Champion of a nation’s hearts brings out her mother’s pride
Kids watching that will be inspired Harrington the hero oozes personality
IN Dublin’s fair city, it’s always the Mammy that speaks the wisest. And Yvonne Harrington, her face as honest as an open book, nailed it when greeted by the sight of Marty Morrissey in a flaming red jacket outside her door on Portland Row at 6.30 yesterday morning.
‘She done it for all of us,’ she said of her darling daughter Kellie, before raising her voice ‘All of us!’ and then a pause, followed by a softer, more reflective, ‘Yeah, all of us.’
‘That’s all she wants is to see the people smiling, make people happy. That was it. And she did that,’ said Yvonne.
Yeah, that she did, even though her Ma didn’t follow a single second of Kellie’s bout with Brazilian
Beatriz Ferreira as Marty found out when he put it to Yvonne that Kellie had ‘come good in the second and third round.’
‘I don’t know,’ said Yvonne. ‘I didn’t watch it.’
Amid the morning mayhem for the darling of Dublin 1, her younger brother Joel — not Jo-el as Marty inadvertently called him — also called it right.
‘Kellie done what she does. On the biggest moment, on the biggest stage, when others would freeze and shut, Kellie loosened up and expressed herself,’ he said.
‘She won gold for her road, her community, her county, her country, she’s a role model for her sport. She’s the flag-bearer for her country, for her sport. Everything she gets, every ounce of it, she deserves.’
As horns sounded and another ‘Marty Party’ got under way, Christy Harrington was the proudest Da in Dublin.
‘She set a new mark. I was expecting Kellie to put on a spectacular show and she did, she pulled it out of the bag,’ he said of his daughter.
Back in Montrose, a smartly dressed Kenny Egan and Eric Donovan reflected on a marvellous morning for the sport, and the nation.
You suspected both men were itching to jump about the studio for a friendly spar, to release the pent-up emotions inside, but they stayed within the ropes.
‘She had to go the trenches,’ observed Donovan of a threeround cliff-hanger.
‘She had the right tactics for that fight. She carried it out to a tee. What a day for Irish boxing. Our nerves were gone,’ he said. While Egan was equally effusive.
‘She never panicked, was never in awe of (Beatriz) Ferreira,’ he said. ‘To come out and win the second and third rounds, to up the gears, it was a master class.
‘She’s put on the performance of a lifetime in an Olympic final. Olympic champions, they’re rare in this country, I can tell you.’
We’ve only ever had two in boxing, Michael Carruth in Barcelona in 1992 and Katie Taylor in London 20 years later.
Carruth won his medal exactly 29 years ago yesterday — what a coincidence — while Taylor’s dominance of amateur boxing convinced OCI chiefs to allow women’s boxing into the Olympics.
Without Taylor blazing her trail, the door would have remained shut for Harrington and her sisters in the sweet science.
Donovan pointed out that Ireland had won 18 medals in boxing at the Olympics.
‘It took 40 years to win nine medals and in the last four Olympics we’ve won nine more.’
He saluted boxing’s High Performance unit set up in 2003. ‘It shows we can mix it with anybody in the world.’
He also noted that Ireland only had one boxer qualified only a matter of weeks before the Tokyo extravaganza but, in the end, sent seven fighters, who delivered two medals.
Donovan stressed the knock-on impact of Harrington’s heroics. ‘Kids watching that will be inspired,’ he said.
Egan agreed. ‘That’s what the Olympics are about. It gives people the chance to watch Olympic sports and dream big.’
He also stressed the importance of keeping the Tokyo fighters in harness for Paris in 2024. ‘There’s another Olympics in this group,’ he said.
It was a terrific duel, which the Brazilian felt she’d won. She took the first round 3-2 but Harrington levelled at 3-2 in the second.
More than that, she was 20-18 up on the cards of two judges, from Cuba and Australia, which was a crucial advantage as Hugh Cahill pointed out in commentary.
Like Harrington, Cahill was economical, clean and quick in the booth. He didn’t get carried away but called it as he saw it. Before the official result was announced, he declared, ‘She’s done it!’
Not many commentators get that thrill.
Cahill also observed how ‘not often great people get what they deserve’. Kellie Harrington did. Different class, as the late Jimmy Magee would have said.
After the presentation, Ireland’s new gold medallist told RTÉ’s Joe Stack that anyone who gets under the ropes to fight at the Olympics is a ‘champion’.
Stack asked Harrington how she managed to turn it around in round two, to which the grinning champ replied.
‘I don’t really know what happened in there.’
Amid the sweat, and tears and the smiles, heroine Harrington oozes personality.
She said she was like ‘a fluffy pigeon’ inside and can’t wait to get home and crash out on the sofa.
As Egan said of her bubbly character, ‘She’s great craic.’
Back in Portland Row, Mammy Harrington was given a piggyback by her elder son, Chris, as a nation exploded with euphoria on a grey Sunday morning.
Where’s Marty, someone asked? ‘Probably in the house making his own tea,’ quipped Egan.
What a morning. Mad, magical, and memorable.