High excitement as Cian clears celebration round

The return of Ireland's Olympic hero brought a welcome change of focus yesterday.

The Irishman who'd grabbed a gold medal in Athens was back in the spotlight, at the expense of the one who'd grabbed a gold medal contender.

It would have been a happy occasion anyway, but following Father Neil Horan's attack on a Brazilian marathon runner on Sunday, the cheering crowds at Dublin Airport and - last night - in Ratoath were all the more grateful for Cian O'Connor.

In between, Cianmania reached its height at a party in O'Connor's stables near Ashbourne. Several hundred very young and mostly female equestrian fans cheered the star with an intensity suggesting he had permanently replaced their ponies as a focus for affection.

But the message was getting through too. "Working towards the Summer Olympics 2016," proclaimed one 14-year-old's placard, adapting the slogan O'Connor famously used.

The adulation was not confined to teenagers. Homecoming heroes have to expect speeches from politicians, and no sooner had the young showjumper's flight touched down than he found himself facing into a stiff triple combination. The first and second parts were easy, with the Minister for Sport keeping his contribution short, and the Lord Mayor not speaking at all. But the third leg of the combo was always going to be the most formidable.

Although the airport ceremony was billed as a welcome to the Olympic team, the presence at the top table of Ms Avril Doyle MEP and president of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland, declared this was primarily a horse show. And from the start of a speech that incurred several time faults, the Fine Gael woman was clearly enjoying herself. "I'm speaking straight from the heart - I don't have any notes," she said, as event schedulers' spirits sank.

In a wide-ranging address, she updated the gold medal hero on the "blanket coverage" he has received. She congratulated Kevin Babington (or "Badminton", as she kept calling him) on coming so close to a medal. She called for "radical change" before the next Olympic Games. And alarmingly, while demanding more support from corporate Ireland, she called for sponsors to "mount our athletes", an equine metaphor that had a foot in the water, to put it mildly.

With only 39 team members on yesterday's flight, non-equestrian athletes were scarce. In fact, when the team's chef de mission, Willie O'Brien, asked us to "reflect a moment on the sacrifices made" by the others, it sounded like he was requesting a minute's silence for the fallen. But he got a round of applause anyway.

This was nothing to the applause that greeted Cian O'Connor when he eventually emerged into the arrivals area. Unfortunately, the excitement was short-lived, with the star quickly whisked away by airport police, who were clearly worried that a priest with a kilt might jump out of the crowd.