IT'S beginning to shape up like a women's Olympics and Ireland is at the forefront of a revolution in the making in Atlanta.

One hundred years after Pierre de Coubertin's summons for the sports people of the world to assemble, women are responding, or more precisely, getting the chance to respond to the call.

Thanks to the introduction of sports like women's soccer and beach volleyball, and an increasing emphasis on the traditional disciplines of gymnastics and swimming, women make up approximately 38 per cent of the 10,000 athletes competing here.

And the word from the International Olympic Committee is that the curve of the graph will climb still higher in the years ahead.

From an Irish perspective that charter has already been undertaken with some enthusiasm, a point emphasised by the inclusion of seven female athletes in the track and field squad.

Now thanks to Michelle Smith's superb success in the 400 metres individual medley with the prospect of her yielding more medals in the days ahead - they could be responsible for Ireland's most successful Games since Pat O'Callaghan and Bob Tisdall struck gold on the double in Los Angeles in 1932.

The Chinese notwithstanding, Sonia O'Sullivan is still on course for a big challenge for the 1.500 and 5,000 metres track double. To her name can be added those of Catherina McKiernan (10,000m), Aisling Bowman (yachting) and Jessica Chesney (showjumping).

It all contrasts sharply with the obscure role women filled in Irish sport in the first half of the century when international competition was the preserve of the male of the species.

It wasn't until 1928 in Amsterdam, when Margaret Dockrell competed in the swimming championships, that Ireland's Olympic squad included a woman and it would be another 28 years before the invitation was repeated.

In between came the notorious intervention of the Church after the celebrated Dutch athlete, Fanny Blankers Koen, was invited to run at Lansdowne Road shortly after she had become the first woman to win four gold medals in the same Games in London in 1948.

The problem was that there were no local athletes to oppose her and the call want out from the late Billy Morton, the meeting promoter, for any athletically minded women to present themselves at Lansdowne Road to make up the numbers.

It was at that point that the Archbishop of Dublin, the late John C McQuaid, intervened and at sermons read throughout the diocese, warned against the ethics of women taking part in athletics meetings.

The reason cited was the lack of suitable changing facilities at venues. This, however, was interpreted as an euphemism for the Church's concern at the morality of women running in bare legs.

Undaunted, several local athletes, mostly hockey players, turned up on the day for the privilege of sharing the same track as one of the finest of all athletes.

Maeve Kyle from Kilkenny, then living in Ballymena, competed in the 1956 Games in Melbourne, the first of her three consecutive Olympic appearances. She was then directly involved in founding a women's section in the Crusaders club, just a couple of years later.

After that interest in women's sport expanded dramatically and from a situation in which the showjumper, Iris Kellett, was frequently the only Irish woman involved on an individual basis in international sport in the late 1940s and early 50s, a new era of opportunity was born.