Thousands of people descended on the Kickham Plaza in Clonmel last evening to welcome home Olympic medallist’s Daire Lynch and Philip Doyle.
The pair won Ireland’s first evert Olympic Heavyweight rowing medal when they secured bronze in the double sculls in Paris earlier this month.
Speaking at the homecoming, Daire Lynch from Marlfield, Clonmel, described the expectation that the crew had placed upon themselves to medal in the Olympic Final.
“That’s what puts the pressure on us because we knew had we not gotten a medal we’d have been extremely disappointed and realistically it would have been an underperformance if we didn’t get a medal.
“If we had just performed a normal or good performance we would have come home with a medal – but our coaches are always telling us all these stories of people going in favourites and coming out with nothing so that’s always in the back of your mind too.”