Olympian Aoife O'Rourke: ‘Representing Ireland in the boxing with my sister is incredible'
'Doing it with Lisa was incredible,' Aoife said. 'It was definitely one of the highlights of my career so far, getting to bring home two silver medals to Castlerea and the community in Roscommon.'
'It was an amazing trip overall, with all the tough fights from the very start of the championship. That's to be expected at that level; there's no easy fights.'
Aoife – a four-time European champion and two-time Olympian – said it was great to have her sibling by her side.
'We're getting to see the world together. We're getting to represent our community, our town, county and Ireland on the biggest stages in boxing, and to be doing that with a sister is absolutely incredible,' she said.
'There's not too many people that can say that they've done that. We're there for each other. We're roommates when we're away. We support each other.'
The boxer is proud of her performance in the Olympics, and of her European titles.
'They're all highlights ... getting the opportunity to go to these places, different countries, and experience all that I have.
'I don't think there's a standout moment, but winning that silver medal [in Serbia] was definitely up there – one of my proudest moments. And doing it with Lisa made that trip extra special.
'Getting the opportunity to [be a full-time athlete] is incredible. I'm very, very honoured and grateful to get to do what I do.'
It's not all about boxing for the O'Rourke sisters though. Last month, they secured a world doubles title in Hyrox, the fitness competition.
Aoife said winning a world title in a sport other than boxing 'wasn't a plan at all'.
'We went out there to have fun... and next thing we knew, we were the first double back to the wall balls [the final segment of the contest], and ran up the ramp,' she said.
'And then, a few moments later, we found out that we're the fastest and that we're a champion. So that was really special.'
She said they got the opportunity to compete at the Hyrox World Championships in Chicago last month because of 'their local support at home'.
'It's an expensive trip, and we're just so grateful that we had people at home that sponsored us and looked after us. Only for them, we probably wouldn't have made the trip,' she said.
'It all comes back to your community and the people that you have surrounding you, supporting you on your journey and trying to make your dreams come true.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Independent
13 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Édaein O'Connell: Friendships and even love are at risk if Kerry v Donegal All-Ireland final doesn't go my way
Relationships across Kerry and Donegal will be under strain as football rewrites the rules One of my greatest friends is from Donegal. He's full of heart and fun and laughter. He enjoys a good pint of Guinness, a getaway to a European city and a night out that turns into two days. He thinks Jim McGuinness is some sort of Messiah, sent to free Donegal from the shackles of life and to propel the county into the stratosphere of immortality and All Stars. Every night, he dreams of Jimmy winning matches and Michael Murphy being forever 35. Now, not only has he found himself a friend from Kerry, but he's also acquired a romantic interest from the Kingdom too. Tensions couldn't be more fraught. The timing couldn't be more inopportune. True love's path has never been more askew.
Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Clodagh Finn: They called Maeve Kyle a disgrace to motherhood — then she became an Irish Olympic icon
Maeve Kyle, the multi-sport athlete and three-time Olympian who died on Wednesday, often told the story of the outrage that greeted her selection to compete in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. The sting of the condemnation in a particularly virulent letter to the editor in The Irish Times stayed with her. You can almost visualise the curled-lipped indignation of its writer as he (or perhaps she) spat these words on the page: 'A sports field is no place for a woman'. Sending a woman — and a married one at that — to represent Ireland at the Games was 'most unbecoming, unseemly and degrading of womenfolk. It must not be countenanced on any grounds.' The letter was signed Vox Populi, a sign-off that was both arrogant and cowardly; here was a person willing to represent the voice of the people yet felt the need to hide behind a pen name, although that pseudonym was in regular use at the time. It is also fair to say that the sentiment reflected a widespread belief that Maeve Kyle was indeed a 'disgrace to motherhood', as she described it later herself. Even her own parents-in-law were opposed to her jetting off to Melbourne, leaving her husband (and coach) Sean and their young daughter Shauna behind. 'They never congratulated me. They never asked me how I did and they lived next door. It was quite extraordinary,' she said in an expansive and beautiful interview with Eoin O'Callaghan published in this paper in 2016. HISTORY HUB If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading And yet, you'll find evidence of early support for burgeoning female talent in places where you might not expect to find it. Who, for instance, would have imagined that Éamon de Valera, a man not known for championing women's sports, would be one of Maeve Kyle's early admirers? After winning a race at Trinity College in Dublin in the early 1950s, she got a message to say de Valera would like to meet her. 'I was brought into the enclosure and there he was. 'A fine race you ran', he said. I was gobsmacked that he was even talking to me. And then he said, 'Unusual for women' — I always remember that Whatever the early reservations in the press and society at large, it wasn't long before Maeve Kyle's sporting prowess blasted them away. If you scroll back through the coverage of her athletics and hockey careers, the tone changes very quickly. By the early 1960s, the newspapers were already celebrating 'each illustrious chapter in her success story' with glee. Maeve Kyle at home in Galgorm, Ballymena. And what success. It is difficult to summarise the scale and sweep of her achievements. Here is a potted summary of the sporting life of Kilkenny-born Maeve Kyle who died this week at the age of 96. She was our first track Olympian, representing Ireland in the 100m and 200m sprints in Melbourne in 1956, the year Ronnie Delany won gold in the 1500m. She competed in the Rome Olympics in 1960 and, in 1964, reached the semi-finals of both the 400m and 800m in Tokyo. She went on to win bronze in the 400m at the 1966 European Indoor Championships in Dortmund, Germany. In parallel, she chalked up an incredible 58 hockey caps for Ireland, and was named in the World All Star team in 1953 and 1959. She also competed in tennis, swimming, sailing and cricket. The tributes this week acknowledge her lasting legacy as a coach too. With her husband Sean, she set up the Ballymena & Antrim Athletics Club and she was involved in a fourth Olympic Games as coach to the Irish track and field team at Sydney 2000. In a tribute, John T Glover, coach and 'athletics nut' as he calls himself, captured something of the fortitude needed to, first, compete as an athlete and, then, carve out a space for others to do so. 'Maeve was often referred to as the 'Kilkenny Kitten', a sobriquet which was only half appropriate. Maeve was no 'kitten' and there were few in the sport who did not experience the sharp tongue of Mrs Kyle. But it was through her effervescent enthusiasm, innovation and doggedness that women's athletics developed. Competitions like the Top Ten, Top Town, indoor Track and Field in gyms and sports halls and of course the Celtic International were all down to her.' Recognition Her incomparable talent and contribution were widely acknowledged in her lifetime, which is the right time for it; no point leaving the glory until after the person has left us. There were a slew of awards. The one that comes to mind is the 2012 Irish Times/Sport Ireland Lifetime Achievement award because of its many Olympic echoes. It was presented by her teammate and friend, Ronnie Delany, who paid this tribute: 'She has achieved so many firsts, not forgetting the first Irish woman to set an indoor world record. Most of all she's a dear friend, and a pleasure and privilege to know.' That was also the year boxer Katie Taylor won Olympic gold, but there was another reflection of Irish Games glory which passed under the radar at the time. On April 10, 2012, Tipperary-born Olympian fencer Dorothy 'Tommy' Dermody died. She was one of five women on the 83-member Irish team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and she held the distinction of being Ireland's oldest living Olympian until she died age 102. She was also Games Mistress at Alexandra College Dublin where she taught one Maeve Kyle. (On an aside, she picked up the name 'Tommy' while travelling with her father, William, on his frequent trips away as a ship's captain. He was permitted just one female passenger — his wife Julia — so, in order to come along, Dorothy cut her hair and disguised herself as a boy called 'Tommy'. The name stuck). Like her student, Dorothy Dermody was gifted in several sporting disciplines. She represented Ireland in diving, lacrosse and squash, accomplishments which Sean Kyle referenced to persuade his wife of two years to consider competing in her first Olympics. You could say that was an early case of 'If you see it, you can be it', but what emerges from reading interviews with Maeve Kyle — thankfully, there are many — is that sport was innate to her. She offered this evocative vignette to the Irish Examiner in the aforementioned interview: 'My first sports memories are playing handball in a covered alley against my two younger brothers — I used to beat them because they were slower than me. The handball gave me fantastic hand-eye coordination. "I played touch rugby with the boys. I played hockey with the boys. I swam in the river with the boys. I was convinced I was a boy, too — living in a boy's school (her father CG Shankey was headmaster at Kilkenny College) with two brothers." When, aged 13, she told her father that she'd like to compete in the school sports day, he said he had not planned to put on a girl's event, so she just ran against the boys — and won! By then, she was a student at Alexandra College in Dublin and was living with her grandparents at the Provost's House, number 1 Grafton St, in Trinity College. Her grandfather, William Edward Thrift, was provost. I hadn't known that before, nor that Maeve Kyle had briefly studied medicine at the college. She later switched to natural sciences partly because she fancied someone in the class, or so she joked at one point. In an inglorious week when the focus has been on the Molly Malone statue on Suffolk St — and her poor, groped breasts — it would be the perfect time to honour this norm-shattering trailblazer at her former alma mater a stone's throw away. The Eavan Boland Library, the first building on Trinity's campus to be named after a woman in 2024, could do with a teammate.
Irish Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Kenny raves about St Pat's ace and lauds 'incredible football intelligence'
Stephen Kenny has hailed Jay McClelland for stepping out from the shadows and into the European spotlight for St Pat's. McClelland was the Saints man-of-the-match in Thursday's tense 1-0 Conference League win over nine-man Kalju, a result that puts St Pat's in control going to Estonia. And if they hold their rivals at bay on Thursday, the Inchicore men will face the loser of the Europa League tie between Besiktas and Shakhtar Donetsk. As it stands, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Besiktas are the most likely opponents as they lost Thursday's first-leg 4-2 at home. McClelland, 28, has been at St Pat's since 2020 but hasn't always been a starter and when he does play, he could be deployed in any number of positions. Lately, the attacking midfielder has been playing at left-back but has also popped up on the left wing and in the middle of the park. Click this link or scan the QR code to receive the latest League of Ireland news and top stories from the Irish Mirror. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice . But Kenny has hailed McClelland's professionalism for refusing to cave when opportunities were hard to come by, after becoming a key man in Europe this year. Ex-Ireland boss Kenny said: 'No, he hasn't (always been a starter), and hasn't always been in the squad - he's been in the stand in the past. He's had to bide his time but he's just having a run of form and his innate football intelligence is incredible. St Pat's Jay McClelland and Daniil Tarassenkov of Kalju (Image: ©INPHO/Ryan Byrne) 'He can see great pictures and has the technical ability to execute really intelligent passes and crosses. He's a very intelligent player. The physicality maybe wasn't his strongest point but he has adapted that to his game to help him play there. 'He's worked on aspects of his game which weren't his strongest points where you might get exposed as a left-back, in your one-on-one defending and your heading. 'He's got much better at those facets of the game and his distribution is very inventive. It's a competitive area for us. Anto Breslin has never let us down, he's always been a terrific full-back at the club. 'At the start of the season we probably wouldn't have factored Jason playing at left-back but when people take their opportunity you have to reward that.' McClelland only started five league games last season - he came on another 16 times - but already has 12 Premier Division starts this year from his 21 league appearances. At no stage since Kenny took charge 14 months ago has the Dubliner ever knocked on the manager's door demanding to leave. St. Patrick's Athletic's Jay McClelland (Image: ©INPHO/Dan Clohessy) Kenny said: 'He was out of contract last year but I made it clear to him that I wanted him to stay. His versatility is important. Even when he's not in the team, he's super fit and that's a challenge because players find it hard to stay at the level when they're not in the team- they get demoralised.' Ryan McLaughlin, the former Liverpool and Northern Ireland player, is another who has stepped up to snatch a starting role. He was behind Axel Sjoberg as Kenny's right-back option, but has now wrestled the shirt off the Swede. Kenny continued: 'Ryan and Jason didn't start any of the European games last year and they're in the positions now. "You see the passing, Ryan to Jason and then Jason back to Ryan. You don't see that much in matches, those touchline to touchline passes from full-backs. But Ryan has that in his locker and the in-joke in the group is that he showed Trent Alexander-Arnold how to do it! Meanwhile, Kenny won't rule out signing a midfielder before Monday's 11pm transfer deadline for contracted players, as Romal Palmer remains on the long-term list. But Chris Forrester is nearing a return to the starting line-up after stepping up his comeback from injury of late, and scoring the all-important late winner against Kalju. Kenny said of Forrester: 'He's been a great player, a regular in nearly all of my games since I took over but he was out for eight weeks. 'That's two months and you can lose a lot. He needs to work hard. He's had a few weeks' training and is coming on so he definitely comes into our thoughts.' Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email .
