Ireland's Paralympics team want your support: Don't worry about phraseology, don't get caught up and fear making a mistake - just shout
The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about
Ireland's Paralympic team want to shout their pre-Games message from the rooftops and they want you shouting - and talking - too.
Don't worry about phraseology, don't get caught up and fret about making a mistake.
It's okay, these Olympians aren't easily offended and, besides if they are, they are full well and able to tell you politely themselves.
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The odds are they have seen it all before and won't take it personally because this Ireland Paralympic team who begin streaming into Paris from lunchtime today want (itals) you to talk about them.
There is nothing worse than not being talked about!
"I suppose the message really centres around the idea that Irish people are good, they are generally well-meaning and respectful," says Paralympics Ireland CEO Stephen McNamara.
"And sometimes if you walk into a room there might be a person there with a disability and it might be the first person you meet, or it might be the person in a particular event that you want to see.
"But it is not unusual for them, they have a disability, they are comfortable with it.
"What we are saying is we want everybody to be comfortable, we would rather people got the terminology wrong rather than they didn't speak about us at all and that's a really important message of the Para Games and the visibility that we get.
"Because we really only appear, currently, once every four years after the Olympic games and we need to work on that.
"So it is about making the effort to be inclusive rather than saying 'do you know what, that all seems too much effort for me, I am not going to risk it...'."
If McNamara's name sounds familiar, maybe it should, he is a former IRFU Head of Communications who's speciality was less to do with the shape of the rugby ball than dealing with successive governments.
His Paralympic pitch has been interesting too, to take the Games into plain sight because they deserve to be there.
"The thing that impressed me from day one in this job," he says, "was the level of detail they had prepared for me coming in, the ability to sit down and talk me through different programmes.
"We are the governing body for two sports Para Athletics and Para Swimming and the other sports work with their own governing bodies and within their respective High Performance programmes.
"When you work in sport long enough you realise there is a very particular type of person who works there whether it's high performance directors or coaches or athletes because, actually, they are all very similar personalities.
"That was the thing that struck me when I came into Paralympics Ireland, they are the same type of focused people.
"They can be brilliant to work with in some areas, some don't want to know about other areas, but they all have this relentless focus on performance and attention to detail, every detail, whether it is the logistics of travel or diet or whatever.
"I didn't doubt that was the case but when I got here I found this was a really high performing system already and ready to move on to an even higher level.
McNamara, in talking of moving forward, uses an interesting analogy from a path he has walked before in a previous sporting life - the emergence of Irish women's fifteens, sevens and under-age rugby in the last decade.
McNamara sees Paralympics Ireland as ready to follow that lead.
"So what you have to ensure coming in as a CEO 18 months out from these Games is that you don't meddle too much with what is working well.
"You kinda need to make sure you don't put any flies in the ointment but look to see what can be improved in the next cycle.
"It was very similar to what I experienced in rugby around the women's game and we are looking to follow the model used there when it comes to funding and growth and bring it to the area of disability sport in five and 10 years time."
The 2024 Paris Paralympic Games begin on August 28th, running until September 8th, and will be very much on a screen near you as RTE have committed to more coverage than ever before.
Says Paralympics Ireland President Eimear Breathnach of Ireland's participation: “We are looking forward now to seeing our 35 athletes competing at the Paralympic Games from August 28th in nine different sports.
"This is the culmination of so much work and preparation from the athletes and their support teams and I have no doubt that they will be ready to produce their best possible performances on this great stage.”
IRELAND - PARALYMPICS 2024 TEAM
Archery: Kerrie Leonard
Athletics: Orla Comerford, Greta Streimikyte, Mary Fitzgerald, Shauna Bocquet, Aaron Shorten
Cycling: Katie-George Dunlevy, Josephine Healion, Richael Timothy, Ronan Grimes, Damien Vereker, Martin Gordon, Eoin Mullen (pilot), Eve McCrystal (pilot) Mitchell McLaughlin (pilot), Linda Kelly (pilot)
Equestrian: Kate Kerr Horan, Michael Murphy, Jessica McKenna, Sarah Slattery
Powerlifting: Britney Arendse
Rowing: Katie O'Brien, Tiarnán O'Donnell
Swimming: Dearbhaile Brady, Ellen Keane, Barry McClements, Róisín Ní Ríain, Deaten Registe, Nicole Turner
Table Tennis: Colin Judge
Triathlon: Cassie Cava, Judith MacCombe, Chloe MacCombe, Catherine Sands (guide) Eimear Nicholls – (guide)
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