Olympics: A total of 51 Irish athletes will travel to Beijing for next month's Olympic Games after the Olympic Council of Ireland confirmed the team earlier today.
The travelling party includes Melanie Nocher and Aisling Cooney, the two swimmers drafted into the team earlier in the week as part of a developmental arrangement with the OCI and Swim Ireland.
The inclusion of the pair means that the team has one more competitor than the one that travelled to Athens in 2004.
The team will be competing in 12 different sports; athletics, badminton, boxing, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, rowing, sailing, shooting, swimming and, for the first time, triathlon.
There are not many genuine medal contenders but there are hopes for podium finishes from the boxers and rowers.
In the former, much is expected of bantamweight John Joe Nevin, light welterweight John Joe Joyce and middleweight Darren Sutherland.
Captain Sutherland has trained in England at Brendan Ingle's Wincobank academy and won the national title in 2006 and 2007.
Among the rowers there is experience of good times and bad.
Ireland has enjoyed substantial success on the international stage but failure at the world championships in Munich last year and a poor record at Olympic level fuelled the hunger of the likes of Paul Griffin, Richard Archibald, Gearóid Towey and Cathal Moynihan
Towey, especially, will be eager to take something memorable from an Olympic Games after a series of unfortunate events led to him finishing 10th with Sam Lynch in Athens.
Four years earlier in Sydney in the lightweight fours, he finished 11th.
The team appear to have turned a corner, however, and are genuine contenders after an impressive showing the qualifiers in Poznan, Poland, where they were second behind Germany.
Pat Hickey, President of the Olympic Council of Ireland, praised the efforts of the athletes, their coaches and national federations for their sustained efforts to gain Olympic qualification. "I know that the athletes will represent Ireland on the world's greatest sporting stage with pride and passion".
All but two of the sports will be contested in Beijing. The sailing will take place in Qingdao and the equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong.
Athletics
Fionnuala Britton: 3000m Steeplechase
Alistair Cragg: 1,500/5,000/10,000m
Jamie Costin: 20km Walk
Joanne Cuddihy: 400m
Martin Fagan: Marathon
David Gillick: 400m
Colin Griffin: 50km Walk
Robert Heffernan: 20km Walk
Paul Hession: 100/200m
Olive Loughnane: 20km Walk
Roisin McGettigan: 3,000m Steeplechase
Eileen O'Keeffe: Hammer
Derval O'Rourke: 100m Hurdles
Badminton
Scott Evans: Mens Singles
Chloe Magee: Womens Singles
Boxing
Paddy Barnes: Light Flyweight
Kenny Egan: Light Heavyweight
John Joe Joyce: Light Welterweight
John Joe Nevin: Bantam Weight
Darren Sutherland: Middleweight
Canoeing
Eoin Rheinisch: Mens Canoe Slalom
Cycling
Nicholas Roche: Road Race
Philip Deignan: Road Race
David O'Loughlin: Individual Pursuit
Robin Seymour: Mountain Bike
Equestrian
Denis Lynch: Show Jumping
Austin O'Connor: Eventing
Geoff Curran: Eventing
Patricia Ryan: Eventing
Louise Lyons: Eventing
Niall Griffin: Eventing
Fencing
Siobhan Byrne: Sabre
Rowing
Sean O'Neill: Stroke Mens Coxless 4
Jonno Devlin: 3 Mens Coxless 4
Sean Casey: 2 Mens Coxless 4
Cormac Folan: Bow Mens Coxless 4
Paul Griffin: Stroke Mens Lightweight Coxless 4
Richard Archibald: 3 Mens Lightweight Coxless 4
Gearoid Towey: 2 Mens Lightweight Coxless 4
Colin Moynihan: Bow Mens Lightweight Coxless 4
Sailing
Ciara Peelo: Laser Radial
Tim Goodbody: Finn
Gerald Owens 470
Philip Lawton: 470
Peter O'Leary: Star
Stephen Milne: Star
Shooting
Derek Burnett: Olympic Trap
Swimming
Andrew Bree: 200m Breaststroke
Melanie Nocher: 200m Backstroke
Aisling Cooney: 100m Backstroke
Triathlon
Emma Davis