THEY haven't invented a swimming song. So in the early hours of yesterday morning the crowd at the Poitin Stil broke into the national victory anthem, Ole, ole, ole, ole.
Even though she now lives in Hardinxveld in Holland, the south Dublin village of Rathcoole recognised its own local hero in Michelle Smith yesterday. They welcomed her family, an RTE crew and around 1,500 people into the pub and will repeat the session for tonight's race.
The Stars and Stripes flew alongside the Tricolour inside and all the TV screens, featured the Olympic swimming pool.
Seamus McGowan remembered the bad old days of Irish swimming. "There's the story told years ago about the sports reporter talking about the Irish Olympic swimming team. `They did very well,'" he says. `None of them drowned.'"
The pub's assistant manager, Mr John Waters, had another reason to celebrate. "We sold two week's beer in one night," he said.
The proceeds from a golf tournament and the pub owners' donation went towards the tickets for Pat and Brian Smith, Michelle's parents, to fly to Atlanta last Thursday and stay for 12 days.
"We'll have a bit of a do for them when they get back. We never expected anything like this," Mr Waters said.
