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09th Aug 2021

Kellie Harrington to be welcomed home to Dublin in open top bus after Olympic win

Clara Kelly

The tour will start from Clonliffe House pub and end at Summerhill.

Kellie Harrington will be welcomed home to Dublin’s north inner city in an open top bus following her Olympic win.

The homecoming plans are still being finalised, however, Dublin’s Deputy Lord Mayor Joe Costello has said the gold medallist go through Portland Row in an open top bus after returning home from her Olympic triumph.

Kellie is expected to arrive into Dublin Airport in the early afternoon with Dublin City Council (DCC) planning the open-top bus tour to start from Clonliffe House pub from 5pm and end at Summerhill.

There will also be crowd restrictions put in place during the bus tour with designated areas to watch her return and more details will be released on DublinCity.ie tomorrow morning.

The bus will drive down Kellie’s street in Portland Row and Portland Place and then turn onto Killarney Street where it will then continue up Sean McDermott Street before turning back towards Summerhill and on to North Strand.

Although there will be no civic reception on Tuesday due to restrictions, Costello has said that a ceremony will be held for all Irish athletes who competed in this year’s Olympics at some point later this year.

“The likelihood is that there wouldn’t be a function, but Kellie would come in in some fashion to her home,” he told the Irish Independent on Monday.

The Dubliner was facing reigning world champion, Beatriz Ferreira, in the women’s lightweight final at Tokyo 2020 when she secured the gold for Ireland. The Brazilian had won her last 16 fights and had not lost a round at these Olympic games.

The fight was won unanimously at 10-9 to Harrington, who, after Michael Carruth and Katie Taylor, became only the third Irish boxer to win Olympic gold.

Following the event, Harrington said in an interview that the “whole country” was behind her, describing her win as “the stuff of dreams”.

“There’s been times in my career when people say the whole country is behind me. This time I really felt it,”