El Salvador team in Tralee: An impromptu band performance, brilliant sunshine and the emotion-filled welcome by Tralee's Mayor marked the arrival on Kerry soil of half the El Salvador delegation.
The 28 athletes were the first Special Olympics Team to arrive in Ireland at the weekend, a day earlier than expected.
This was because of logistics and having to take available connecting flights through Boston, explained Cllr Norma Foley (FF), chairperson of the Tralee organising committee.
A further 30 competitors from El Salvador are expected tomorrow. The team is taking part in tennis, swimming, power lifting, soccer, gymnastics and athletics.
Their bus received a Garda escort through Tralee shortly after 2 p.m. taking them to a reception in the forecourt of the Tralee Town Centre Apartments where they will be staying for the next five days.
First off was power lifter Mr William Alfaro (24). Ms Ana Yudith Ayala Alfaro (25), an artistic gymnast, won the hearts of many of the reception committee with her spontaneous hugs and joyous broad smile. People who lined the avenue reached out their hands to touch her.
The Mayor of Tralee, Mr Johnny Wall (FF), said the event brought back memories of his late mother, Kathleen, who had fought so hard for facilities for the disabled in Kerry and who had helped set up St Mary of the Angels care facility for children and young adults with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disabilities in the late 1960s.
His brother Mr Frank Wall has Down's syndrome. Attitudes have come a long way since the days when people with learning disability were often confined to "the back room", he said.
"We have accepted difference," Mayor Wall said. Frank's biggest problem these days is that he votes for Dick Spring, Mr Wall joked, and cannot be persuaded to vote Fianna Fáil.
Cllr Terry O'Brien ( Lab) who is in a wheelchair and is the transport co-ordinator on the host committee, said his presence on the council had made the authorities realise the problems with accessibility. The council headquarters in Tralee, for instance, was now wheelchair accessible.
The town council had been outstanding in their support of the hosting of the team, he said.
Monsignor Dan O'Riordan, Dean of Tralee, said the Special Olympics was "a real gift to Ireland".
"It's not what we are doing for them, it's what they are doing for us," he said. Three musicians, Mr David Kearney on banjo, Mr Niall Johnson on uileann pipes and Mr John Harte on tin whistle got together just that morning to play for the El Salvador team.
A large number of events are planned for the week. A permanent sensory garden with sculptures and plants, organized by the town council and Soroptimists locally, will open in the Town Park today. A Mardi Gras parade and a big street party will take place on Wednesday, beginning around 12 noon.