Whirlwind tour of Dublin in June to start in Croke Park

THE OLYMPIC torch’s whirlwind tour of Dublin will take place on June 6th, starting off at Croke Park. The torch will arrive in convoy to Croke Park at 9.13am, and will be carried by 40 runners through the streets of Dublin.

The route will take in Mountjoy Square, the Garden of Remembrance, O’Connell Street, Eden Quay, Customs House Quay and Sheriff Street, before crossing the Samuel Beckett Bridge.

It will proceed along Grand Canal Street, up Holles Street, through Mount Street and Merrion Square and on to Canal Road. It will return via Clanbrassil Street and Christ Street into Grafton Street, Nassau Street and Merrion Square, before ending up at the Mansion House in Dawson Street at midday, where there will be a ceremony involving all 40 runners who will be picked to carry the torch.

The torch will arrive in the North on June 3th. It will cross the Border on the morning of June 6th with a ceremonial handover from Wayne McCullough to Michael Carruth, two Irish boxers who won silver and gold respectively at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

The torch will then travel in a 14-vehicle convoy to Dublin for its journey around the city.

The only confirmed torch bearer to date is Olympic silver medallist Sonia O’Sullivan, who is the chef de mission of the Irish Olympic team.

When it is finished its tour in Dublin the torch will travel back to Newry, to begin its next leg of the journey.

An Olympic Council of Ireland spokesman said it had been “inundated” with offers from the public to carry the torch and it was sifting through the applications.

The rules laid down by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games specify that the list of torch bearers can include civic personalities, such as actors and singers, but not politicians.

There needs to be a good ethnic diversity, a considerable proportion of individuals aged under 25 and no athlete selected to compete at the games can carry it. The final line-up will be announced next month.

The council spokesman said most of those who will carry the torch are involved in sport either as competitors or organisers.

The council lobbied hard to have a leg of the torch relay ceremony south of the Border after the International Olympic Committee decided after the Beijing Olympics that the torch relay could be a target for protesters as it had been in the run-up to the 2008 games. An exception for the Republic was granted because the Irish team is a 32-county team.

The 70-day torch relay begins at Land’s End, Cornwall, on May 19th, and arrives at the Olympic opening ceremony in London on July 27th.