Olympic stars set for joyous homecoming

Ireland’s Olympic stars will return home to a heroes welcome today with medal-winning boxers taking centre stage.

Hundreds of fans are expected to greet the team when they arrive at Dublin Airport in the evening, but authorities warned well-wishers of limited space.

“We would ask people to bear in mind that there is limited capacity in the Arrivals Halls for large volumes of people,” a spokeswoman said.

“In addition normal passenger operations will be continuing at the same time.”

The Olympic Council of Ireland will host a special homecoming celebration for the team at the airport with Sports Minister Martin Cullen and the Chinese Ambassador attending.

A lone piper will then escort the team through the airport where they will be met by scores of family and friends.

Huge cheers are in store for boxers Kenny Egan, Darren Sutherland and Paddy Barnes, who notched up a hat-trick of medals during the Beijing games.

Neilstown native Egan had to settle for silver after he was beaten by home favourite Zhang Xiaoping in a closely fought battle on Sunday.

Belfast fighter Paddy Barnes and Navan man Darren Sutherland walked away with bronze medals after commendable performances earlier in the week.

Irish head coach Billy Walsh said: "Paddy has been incredible at these Olympics. Every time he gets into a ring he leaves absolutely nothing behind him, he gives it everything he has in there and he is a credit to Irish sport. His performances gave us all a tremendous boost in Beijing."