After a “hard Covid” for Dublin’s north inner city, Irish flags are flying, bunting is fluttering and the sun is out as Portland Row gets ready to cheer on a local Olympic hero.
Lifelong resident Kellie Harrington (31) may not have lifted a glove for her first bout yet but already the mood is jubilant. Almost every house has some show of support in the front window, with posters proclaiming “Good luck/Áth Mór Kellie Harrington”.
Catherine Flood and neighbour Marie Harding are sitting in their front gardens. Though Ms Flood is keen to point out she is also displaying good luck poster for another local, Emmet Brennan (30), also in Tokyo on the Irish boxing team, the talk is all about Kellie.
“She’s the most loveliest young one,” says Ms Flood. “She’s from down the road and she’ll be carrying the Irish flag at the opening ceremony. Where would you get it? Isn’t it brilliant now?”
Agreeing, Ms Harding says: “She’s absolutely fabulous. She’s brilliant with all the youth. She’s takes them running, doing all these classes.”
Asked if they’re excited about her first fight on Saturday, Ms Flood replies: “Oh my God, I hope she does well and if she does well this road will be getting sealed off. There’ll be a few Sambucas drank.”
Across the road Roseanna Graham (82) is out on her patio, knitting a baby's cardigan. "I've great thoughts for her and I hope she does very well. She's a great inspiration for the other young people in the area. And she has a beautiful family."
Passing as we chat is Alan O’Keeffe, painter-decorator and the man behind most of the bunting streaming down from top windows to front railings below.
“It’s some buzz, eh?” he beams. “I just went around the doors two days ago and asked everyone did they want to get bunting and they all chipped in. I just flew into Carroll’s in O’Connell Street and got flags and bunting. It’s just something you have to do to show your support.”
At the further end of the street, sitting on his doorstep and reading his newspaper is Kellie’s dad, Christy. In measured mood, he says his daughter is “fine”. She has signed out of all social media and is “in the zone”, he declares.
Good luck cards cover the front window, and the family will watch their girl take to the ring, at home. They wouldn't have gone to Tokyo even without Covid, he says. "Jesus no. We just don't do that. We watch Kellie box in Ireland, but never outside Ireland; that's for her and her team to enjoy.
“The support in the community, it’s just magic. It means so much to people. It has been a hard Covid, it has. A lot of people around the area got it, a lot of people died from it. Everything was shut. Even the allotments around the corner were closed. It was all very locked in.
“We are over the moon for her. Everyone here is.”
Asked whether he thinks she’ll bring gold home to Portland Row, he’s sanguine. “Every athlete over there wants that gold medal. What’s to be, will be.”
