The casual rowing fans out there - we understand there are some - couldn't help but be struck by the emotion of Neville Maxwell in his studio reaction to Ireland winning their first ever Olympic medal in rowing.
20 years we've been waiting for this. But they have finally broken the duck in terms of the Olympic games. We've been winning world medals for 20 years. And at last we have that Olympic medal. Fourth place. Let's stop talking about it. It's in the bin. It's forgotten about. Now we have rowers that are winning Olympic medals.
RTÉ's Neville Maxwell was overcome with pride after the brilliant O'Donovans won Olympic silver #rterio2016 https://t.co/YsGmrTk9A1
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 12, 2016
It's twenty years since Maxwell was part of the quartet which was a whisker away from a medal in Atlanta in 1996.
Irish rowing first came close to a medal in Montreal in 1976. Sean Drea from Bagnalstown first competed in the 1972 Olympics, finishing seventh. Two years later, he claimed the US Championships and the following year finished second in the World Championships.
In Montreal, he broke the world record in the single sculls over 2000 metres in the semi-final. However, he was eked out of the medal places finishing 4th. Ireland's medal drought at the Olympic games continued. We hadn't won a medal of any colour in any sport since Toyko in 1964.
(Those young people who suffer from the debilitating condition known as 'Ted Tourettes' may be unable to say in his name in any other accent than the one of the Arthur Mathews-played priest in the Speed 3 episode of Father Ted).
Ireland was to enjoy a medal blitz at the World Championships in the early 2000s. But a decade before that, Niall O'Toole won the lightweight single sculls in Vienna in 1991.
Five years later, we reached another Olympic final and had to make do with another 4th place.
The lightweight coxless four of Maxwell, Sam Lynch (husband of Sinead Lynch), Derek Holland and Tony O'Connor were pipped by less than a second by the Americans for the bronze.
Ireland have won five gold medals at World Rowing Championships. The 2001 World Championships in Lucerne was a glorious time for Irish rowing.
Sam Lynch won gold in the lightweight single sculls. His wife Sinead - she of the Olympic finals this year - won the women's version of the same race.
Gearoid Towey and Tony O'Connor, meanwhile, won in the lightweight double sculls. The following year, Lynch won his second world championship in a row.
Next up was 2004 and the lightweight coxless fours crew of Richard Archibald, Eugene Coakley, Niall O'Toole, Paul Griffin. They reached the final in Athens, coming through the heat and their semi-final. The final was a bridge too far. They finished up in 6th place.
Also in '04, Towey and Lynch finished 4th again, this time in the Olympic B Final. Sanita Puspure won the Olympic C Final in London in 2012 but there's no medals for that. Like this year she was unlucky to be beaten out in one of the heats.
But the promised land of the medal podium (non-existent any more in rowing) was reached today. Not only that but Sinead Lynch and Claire Lambe overperformed and became the first female Irish crew to reach an Olympic final.
