Rosita Boland joined the Bahamas team on a memorable trip to Dungarvan.
Dublin Airport, Monday morning. Buses scooting round routes where usually there are no buses. Unfamiliar national flags. A buzz. Beside the airport's Great Southern Hotel, there is a large white marquee that would put you in mind of a wedding.
But the jetlagged guests emerging from it are wearing trainers and baseball hats, rather than kitten heels and feathered headwear. The marquee is the airport's accreditation centre for the Special Olympics athletes that are literally arriving in their thousands from around the world.
The Bahamas team, a delegation of 33 athletes and 13 coaches and chaperones, come out together in a big group, waving flags to the sound of applause from the many volunteers nearby.
They actually look a bit like a pop group on tour; most of the women have eye-catching intricately braided hair, and the men wear their shades with proper insouciance. Several of them chew gum, and they all pose for photos like pros. And their assistant head of delegation is an off-shore banker, with the unlikely but marvellously true name of Cleopatra Adderley. That's exotic.
The Bahamas are being hosted by Dungarvan, and are being met by a team of volunteers, with three vehicles; a bus for the athletes, a van for their luggage and a back-up jeep. People are scampering around, ticking off names, loading snack bags onto the bus, hollering the news of the delegation's arrival into phones. The team is on the bus. The driver hoots, flags wave, the bus pulls out, and we're off on the road to Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
The Bahamas are competing in five events; swimming, athletics, basketball, tennis and bocce. They may have been travelling for some 28 hours by now, but they are still mad keen. Athlete Brent Cooper is sitting beside me. "Excuse me, ma'am," he says with enthusiasm. "Is that where we go now for track and field training?"
He's pointing to the fields which surround the airport's runway. When he hears there is a few hours of travelling still to go, he looks regretfully at the fields and then allows himself to go off duty by finally falling asleep.
When the bus stops for a break just outside Carlow, there is renewed energy. Over minerals, tea and sandwiches, the first cameras and videos come out, and the noise level starts rising. Swimmer Sergio Major, who, at 13, is the youngest team member tastes Cidona for the first time and declares he wants to live in Ireland as a result. "I love it!"
Whatever they put into the water or Cidona in the Dolmen Hotel, once we get back on the bus, everyone is suddenly lively as an exultation of larks.
Coach Roosevelt Thompson leads the team in a robust version of Lean On Me. Jet lag? Forget it. The athletes start looking out the windows at the countryside for more sources of entertainment. "Sheep!" goes up the cry, followed by a chorus of very realistic baaing at every sighting.
A couple of miles outside Dungarvan, the bus pulls in. Garda outriders and fire brigades are waiting to escort the bus through the town. One of the firemen hops aboard to say hello. "Welcome to Dungarvan!" he shouts.
"We're going to make a bit of noise for ye now!" The sirens start going on the engines and the athletes love it. They shriek with merriment and start waving their flags out the windows as the convoy gets going.
"Welcome, welcome, welcome!" tennis player Julya Williams and athlete Eve Bullard chant together. We're passing the last few fields outside the town and a herd of cows, clearly startled by the klaxons, hurtle across a field in our direction. "We're getting a welcome from the cows as well!" Williams shouts, and waves at them too.
Approaching Dungarvan town, passing cars start beeping; passerbys stop and wave; a man on a ladder painting a wall looks down and almost falls off. People stand outside shops and hotels, waving and clapping.
Scenes like this must be happening all over Ireland, at every host town and village; the culmination of months of planning.
At Grattan Square, there is a big crowd of people assembled, many of them holding the blue flag of the Bahamas. One child in a pushchair frantically waves a home-made flag.
Among the people waiting at Grattan Square to greet the team are Mayor Nuala Ryan and chairman of the host team committee, Michael O'Riordan. To their credit, there is not too much bandwagon-hopping at the short and informal welcome ceremony.
Everyone assembled knows it is the athletes who are the important people at this event, not local dignitaries, and the team remain the focus of attention throughout.
Amanda Moncur, the head of delegation, gets off the bus to acknowledge Dungarvan's welcome on behalf of all the team. "Go raibh mile maith agat," she says (she has been practising on the bus) and there is a big surprised cheer.
The team don't get off the bus; they will be meeting the townspeople later in the week when they have had a chance to rest, but they wave like mad at each other as the firebrigades set their sirens going again.
The sirens don't stop until the bus reaches the team's base for the duration of their time in Dungarvan, the Clonea Strand Hotel, which overlooks a pretty Blue Flag beach, and where a team of local volunteers are waiting to unload the luggage and settle everyone in.
Tina Carey pipes the team off the bus and up the hotel steps. "Tell me," asks bemused coach Denzil Swain, looking at the grinning hotel staff, lined up at the front door to greet the delegation, "is every team in Ireland getting a welcome like this?"