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SYMBOLS OF IRISH sport, 2016 highlight-heroes.
Halloween costumes in row-boats, viral videos, and signs outside businesses with ‘Pull Like A Dog’ written on them.
Poster boys for Olympic success, role models for young rowers, the much-adored ambassadors of west Cork.
But out of everyone, Gary and Paul O’Donovan are the most relaxed about their Olympian status and public adoration.
They’re all about the rowing, and even with that, they feel there’s no extra pressure on them than there was before.
“[We just] get on with it and don’t think about it so much and life’s easier that way,” Paul told TheJournal.ie, and Gary continued the rest for him:
“We’ve kind of been at it for 16 years and it’s all we’ve ever known really so. We’ll just keep doing it, yeah.”
And it’s that charisma that draws people to them and to the sport.
But despite travelling around the world for competitions and races, the boys themselves are still drawn home to Skibbereen.
Mingling with the crowd
Yesterday, Gary and Paul went to Bloom in the Park in Dublin’s Phoenix Park for the first year to take part in a cooking demonstration with model-turned-foodie Roz Purcell.
And the crowd went wild for them, laughing and clapping as the brothers performed a running commentary on Roz’s egg-based dish.
Paul on Roz’s dish: “That’s not going to feed all these people – you didn’t think this through at all.”
Or another: Paul turns to Roz, attentively stirring the contents of the pan, and notes: “This is taking a lot longer than in the test run earlier.” But this is Roz’s turf and she had his measure, turning slowly and saying that it was because he took so long to whisk the eggs.
Gary wasn’t behind the door on the banter either. Earlier, as Roz explained the instructions, Paul interrupted: ”Skillet? What’s a skillet?”
“A pan.”
“Oh right I thought it was a type of bird,” Gary quipped.
After Roz whipped up her dish (and Gary burned his mouth tasting it), Nevin Maguire, performing a cooking demonstration afterwards, came on stage to meet the brothers, telling them they had the crowd in stitches.
He took a selfie with them, as did Roz, and left them to the crowds of children, mothers, fathers and grandparents asking for pictures, handshakes, and autographs.
“Please will you sign this for my sons,” asked a woman who was holding a picture of two boys dressed in sports gear and two white caps flipped backwards.
Paul was only too delighted.
At Bloom at least, they’re proving the country’s favourite Olympic medal-winning, egg-flipping, quick-witted-quipping, rower brothers – but they demur from their status as national heroes.
“We don’t really view ourselves as national treasures at all,” says Paul, as Gary nods.
“We’re much the same as the rest of the people. A lot of people alright they’d pay attention to us and listen to us and read about us… we try to use that for positive things like telling everyone – not just athletes – to eat healthy things.”
“Do you always juggle eggs?” Roz asked Gary during the cooking demo, wondering how he’s become so good at it.
“Anytime we have to take photos with eggs, yeah.”
But despite events like this one, where the brothers are – you’ve guessed it – promoting eggs for Bord Bia, they maintain that nothing’s changed for them since the Olympics.
Paul says:
If we never won the Olympics and never won a medal we’d be out on the lake there anyway, rowing.
Their training at the moment involves two hours in the morning out in the boat, and then going back in the evening to do some high-intensity for up to an hour and a half – “race-based stuff” they call it.
Two or three times a week they do weight-based stuff like deadlifts. in between all of that they give their bodies a break and rest.
It’s not easy-going but you could be doing a lot harder things.
When it comes to how the Olympics have affected their expectations, they remain as steadfast to their ‘strategy’ as ever:
We can only go so fast. And as long as we go the fastest we can, we can do no more than that.
They say they owe a huge amount to the people of Ireland for what they’ve done, and no matter where they’re travelling to, they love coming home to Skibbereen – which is what they’re doing directly after this interview.
I mention it’s a pity they can’t row back down to Skibbereen.
They give it serious thought, with Gary saying it would save them time: “All we need is a straight waterway down!”
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Current national debt is circa €190B. Is Noonan giving up on getting the ECB to finance the Bank debt and get it deducted from the €190B. This was one of FG’s election promises. The real national debt figure is probably close to €500B if we were to accrue all PRSI pension liabilities. Yesterday’s article in the Sunday Times is frightening on this.
Why would they include future liabilities? At that rate you could bring future expected revenue into the equation!
Because as from 2017, we have to account for unfunded liabilities to give a true picture of national debt. Just as companies have had to do for years. There’s no real difference between a bond you have to repay and a pension you’re committed to paying, except in accounting terms.
Well said. Couldn’t have put it better myself.
Where will the money to fund these early repayments come from ? I know it’s a stupid question but does anyone know the answer ?
Maurice the minister is doing lip service for the next election. Europe is in receivership and has told Noonan no to what you have noted. It would be nice but our politician didn’t talk hard they were the good boys in the class. So Europe expects them to keep paying.
They will be coming from 15 year loans/bond issues so the banks will be lending this money to repay them back early.
Wait ’til Ireland doesn’t get the retroactive bank recapitalization.
And when – not if – new international corporate tax rules take effect from 2016 (OECD), at least €50 billion, or half the annual value of services exports will be vapourized.
Plus, some multi-nationals have also said they will leave when that happens i.e. when they have to start paying a lot more corporation tax back home on top of high wages in Ireland.
Hold on to your tin hats.
Emily
Perhaps now the penny might drop when we consider the point John Bruton was making when discussing such liabilities recently.!
He was massively abused on this site when his opinion about defaulting by the State on pensions etc when the alternative was bankruptcy .
How quickly we shoot the messenger in Ireland rather than trying to deal with realities.
Still think that a debt deal will have to be done.
The EU live in a fantasy world where real economic reality is denied and put on long finger.
They blew their chance to resolve the Euro crisis.
That would apply to unfunded civil service pensions but not to PRSI pensions. That liability is subject to year by year legislation and, in theory, could be reduced or abolished by a new Finance Act. It won’t happen of course, but the possibilty means that it is not a reckonable long term debt.
What do you mean give up, they didn’t even ask for feck sake
ohhh I feel another seismic shift coming on….
Property tax
Water charges
USC
….any if these terms familiar to you????
No financial penalty for paying off loans early. Ha ha. We should be getting a discount for paying early.
Don’t get into finance. I can tell by this one comment that it’s not for you.
We should never have had them in the first place…ffs
Getting a bit annoyed with this sycophantic attitude the government has with Europe.
What, you feel no surge of patriotic pride when our minister begs the faceless financiers to kindly allow us to give us a big ball of cash?
* you a big ball of cash *
The Germans will never forgive us for the Hypo/DEPFA mess.
Peter.
What a brain and what a genius. Please tell us how yo can save the State a cool three hundred and seventy five million Euro a year as proposed by Minister Noonan so that we don’t have to politely ask our creditors for agreement to vary the terms of our Bailout.
You must be a whizz with figures and I envy the confidence with which you stride across these pages.
I showed your comments to a colleague and I could see straight away that he misunderstands you. In tact what he said about you couldn’t be printed here but all great men Peter suffer from such slingshots!
@Rodgers as per usual your wisdom knows no bounds you and your comments are wasted on the journal.
Its time you took up your true vocation and that in my humble oppinion is that of chief Fine Gael ass wipe.
Paul
Thanks! Your opinion in your own words is indeed humble and it is quite clear that you never aspired beyond that though instinct probably told you that there was enough material in you to heft a Sinn Fein shovel but you would need to be told what to do after that.
The world needs simple folk Paul and at least you have recognised that!
Well said Paul Mc. When Rodgers is in the company of Edna its like a scene from the film The Human Centipede.
hows life as the chief arse kisser and male cheer leader to enda and his brigade richard cos clearly you are one of them patriots big nose hogan was on about
So Richard hows that seismic shift of Enda the statesman performing these days?
Kerry
Whaaaaaaaaat?
When the cost of Noonan’s very generous minster’s pension to which he does not contribute a cent is added to the debt it could be the last straw that breaks the taxpayer’s back.
Wow, we are so lucky.
Looking at the returns, it is all rosy for Noonan – revenue’s new mantra is to suck every last penny of savings and profit out of small business and their employees and to present it as a gift to some unelected ex-politicians and expect a pat on his obnoxious head.
“Look what I brought you – someone else’s debt, maybe I’ve ruined a few small businesses and taxed earnings and savings from Irish people to the hilt, but as long as we’re all happy let’s make this look like good news to the ‘media’ – you’ll print it like that, you property funded news website”…
At the end of the 1st 1/4 2008 this country was heading towards a deficit of 22bn euros. In d last 5 yrs we have undertaken a huge social experimenr in how to balance d books without strikes/riots etc and we have nearly made it. There is huge credit due to fg and lab and enormous credit due to d dept of finance and public expenditure.
Why should lab and fg get any credit. Ff told them what to do before they got booted out.
How is it any credit to them, it’s a credit to the irish people not the politicians. The politicians didn’t stop riots they hid away in Leinster house and quietly stripped us of our pride and dignity and left most of us demoralised and close to bankruptcy. Suicides are through the roof, let’s see these magnificent politicians of yours deal with that elephant in the roof. Crime.? It’s bandit country in ireland again, those shower deserve no credit for anything.
The simple fact if the matter is that this country of 4.5million people withdrew over 16bn from circulation over the past 5 years. Politicans put their names forward as spokespeople for that. You didnt. You come on forums and talk abt how bad it is. Pokiticans arent stupid or even greedy anymore. They all know the suicide numbers, the high taxes, the unemployment but they still put their names forward. You didnt. it is easier spew vitriol from d sidelines
More bad news for the Shinners. Tax take up. Ahead of forecast.
Where are the Shinners anyway?
I suppose it’s hard for them to spin positives into negatives. Especially when there’s an election coming up. Just doesn’t appeal to voters.
But it’s all they have.
so anyone that has a different opinion to them muppets in power are shinners………explains the mental state of the cheerleaders for the likes of the FG/LB/FF crowd on hear…..deluded one trick ponies who believe anything that comes out of the lot in the dail
Election spew has started
” Noonan ” and ” charm ” in the same sentence !! . It is just so wrong, Jack Horgan-Jones. Just so, so wrong.
Will Mr Noonan be dancing suggestively for Mario Draghi et al as well?
Charm?? God help Europe…
Jam?………………………………..
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NEVER!
Why was my two comments deleted?
Just in time for the general election!
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