THE LAST POINT: Birmingham bliss and Dublin dreaming

Birmingham has always been a city with deep connections to this country, some good and some bad, but I’m not sure it ever witnessed an Irish invasion as large and as enthusiastically noisy as it did last week for a frankly astonishing European Athletics Championships at the city’s Alexander Stadium.

I don’t need to go over the list of Irish performances that lit up the country for eight glorious days as the airwaves and news pages were filled with all the goings-on from Birmingham, the only blight being the clash with the European Aquatics Championship in Paris which meant that the achievements of Irish swimmers and athletes were competing for coverage.

It was an incredible week for Irish sport - the two golds, silver and bronze in Birmingham emulated by Ellen Walshe’s two golds and three medals for Sligo’s Mona McSharry, a silver and two bronzes, the stuff of fairytales a few short years ago. My only quibble was the clash of events split the media coverage both events deserved but, on the flip side, with the GAA inter-county season over and the Premier League yet to start, perhaps both events fell at just the right time.

I don’t what it was like in Paris but over in Birmingham, it felt as if everywhere I went, Irish people were there – the first people we bumped into in the hotel were Irish and every day, all you could see was Irish tops, the Green almost as ubiquitous as the colours of the hosts. Travelling to the stadium on the superb bus service put on by the organisers, talk of Mayo’s All-Ireland and Kerry’s struggles were had with supporters from both counties.

​Inside the stadium felt like a home from home – I bumped into Ballinaglera’s Michael Cornyn while a chat with Carrick’s Gerard O’Donnell saw Kiltubrid’s Gary Burke join us, the former Ballinamore AC walker at the championships with his sister Emma. Former Carrick CS teacher, and athletics organiser, Hilary Collins was there along with Annaduff’s Evie Guckian and Drumsna’s Padraig Farrell also made the journey to the English midlands – and that was only the Leitrim connections I knew about!

When the locals and even the other visiting fans kept mentioning how many Irish were there and their contribution to the atmosphere, you began to realise the impact of Irish fans on the entire championships. Irish athletes spoke of the wall of noise that greeted them and how it spurned them on and I’m not sure if there has been a better half-hour of Irish sport in the guts of 100 years than what we witnessed on the track last Thursday evening.

Mark English’s victory in the Men’s 800m seemed almost like a command performance, not one ounce of doubt that the Donegal man wasn’t going to cross the line first. Running with an authority that we haven’t seen since the heyday of Sonia O’Sullivan, you almost felt as if English was toying with the field as he cruised to the gold!

Not too long after, maybe the guts of 20 minutes, Rhasidat Adeleke re-emerged from the doldrums to remind everyone of her supreme sprinting talent. Considering she didn’t even have a qualifying time until the last weekend of July, the rejuvenation of the Tallaght sprinter is the story of the Summer and maybe a telling reminder of the power of home and the right environment for any athlete, the time spent at home by Rhasidat over the past few weeks clearly bringing the best out of her.

Truth be told, I find it hard to pinpoint a highlight – this athletic anorak was in heaven, spotting Carl Lewis a few feet behind me, as he watched his Irish sprinter Sean Aigboboh in action, transported me back to the 80s watching the US legend on the track; walking alongside Seb Coe, Paula Radcliffe and Steve Cram on the way out of the stadium; being introduced to former European 200m silver medalist and Ireland sprint coach Christian Malcolm or a chat with Germany’s Henrik Janssen, all six foot seven of him, with his discus bronze medal hanging around his neck as we queued for fast food last Friday evening.

But the stand-out memory, apart from all of Ireland’s medals, was not a performance on the track but the abrupt silence that descended on Alexander Stadium the split second the Women’s 800m Final concluded and the almost mass evacuation that followed, more than 50% of the crowd gone within five minutes – Audrey Werro beating home favourite Keely Hodgkinson and Holland’s Femke Broeders-Bol was my most captivating moment of my three days in Birmingham.

Once I came down from my high, and it wasn’t easy with the adrenaline flowing after a delayed flight home and an even more delayed baggage claim before a dash from Dublin to Ballinamore, I got to fantasising about whether Dublin could ever host the European Championship? The hordes of Irish fans in Birmingham more than suggest that the market is there but I wonder if we could rise to the logistical challenges that the Championships entail.

I’ve no doubt that Irish volunteers could surpass the care and attention my Mam & Dad received every time we visited the stadium but I wonder could we provide the fleet of buses that were on call for every session, all for a £5 return fare – the transport difficulties we face in everyday life are one thing but Birmingham’s infrastructure was eye-opening.

Alexander Stadium maxed out at just over 23,000 spectators, but it is world away from Santry’s Morton Stadium, with a full warm-up track next door. The dreamer in me believes Croke Park would be a wonderful venue for a European Championships, after all Hampden Park was converted with an elevated track for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Croker is an unparalleled venue but the question of additional facilities, transport, etc, etc comes into play.

On the other hand, we are spending millions to support the hosting of the Ryder Cup next year, so much that the Government is refusing to release the exact figures, the latest estimates up near €100 million of direct funding not to mention another €160 million on necessary transport infrastructure upgrades so maybe the dream of Dublin hosting the European Athletics Championships isn’t so far fetched, it certainly has me dreaming!