Smaller nations punching above their weight are nourished by chips on their shoulders

"Did you bring it Ronnie?” turned into a comic catchphrase in Ireland for decades because of the number of times the 1956 Olympic 1,500 metres champion Ronnie Delany was asked to show off his gold medal. It was hardly surprising when one considers that Ireland endured a 36-year wait until we struck Olympic gold again when the boxer Michael Carruth won in 1992.

With a population of 4.8 million, it is easy to understand why people became so fondly familiar with Delany. Forget six degrees of separation - in Ireland, it is more like two. My grandfather Bill was a television licence inspector by day and comedian by night (seriously) with a particular specialisation in humorous sporting monologues. For years he expounded on how he saw Delany’s gold at the dinner upon the runner’s return from the Melbourne Games. The story became legend in our family.

Just in the same way my grandad delighted in his “did you bring it Ronnie?” anecdote, I, as a Dubliner living in London, have bored countless colleagues and acquaintances with how I used to see Eoin Morgan most mornings on my way to school. To further emphasise just how small a pond Dublin is, Delany, now 84, was, like Morgan, an alumnus of the Catholic University School.