Team Ireland - Profile

Highlights:

Ireland has sent a delegation of athletes to each edition of the Paralympic Games since 1960. The NPC won two gold medals on its first appearance at the Games in Rome, with Joan Horan claiming Paralympic titles in both swimming and archery.

Rosaleen Gallagher competed at the five editions of the Games between 1968 and 1984, and is among Ireland's most outstanding Paralympians. The majority of her success came in athletics, where she won gold in pentathlon, shot put, and wheelchair racing, but she also secured podium finishes at the Games in swimming, table tennis, and archery.

Other notable Irish Paralympians include Gerard Dunne, who won nine medals [four gold, one silver, four bronze] in swimming across the 1984 and 1988 Games, and Tom Leahy, whose record includes gold medals in both athletics [discus throw] and boccia. Leahy [between 1984 and 2012] also shares the Irish appearance record at the Paralympic Games with John Twomey [from 1984 to 2016], with both athletes competing at eight editions of the Games

More recently, sprinter Jason Smyth has won five individual athletics gold medals. He claimed the men's T13 100m and 200m titles at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and also successfully defended his 100m crown again at the Rio Games in 2016. Smyth's athletics teammate Michael McKillop impressed in his first three Paralympic Games, securing gold in the T37 800m [2008 and 2012] and T37 1500m [2012 and 2016].

Additional Information: Website
http://www.paralympics.ie/

Anthem Title: Amhran na bhFiann [The Soldier's Song]

Anthem Composer: Words by Peadar Kearney and Liam O Rinn, music by Peadar Kearney and Patrick Heeney.

Anthem Inducted: 1926

Official NPC Name: Paralympics Ireland

IPC Recognition Date: 1989

Delegation President: Eimear Breathnach

First OG/PG Appearance: 1960

Number OG/PG Appearances: 16 [Tokyo 2020 included]

Summary: