Jedward to join Olympic torchbearers

Jedward will join Irish Olympic medallists Sonia O’Sullivan, Ronnie Delaney, Kenny Egan and John Treacy among the torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame in Dublin next month.

Names of 34 of the 41 torch bearers who will carry the flame in a relay around Dublin on June 6th were announced by the Irish Olympic Council today.

Tony Sutherland, the father of the late boxer Darren Sutherland, who won a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics but died in 2009, will represent his son in the relay.

The torch will come south of the Border on June 6th for a six-hour window which will include a civic event in Howth, a run on the roof at Croke Park and a relay around Dublin’s streets. Each torch bearer will run for 300 metres before transferring the flame to the next person.

Organisers said the symbolic visit will reflect the success of the peace process and the all island make-up of the Irish team for the London Games.

Olympic boxing medallists Wayne McCullough and Michael Carruth will take part in a symbolic handover at the Border on the old Dublin to Newry road at 6.30am

The flame will be brought in a convoy will include a vehicle with a miner’s lantern holding the original Olympic Flame from Olympia in Greece.

President Michael D Higgins will meet the torchbearers outside the offices of the Olympic Council in Howth while Taoiseach Enda Kenny will meet them at Government Buildings.

The event will end at the bandstand on St Stephen’s Green shortly before midday where an Olympic cauldron will be lit.

Two athletes who will potentially represent Ireland in the London games have also been named as torchbearers.

Mark Kenneally from Co Kildare will be Ireland’s only male challenger in the marathon for the London games while Natalya Coyle from Co Meath is bidding to become the first Irish woman to represent Ireland in an Olympic modern pentathlon event.

Other athletes among the list of torchbearers include: blind adventurer Mark Pollock, former all-Ireland winning Kilkenny hurler Henry Shefflin, retired rugby player Shane Horgan, Dublin footballer Brendan Brogan and Ireland women’s international soccer player Olivia O’Toole.

Olympic Council of Ireland president Pat Hickey said it took “many, many months of lobbying at the highest international levels to get the permission required to bring the relay south”.

Dublin Lord Mayor Andrew Montague said it was a “huge honour” for the capital and called on “all Dubliners to come out on the streets and cheer our torch bearers in what will be a great day”.

[ Click here for profiles of the 34 Olympic torchbearers ]