Irish athletes push the envelope

A Cork runner is among Ireland’s medal-winning athletics champions to be honoured by An Post with a specially designed national postmark.

Cork’s Phil Healy will share the honour with Christopher O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Sophie Becker, Sharlene Mawdsley, Tom Barr, and Ciara Mageean on the postmark which will be applied to millions of regular-sized letters and cards posted in Ireland over the coming months.

Ms Healy took a silver medal in the women's 4x400m relay at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome last week, finishing behind gold medallists the Netherlands and ahead of third placed Belgium.

The performance, which set a new national record time of 3:22.71, capped Ireland’s best ever tally at a European Athletics Championships with two silver and two gold medals.

Commenting on the achievement, An Post CEO David McRedmond congratulated the athletes and their incredible performances.

“Our superstar athletes inspire and delight the whole nation.

“Their hard work, perseverance, and sheer joy is a lesson to us all and we congratulate them on their outstanding success at the European Athletics Championships.

“We hope this postmark carries Ireland’s admiration and pride on letters across Ireland and the world.”