CORK – For many across the world of Olympics-watching, Paul and Gary O’Donovan have taken home to Ireland not only a silver medal for rowing at the August Games in Rio de Janiero but also a medal of another sort for the ebullience and Irish wit they displayed in front of tens of millions after their second-place finish.

Images of the happy brothers openly chatting to Irish television via satellite after the race about urine tests, “podium pants,” and how they plan to celebrate their achievement instantly spread around the earth.

Viewers heard them ask the interviewers, “How are tings?” and “What’s the craic? We’re in Rio, the background might look superimposed, but it’s very real,” offered Gary before his brother Paul delved into questionable detail about his test for doping supplements.


The brothers arrived in Cork to a raucous welcome on Monday night, Aug. 29. The airport management had arranged for “an honour welcome” for the rowers,” the Irish Independent reported, “and their Aer Lingus plane taxied through a water arch created by two fire brigade units.

They were visibly taken aback as more than 200 people, most wearing yellow Rio T-shirts, cheered their arrival home,” the Independent reporter wrote. “It’s fantastic to see a huge crowd singing, shouting and roaring. It means so much,” Gary said.

“We’ve been looking forward to coming home to west Cork and Skibbereen since we left Rio,” added Paul. “There were times in Rio when we heard about the celebrations back in Skibbereen and almost wished we were back there to enjoy it all.”

Both admitted that they’ve been a little overwhelmed by hints of the scale of the celebrations planned for them in west Cork. “They’re telling me they’ll have to put an extension on to the town for the night,” Paul said. “It will all be mighty craic. Hopefully, everyone will enjoy the celebration and, who knows, if it persuades some young fella or young girl to try rowing as a sport, it will all have been worth it.”

The rowers had flown back to Cork via Amsterdam, having been at the World Rowing Championships in Rotterdam where Paul took gold on Sat., Aug. 27.