grand Prix at Silverstone last July when he walked on to the track as Formula 1 cars sped around the circuit.

He was subsequently handed a two-month prison sentence.

The 57-year-old, who now lives in Nunhead, south London, describes himself as “a Catholic Priest on sabbatical”.

Fine Gael’s foreign affairs spokesman Gay Mitchell has reportedly called on the Government to consider suspending his passport.