POWERLIFTING: Gerry Thornley goes close to the Games' heart, witnessing the noisiest event - powerlifting.
Stephanie Ward of the USA strained to lift a bar which was more than twice her own weight. Her cheeks puffed out and reddened. Her eyes seemed about to pop right out of her head.
The crowd roared in encouraging her to lift the bar the extra few inches to her waist line. She did, then let the bar land angrily on the floor, with crowd and competitor alike letting out a collective gasp. This is powerlifting, and the RDS concert hall has surely never seen anything like it before.
The room itself looks more like a converted library. To each side of the 350-seater temporary stand which looks onto the specially erected stage, high shelves store all manner of historical reference books, from Dáil Éireann to agricultural livestock records. But there was nothing librarian about the atmosphere.
"The leaders on the noise-ometer are Great Britain," announced Gavin Walker, a masterful MC for the day. His running commentary reflected an expertise from his own 20-plus years competing in powerlifting.
There could be no quibbling with his reading of the noise-ometer. Deputy staging co-ordinator, Rory Murphy, explained that as Ireland has no powerlifters, an international event was held during last year's national games as a dry run for this week.
"Iceland, Hungary and Great Britain sent over teams, and all the volunteers got to know the British competitors, so there's strong local support for them as well," he explained.
"Powerlifting is one of the noisiest sports in the games. Gymnastics, by comparison, would be more polite, and when the heavyweight lifters take part later in the week the crowd is going to be hopping."
Murphy is one of the army of volunteers in the distinctive light green t-shirts which will remain one of the abiding images of these Special Olympics, and like most of them, it seemed he had stayed on long after his shift had been due to end. These games seem to have been cathartic for the country, reviving our once celebrated pre-Celtic Tiger friendliness . Smiles and helpfulness abound. You can almost reach out and bite the feel good factor lingering from Croke Park's opening ceremony.
The British had most reason to be noisy come the day's closing ceremony, where joy was simply unconfined. Gary Haynes, in the men's 52kg class, garnered a maximum four gold medals, as did Christina McSherry in the women's 67.5kg class, who won the squat, bench press and dead lift with a disarming and, one imagines, misleading nonchalance.
Stephen McQuaide, the Great Britain coach who also saw Alex Pajewski collect one gold and three silver, explained "Christina is a mainstream lifter as well because she's that good".
"They're all outstanding lifters," he said of all the competitors.
Christina's dad and coach, Robert, proudly embraced his daughter after her feats.
She trains hard, she explains, "because it helps you to keep fit. You meet a lot of people, and it gets you to go to places like here in Ireland."
They come from a small village near Livingstone called Stoneyburn and are, as they put it, "having a ball in Galway".
Steve Bishop, coach to the Canadian powerlifters Vivian Gauvreau, "a veteran lifter", and Paul Wragg, "in his second world games," said they "both went out and gave their best".
"I'm very proud of them and all of us in the Canadian team have been overwhelmed by the hospitality. Our host town, Enniscorthy, have just spoiled us and we owe a great deal of thanks for their hospitality," he added.
The huge number of the medals appeared largely incidental. The USA's Kyle Siarto displayed such joy for his own four bronze medals and those of his "rivals" that he was a great hit with the crowd, posing for family and friends afterwards with his haul dangling from his neck and clutching a multi-coloured toy dolphin which is a school mascot.
During it all, the wife of the president of El Salvador was encouraged to stand up from the front row of the temporary stand inside the auditorium and take a bow. There to lead the cheering for athlete William Alfaro - Senora Licenciada Lourdes de Flores .
It's not everyday you get to rub shoulders and encourage power lifters in the company of first ladies, nor meet athletes like Christina McSherry. Uplifting in every sense.