A lift home and a quick stop for Taytos; Cork's rowing gold medalists travel back to Leeside in typical low-key fashion

A good Samaritan recently came to the rescue of Olympic gold medalists Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy upon arrival into Dublin Airport by offering them a spin back to Cork.

The rowers, who made history by winning gold in the men’s lightweight double sculls on the opening day of the World Rowing Championships in Belgrade last week, were planning on getting the Aircoach back to Cork after arriving into Dublin Airport along with Women's Fours Rower Natalie Long.

During conversation on the plane, Fintan mentioned that they would chance getting the Aircoach if it wasn’t fully booked, and hearing this, fellow passenger Kieran Duggan who was driving back to Cork offered them a lift.

After waiting for them for some time at the arrivals gate, Mr Duggan told Neil Prendeville on Cork’s Red FM that he thought surely they would get VIP treatment and be halfway to Cork in a limo by now.

But shortly after, they appeared through the arrival doors where they were met with people cheering and congratulating them on their success.

“I caught Fintan’s eye and asked if he still needed that lift and he said, ‘yeah, how many can you fit in’,” Mr Duggan told the station.

He said they had twice the normal amount of a normal family of four in terms of baggage that they squeezed into the boot of the car before heading down the motorway, stopping off at Manor Stone services on the M8 at J3 for “a bag of Taytos and something to drink”.

Mr Duggan said they were all very down to earth and that the drive to Cork was very chilled, with them chatting about rowing, other sports that they had played in the past and general life before dropping Paul to his home house in Douglas and Fintan and Danielle to Ballincollig.

Speaking about whether he thought they should have a larger welcome home upon arrival at the airport, Mr Duggan said that he believed the airport staff only found out half an hour before their arrival and that perhaps Fintan and Paul wanted to keep it low key as Fintan may be returning for the closing ceremony in Paris and Paul is training for the individual world championships in Canada.

“At the departure gate they were allowed to board first and everyone gave them a round of applause and on the plane the pilot acknowledged the fact that they were on the plane and the whole plane gave them a round of applause,” he said.

A homecoming is planned to take place in Skibbereen following the World Rowing Championships which takes place from August 18 to August 25 in Canada.