Team given golden welcome

There was more gold than at any previous homecoming and that was just the dignitaries. Lots of chains, a few brass necks. It was feel-good posturing at world-class level but, hey, no one was in the mood for rancour. As the 39-member Irish Paralympic team touched down, a little light entered Dublin airport, an Irish success story landed and a media bun-fight ensued.

With five gold medals, three silver and one bronze it was a collection that outstripped the combined total of medals won by the able bodied athletes since 1984. But who wants comparisons.

Johnny Cronin, Margaret Grant and Gay Shelley's with their Boccia golds, Tom Leahy (discus), swimmers David Malone and Mairead Berry, Mary Rice with her 400 metres silver, and Catherine Walsh with her pentathlon bronze, arrived back from Sydney with the rest of the team to an emotional affirmation of "Paralympian Cool".

Nobody more than family and friends understood the significance of it for Malone, the 100 metre backstroke champion, as he strode off the plane. Like many elite athletes, the world record holder doesn't beat about the bush.

"Looking back it was a great result but at the time of the race I felt disappointed," he said. "I was hoping to break my own world record. But it's something you never forget. I'd never swam in front of so many people before. Swimming was attracting 17,000 people for the finals.

"To win was a relief more than anything. It was the only medal I haven't won either in Europe or at the World Championships, it was the only one that was missing. The ultimate would be a gold medal again in four years' time," he added.

Mairead Berry from Coolock, Dublin, was singled out for the media's full-court press: Back her wheelchair into the elevator door, stick three television cameras towards her head and 10 snappers in her face and interrogate. Even with the help of her coach Leo Green she couldn't move. But she smiles. She never stops smiling. With a gold and two silver medals clutched to her chest, a haul that helped put Ireland 21st in the medal table out of 125 countries, she smiled for Ireland.

The 100 metres freestyle final will stir Berry's memories for years to come. Having lost out to Spaniard Sara Carracelas in the 50 metres backstroke, Berry - dismissing any possibility of a hard-luck story - reversed the order by slicing eight seconds of the world record.

"It's unbelievable, I just don't know what to say," she said. "I was nervous before the events began that I never expected three medals.

"There was always the Spanish girl I had to look out for when I won the gold. I didn't know where I finished and I looked up to the manager. He had his finger up like the number one. I couldn't believe it."

Catherine Walsh didn't make her move in the pentathlon until the 800 metres race, the last of her five-event discipline. Her task was simple - pulverise the field. She knew she had to skin her nearest rival by 30 seconds to secure a bronze medal, then went out and ran four seconds faster than she had ever run. "Coming up the home straight I was getting tired," she said. "It was then that I heard the crowd and the announcer saying `Ireland's in the lead' and I thought to myself. . . Wow.

"It was unbelievable. The crowds and the support far exceeded our expectations. I knew that if I could get it right on the day I could do something. That final race was pressure but I felt confident going into it and winning it was fantastic."

The Minister for Tourism, Recreation and Sport, Dr Jim McDaid, even broke convention to attend the party. Having declared, when he became Minister, that he would not attend homecomings for Irish teams, he arrived at the airport in upbeat mood.

"This is a special and notable occasion," he said. "In all of the circumstances surrounding this team I was happy to depart from the policy I made when I came into office."