'Right place, right time', says man who drove Olympic gold medal rowers home to Cork

A Co Limerick man who gave Olympic gold medal rowers Paul O'Donovan and Fintan McCarthy a lift home to Cork from Dublin Airport said it was a "privilege" to do so.

Kieran Duggan, who is a Co Limerick native but lives in Mallow, Co Cork, was sitting near the pair on a flight from Paris to Dublin on Tuesday and said he was "hugely" surprised when he got chatting to them and realised they were getting the bus home.

He told RTÉ's News at One that as they were disembarking the plane in Dublin, Fintan was asked how they were getting to Cork and he said they were getting the Aircoach "if its not fully booked".

"We were all dumbfounded," Mr Duggan said. "One of the guys said 'Kieran has room in the car' and I said 'yeah, I can fit three or four of you in if you want to jump in'.

"What was more surprising was his reaction - he said 'yeah I might take you up on that'.

"They left the plane first and we walked out after that. When we got to the baggage hall I couldn't see any of the guys so we walked out through arrivals ... I said to one of the guys that maybe I'd better stay on because Fintan sounded quite genuine."

Mr Duggan said he waited for about 20 minutes before Fintan and Paul came through arrivals and he asked Fintan if he still wanted the lift, which he said he did.

Fellow rower Natalie Long also took him up on his offer.

He said the three of them had "a good bit of luggage".

"The boot was fully loaded and we had to put more stuff in the backseat and halfway out through the aisle and the front seats nearly ... there was bags packed up to the roof in the back.

"We were at the boot of the car trying to figure out how to get all this luggage into the car but we eventually did... it was definitely a pinch yourself moment when I was