THE REAL GAMES: Elizabeth, in the now familiar green uniform of the World Games, is asking Pauline Connell, a gymnast from Northern Ireland, for permission to take her photograph.
"We met when I introduced you to Nelson Mandela, do you remember?" she asks. An uncertain look flits across Pauline's face and then recognition dawns, followed by an emphatic nod and a grin. "Oh yes, I remember!"she replies, her three bronze and two silver medals clattering around her neck "You were the one who got me a McDonald's!"
Medals and cameras are the cool accessories at the final day of the Festival Village in the Simmonscourt Pavilion at the RDS. As Irish visitors flock to grab this last chance to savour the magic of Special Olympics, cameras and medals identify those who created this enviable community.
Being considered "cool" is something that Victoria Shaw (14) is starting to take in her stride. Along with her pals on the British gymnastics team, she's had a terrific Olympics. "I've competed in five events and won five medals," she says excitedly. "I can't wait to show everyone back at school."
And, despite having had a wonderful time, talk of home is entering the athletes' conversations. They're preparing to depart. Last-minute shopping is organised; names and contact details are exchanged. An urgency has entered the trading negotiations for souvenir pins.
The first delegations will leave for home within hours of the closing ceremony.
I'm genuinely proud to be Irish today and grateful to the people who made this feeling possible: the 30,000 volunteers who added so much to the magnificent organisation behind the Games; the host families and the thousands upon thousands of cheering fans who lined the streets and attended the sporting venues to give the athletes such heartfelt respect and encouragement.
I'm even grudgingly grateful to Louis Walsh who unwittingly helped, with his widely reported insensitive comments, to focus our minds on the dignity and integrity of true endeavour. But most of all I'm proud of the athletes. And in particular, the 438 members of Team Ireland, who represented us with style and grace, beginning with their moving appearance at the opening ceremony.
Four hundred and thirty-eight - that's about the number of people with an intellectual disability currently languishing in Irish psychiatric hospitals because there is no appropriate residential placement available to them.
"The annual report of the national intellectual disability database committee for 2001 was recently published. And unfortunately it confirms that substantial numbers of people with intellectual disability in this State remain on waiting lists for essential services," says Mr Brian O'Donnell, chief executive of the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies. "For example, 10,182 people who are currently receiving services will require alternative, additional, or enhanced services within the next five years. Another 2,440 people are either without services or a major element of their identified needs." The shaming list goes on, and on...
What needs to be done now? "What is urgently required is sufficient funding to provide services for emergency cases, which are arising on a daily basis, and for school-leavers throughout the country for whom no services can currently be provided," he says. "It is also vital that a three-year investment programme in new services development be reinstated in 2004 to avoid a looming crisis for people with intellectual disability and their families." In June 2003, Amnesty International condemned Ireland's continuing neglect of disability rights, pointing to a report by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which noted the "persistence of discrimination against persons with physical and mental disabilities".
Mr Sean Love, Amnesty director, said: "In relation to the binding norms of international law that it voluntarily signed up to, the Irish Government's treatment of people with disabilities is unacceptable.
"The new disability Bill must make human rights a reality, not an aspiration based on political expediency. Otherwise it is meaningless," he added.
Mr Donal Toolan, a member of the disability legislation consultation group, established by the Government to advise on the proposed Disabilities Bill, is concerned that, "whatever legislation is introduced fundamentally must give disabled people and their families the judicial right to vindicate their rights when the political process fails".
But what about the Taoiseach's reservation that resources will be diverted into defending legal actions taken against the State, rather than going directly into services?
"Mr Ahern misrepresents the position. This legislation will work if the provisions contained within it are met by the political process. But when that process fails, people should have ultimate access to the courts," Mr Toolan said.
People with disability and their families have learned over the years that silence, in the face of impenetrable bureaucracy and unjust and unfair treatment, was the price of acceptance in our community. Railing against inequality was not understood. Anger was considered excessive.
Our busy society did what it saw as necessary; the same spirit that moved the volunteers to support Special Olympics has been propping up the inadequate and unreliable services for people with disability within our State for decades, but without demanding change within our political and legislative process - a process that has effectively ignored all opposition to the inhumane treatment meted out to people with disability.
The time has come to put in place rights-based legislation that will prevent the future abuse and neglect of disabled people in Ireland. Empowered by the wonderful athletes, whose glorious personal attributes remind us all to value the importance of simplicity, joy and honesty, the defiant voices are getting louder and stronger and they're finally being heard.
The Flame of Hope is not extinguished - it burns in the hearts of every person who has been moved and touched and humbled by the 2003 Special Olympics.