YOU WILL ALWAYS BE OUR HERO, KATIE
THOUSANDS OF SHOCKED FANS WATCH TAYLOR DEFEAT FROM BRAY SEAFRONT
Emotions ran high on Bray seafront on Monday afternoon as a huge crowd, first elated then disappointed, applauded Bray fighter Katie Taylor both before and after her Olympic defeat.
Thousands of people travelled from far and wide to watch the bout on a big screen, with the back-drop of Bray Head and a clear blue sky.
The crowd learned before the first round that the stadium in Rio was almost empty, a vastly different picture to that of the electricity of London 2012 and the hoards of Irish supporters there shouting for Katie.
At the first mention of Bray, the home crowd started to cheer, their enthusiasm growing as their heroine’s face appeared on the screen.
Mary Rooney and Nicholas Rooney travelled from Tullamore in County Offaly with their grandchildren.
‘There’s a great atmosphere here today, excellent,’ they said. ‘We’re here for the last hour, it’s brilliant.’ They had themselves nicely set up in an area, and had a great time listening to Jamie Duff and his band play on the bandstand before the main event. ‘Hopefully now she’ll do the business,’ said Mary. ‘It’s nice to be here,’ said Nicholas. They said that they are big supporters of Taylor.
Darragh (8) and Eoghan (4) Flanagan, with Mary and Nicholas, differ on what to do with their futures. While Eoghan reckons he might be a boxer when he grows up, Darragh reckons it’s far too hard!
Christina Doyle from Bray and her friend Sarah Higgins are big fans of Katie. While hope still reigned after the first round, they described the atmosphere on the seafront as ‘ buzzing’.
Do you think she’ll get it? ‘Absolutely, definitely,’ they both replied. ‘I think Katie has a really good chance.’
Mia Hayden (11) came from Dublin for the event and said during the fight that she was having a really good time. ‘It’s really good and I’m a big fan of Katie,’ said Mia, who plays soccer and Gaelic. Rhys Knight (8) had faith that the Bray bruiser would win. Anita Knight said that the children were having a good time. ‘She’d better win,’ said Anita.
‘We had the day off work and just thought we’d come down and check it out,’ said Adam Hogan from Cabinteely. ‘It’s unreal.
‘It’s nice to see so many people here supporting Katie,’ said Aoife O’Donoghue from Galway.
‘It’s looking good so far,’ said Adam, just before the final round. ‘We’ll see how this round goes.’
‘We’re gutted for her,’ said one woman when the fight was over. ‘I don’t know enough about boxing to know if it was an unfair decision. It looked very close. She’s really done us proud anyway. ‘She’s a credit to the country,’ said another. ‘It’s disappointing. I thought she did better. It could have gone either way,’ said Michael Daly who travelled from Dublin to watch the screening.
‘I’m gutted for her. She put so much into it and she’s just a great representative for the town. She did brilliant to get there again. It’s just really sad,’ said liz Conroy, a Bray native now living in Beaumont. ‘It could have gone either way. We had a good time anyway. It’s a beautiful day and great to have the big screen and everything.’ Her children said that they thought she was going to win, and they remember the last time, watching it at home and cheering Katie on.
‘I was surprised,’ said local woman Yvonne Longmore. ‘ I’m very very disappointed at that result. I thought she actually had it in the third round. I don’t know what happened but she did look tired. It was a good day, great for the kids but just a pity it didn’t go our way.’
Cian Longmore said that he thought she won. ‘But the judges made their decision and she didn’t win so what can you do?’