When I came home from Sydney and read some of the stuff that was written about the team and some of the things that were said, I was really upset. I just wonder what everybody expected of the Irish athletes in Sydney.

People were saying that they were going to investigate what went wrong. But I think these Olympics were a success. This was the biggest team that Ireland ever sent, and it came after just three years of funding. Three years is a short time, yet we've had the largest amount of qualifiers that we've ever had. That's a huge success. I think we should be delighted.

I also read that someone said that we should only send the top one-third of athletes in the world. We are already there. If we qualify we are in the top one-third. How can you deny anyone a place if they have qualified by standards set by the International Amateur Athletics Federation? Who is going to judge that Irish athletes are not good enough when these world bodies have judged that we are good enough?

I find it very hurtful. I've dedicated my life to running for the past 22 years. I've run at this level for five years and I'm proud of what I've done, and as far as I know so is Ireland. I don't get it. I just don't get it.

You look at the Irish soccer team when they qualify for the World Cup. Do we ever consider not sending them? Do we ever question whether they are good enough to go and play in the World Cup?

When you qualify, you qualify; it means you are good enough. Every single person out there on the track in Sydney was good enough.

I don't know if people are misinformed or whether they just don't understand what the qualifying standards for athletics actually mean. The times are based on the top 50 in the world, and some of them are tougher. I think we should be pretty proud that we have so many who are that standard.

People say that to be successful the athletes all have to go out and run personal bests (pbs). Why? They are all expected to compete to their absolute best. And they did. So do you judge people on just one race in their career?

A few nights out there it was freezing, and you could be sure that there were very few pbs on those nights. And if you look at athletes from many of the other teams, there were not that many pbs until they got to the finals.

How many people were we expecting medals from anyway? I wasn't expecting many medals from the team. Look at the big countries, like France, who didn't win any medals in track and field. Look at Italy, who won just two. Look at Spain, who, I think, won just one bronze.

Let's look at some individual situations. We expected Sonia, myself, Peter (Coghlan) and Mark (Carroll) to do well. Peter had been injured all year, unable to train, and yet he was good enough to make it out of the first round. That guy should be applauded.

I was out there hoping to get to a final and knowing that if I did I could run with everybody. I've done it for the past four years.

I pulled my hamstring three days before. Does anyone care about that? Does anybody even know about that ?

I'd two injections before I ran. I was in a lot of pain and couldn't even warm up, but I went out and finished the race.

Then I hear all the time about this drugs talk. This is what I find amusing. I read all the time that everyone in track and field is on drugs and that's why the standards are so high. I would challenge anyone to say that there are athletes on the Irish team using drugs. I have personally been tested 10 times this year. I'm not on drugs. I don't think anyone else is either. But the media say everyone is.

If every one is on drugs then the standards for us to qualify are obviously very tough, because they are based on the previous year. If that's correct, isn't it pretty cool that we have a drug-free team going out there and qualifying and competing with all of these "druggies"?

We can't have it both ways. If everybody is on drugs then let's applaud the Irish team for not being on drugs and give them credit for achieving certain standards.

I've been away from my husband for six months. That's not easy. I do it because I love running and representing my country. I feel I'm being criticised when the team is being criticised when I read things like being described as "also rans". Much of the stuff I read was destructive. When I came home and read it I cried.

I feel we now need to open some communication lines. Talk about it.