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Volunteers' Diaries

Ni Hao from Shanghai!!

Well we finally arrived after months and months of preparation and so far it’s absolutely fantastic!! 200 Irish volunteers, all donned in our green T-shirts set off from Dublin airport on Saturday morning early. Twenty hours and a few sing-songs later we arrived at our destination, Hotel Equatorial, all of us intact, some without luggage, but all still smiling as only us Irish do best.

After a much needed rest and a shower, although due to the whole time difference, some of us didn’t know if it was breakfast or dinner time or should we say good morning or good evening, we sat down and enjoyed some of the local cuisine, courtesy of Enterprise Ireland. We then hit O’Malley’s to support the Irish rugby team which we did in full force. Although Ireland didn’t pull off a win we definitely got in some practice cheering for the Irish athletes we’ll be supporting all week!

And since then it’s been busy, busy!! With a contingent of over 400 Irish people staying at the hotel its all systems go with rosters, schedules, transport, media, info services, and sports all keeping the 200 strong volunteer team very busy!! Some volunteers have been rostered off and have had a chance to explore the local markets and shops and are really enjoying the experience of mixing and haggling with the locals.

And then yesterday the day we’d all been waiting for – the sign that the Games are really on the way – the opening ceremony! After much organisation we all boarded the various buses and filled a huge section of the Shanghai Stadium with a sea of green! Once we were assigned our seats I don’t think we actually sat on them all night!! The pure excitement of the night had us all on our feet singing every Irish song we can think from the tune of ‘Irelands Call’ and ‘The Fields of Athenry’ we blew our whistles and banged our drums until the event began. Ole Ole was heard all over the stadium for hours!!! And wow, what an event it was! Three hours of amazing entertainment in the form of music, song and dance coupled with lights, color and fireworks made this evening one to remember. Perhaps the highlight of the night was to witness our 141 Irish athletes take centre stage amongst over 7000 other athletes from 169 countries from all over the world. I’m still smiling to myself today when I think of it – it really was a brilliant night!!

So really all I can do now is rest my voice and wait until tomorrow until the sports begins because I’ll definitely need a few more bars of Ole Ole before the week is out!!!

Louise O’ Hora from Kiltamagh, Co. Mayo.

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