Ciara Mageean was proof athletes can be 'serious and tough but also kind and funny'
David Gillick: 'Ciara was great to be around. She was enthusiastic. She was funny.' Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Ciara Mageean has been remembered as an inspiration, both for her achievements on the track and how she dealt with a cancer diagnosis.
The European champion and two-time Olympian died on Sunday morning. She was just 34. In July 2025, she announced that she was undergoing treatment for cancer. A year later, there was widespread shock when she revealed it was stage four bowel cancer with the odds stacked against her survival.
A statement on her Instagram account on Sunday read: “At 6:30am this morning, Ciara lost her battle with cancer surrounded by her loved ones. A beloved daughter, sister, wife, friend and inspiration to so many, she will be deeply missed.
“Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.”
Just over a year before revealing that she was having treatment, Mageean won 1500m gold at the European Athletics Championships in Rome. Turning for the home straight in third, she burst through a narrow gap between British duo Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell and sped to victory. "I didn't grow up playing camogie to get boxed in,” she told RTÉ, never forgetting where she came from and who got her to the top of the podium.
Her journey to that gold medal was not linear. There was heartbreak along the way for the Portaferry, Co Down, native. The ups and downs played out on Irish television, as she often poured her heart out after disappointments - only to persevere and give her all again - endeared her to the nation long before there was the triumph in Rome.
Mageean was a star underage athlete, winning 800m silver at the World Youth Championships in 2009 and 1500m silver at the World U20 Championships a year later. Injuries hampered her progression. In 2016, she won 1500m bronze at the Europeans in Amsterdam, three years later bronze again at the European indoors in Glasgow, and in 2022, European silver in Munich. There were also appearances at the 2016 Olympics in Rio and the Tokyo Games in 2021.
At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, she gave one of the best performances of her career, finishing fourth in a stacked field. There were just 0.61 seconds between her and bronze medallist Sifan Hassan. The 3:56.61 time was a new Irish record. A year later, she approached the Paris Olympics with a 1500m medal a real possibility but was forced to withdraw on the eve of her heat due to an Achilles tendon injury. She still holds the Irish records over 800m, 1000m, 1500m, and the indoor and outdoor mile.
In October, she married long-term partner Thomas Moran at a small civil ceremony in Belfast. They celebrated their marriage with a wedding at Darver Castle over the October bank holiday weekend.
Those within and beyond the world of Irish athletics have paid tribute.
Sophie O'Sullivan said Mageean was proof that athletes could reach the top of their sport without losing their personality and sense of humour. O'Sullivan, daughter of Irish great Sonia, recalled Mageean as someone who always made her laugh, even in the tough moments.
"Sometimes I wonder about athletics and sport and the way it’s going, and the idea of what it takes to be really good at something," she wrote on Instagram.
"There’s often an assumption that to be the best you have to be a certain kind of person. Serious, single-minded, perhaps a little boring. Is being boring and being good just the Venn diagram you have to squeeze yourself into? How much of yourself do you have to give away to be the best?
"But Ciara, well she wasn’t boring. She was proof that you can be exactly as you are. Say what you want. That you can be serious and tough but also kind and funny and be just as real a person as ever, all while pursuing what you want, and still come out on top."
Recalling her experience at her first World Championships in Budapest four years ago, O'Sullivan said: "I was 21, I ran a PB, but didn’t make it out of my heat. Ciara was in the thick of her own campaign but she waited for me, took plenty of time to ask and listen to how I’d gone. She reminded me I had plenty of time yet, and by the time I walked out I was laughing in spite of my tears.
"And every other time I encountered her, she always made me laugh.
"I think that’s maybe as good a thing as any to be remembered for."
David Gillick said Mageean should be remembered in the "most positive light because she was just a beautiful person". Gillick was present for some of her greatest triumphs and disappointments, interviewing her immediately after races for RTÉ.
“She was always so honest," he told RTÉ Radio 1.
"The way she carried herself on the track and off the track, you could see how much the sport meant to her. She gave it absolutely everything.
“I had the luxury and the privilege to interview her post-race, and she was always so open and honest. She always just said how it was. People could see her dedication to her sport. She always gave it absolutely everything.
“Going back to 2016, when she won her first European senior medal in Amsterdam, it was eight years until she won that European gold in Rome. Eight years in a sporting career — the longevity, everything she went through with injuries during that period, her perseverance. I think people really respected that.
“She was always giving of her time, even up to very recently, always willing to share her time. I was talking to one of the officials here [at the Dublin Cross Country Championships], and he was heartbroken because she gave him her number from the European win in Rome. She was so giving of her time."
Gillick last met Mageean at Katie Taylor’s farewell fight at Croke Park on September 5.
“Ciara was great to be around," he said.
"She was enthusiastic. She was funny. Even on that night, with everything she was going through, she never dwelled on it.
“She always put this beaming smile out there. She engaged with everybody on the night. You think about what she was going through herself, but you would never have thought it."
Former training partner Phily Bowden was on her way to the start line of the New York City marathon when she found out about Mageean's death. Even
"She was the friend who was always there for me whatever I needed," Bowden wrote on Instagram.
"The strongest, toughest competitor and athlete I’ve ever come across, and a fierce friend to anyone lucky enough to have some of her time, yet somehow she always found time for everyone.
"Ciara lit up every room she walked into with her infectious smile and laugh. She could talk to anyone, and was completely selfless with her time. On training mornings at the track in Stockport, she’d stop to talk and joke around with the visually impaired and disabled track users and if I ran past they’d say “is that Ciara?” and be thoroughly disappointed when it was just me.
"I’ll miss her advice, her laugh, the two of us being silly together. She was the first person I’d want to call when I was sad, or excited, or when I needed someone to tell me what to do. The world has lost an incredible soul, and without her there’s a big Ciara-shaped hole in my life and in the lives of so many others.
"But I know exactly what Ciara would say. Keep on keeping on. Make the absolute most of every opportunity and every single day we’re gifted of this life. That’s how she lived, and that’s how I want to honour her.
"I thought about her every step of the way around New York today. I gave it everything I had, and I hope I made you proud, Ciara."
Three-time Olympian Thomas Barr added: "Today, the world lost one of our purest humans and brightest souls. It feels so unfair for someone who loved life as much as Ciara, to have it cut short. And yet still she managed to pack so much into her 34 years that few could ever dream of doing.
"I have always loved the fact that sport was more than medals and accolades, it was the people you met along the way that made it worthwhile. Ciara was one of those people - if we could have bottled and shared out what she had, the world would be a better place. We knew her as the athlete, but loved her for the person she was behind it.
"With a smile, laugh and attitude that could light up a room, it was fun to be in her company, it was inspirational and exciting to be her teammate, and I feel lucky to have known her and learned from her."
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