Ireland Olympics Overview: Ireland enjoyed their third best medal haul in an Olympics as they won three medals in Beijing.
Having failed to win a single medal in Athens four years ago on the back of a solitary silver for Sonia O'Sullivan in Sydney, the three-medal tally is an improvement for Ireland.
They have only bettered a total of three medals in 1956 and in Atlanta 12 years
ago, when all four of their medals were won by controversial swimmer Michelle
Smith.
All of the Irish Beijing medals came in the boxing ring at the Workers' Gymnasium - the first in boxing for 16 years - where Paddy Barnes and Darren Sutherland won bronze in light flyweight and middleweight respectively, while Kenny Egan won a silver in the light heavyweight division.
Egan beat Britain's Tony Jeffries in the semi-final to set up a clash with China's Zhang Xiaoping and despite an impressive performance, he was beaten 11-7 and had to settle for silver.
The closest any other Irish competitor managed was a fourth place finish for Eoin Rheinisch in the men's slalom K1 kayaking event.
Rheinisch was the last qualifier for both the semi-final and final, but an excellent run in the final put him in the bronze medal place until the final run of the competition, when Togo's Benjamin Boukpeti pipped him to a podium spot.
Paul Hession's performance on the track was another highlight as he impressed in the 200m.
He was third in his first heat before winning his second in an impressive time of 20.32seconds, and just missed out on a place in the final by finishing fifth in his semi-final.
Olive Loughnane produced the other notable performance in the track and field events as she was seventh in the 20km walk in a personal best time of one hour 27 minutes 45 seconds, while fellow walker Rob Heffernan was eighth in the men's
20km.
In the pool, Andrew Bree was the pick of the Irish competitors, reaching the semi-final of the men's 200m breaststroke, breaking the national record twice in the process.
Melanie Nocher failed to qualify from the first heat of either the 200m freestyle or backstroke, while Aisling Cooney was also unable to reach the semi-finals of the 100m backstroke.
There was success in badminton as Chloe Magee became the first Irish competitor to win a game in the Olympics, beating Kati Tolmoff of Estonia in her first round clash, before bowing out to Korea's Jun Jaeyoun.
The eventing team were eighth in the equestrian, but Irish achievements in Sha Tin were overshadowed by a doping scandal for the second Olympics running.
That came when Denis Lynch was forced to withdraw from the individual showjumping final after his horse Lantinus tested positive for a banned substance.
Rowers and sailors impressed in places but ultimately failed to deliver final places and medals, while the likes of Derek Burnett (shooting), triathlete Emma Davis and fencer Siobhan Byrne failed to make any impression.
But despite those setbacks, Chef de Mission Dermot Henihan took heart from the performances of the 54-strong Irish contingent in Beijing.
He said: "We have got three medals in boxing. We had hoped for more but well done to boxing, but we have also had some fantastic performances in other events.
"We had Eoin in the canoeing who was fourth, excellent walking results, Paul Hession superseded his targets and in the pool we set two national records.
"We also had our first ever victory in a badminton match, our eventing team was eighth and we had some wins in the sailing.
"On top of that, there were some disappointments, but let's concentrate on the positives.
"We're going home with three medals so yes, it's been a success but there have been some results that have been disappointing and we have to look at why."