In April, Mayo woman Sinead Diver finished seventh in the London marathon in a time of 2.24.11 making her the second fastest Irish female marathon runner in history, behind Catherina McKiernan. She has run the classic distance even quicker than Sonia O’Sullivan. Diver’s recent meteoric rise in running has been widely celebrated in athletics circles because she has been posting some phenomenal times aged in her early 40s and her run in London was even enough to qualify her for next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.

But unless you are a fairly close follower of athletics, chances are you may not have heard much about her. That is because she will be running in the Australian colours in Tokyo.

So while Diver’s seventh finish in the London marathon is remarkable for an Irishwoman, it will not be recorded as such in Irish athletics record books

She has lived in Australia since 2002 and while she could have run for Ireland at the 2015 World Championships, she wasn’t picked and so has been competing for Australia. Sonia herself also ran in the Aussie colours towards the end of her career seeing that she lives in Melbourne.

So while Diver’s seventh finish in the London marathon is remarkable for an Irishwoman, it will not be recorded as such in Irish athletics record books. And if she manages to win a medal at the Olympics, it will not count as an “Irish” medal. That is fair enough.

Eoin Morgan captained England to win the Cricket World Cup in a most dramatic final against New Zealand last Sunday week

After the London marathon, The Irish Times reported: “Still very much the Irishwoman running for Australia – as Diver is happy and proud to put it – it was fearless and also a little risky, Diver effectively running at the front of Sunday’s race until a little over halfway, the more experienced women lurking somewhere behind.”

Yes she is running for Australia, but she is a proud Irishwoman as she does so. Eoin Morgan captained England to win the Cricket World Cup in a most dramatic final against New Zealand last Sunday week. But he is still an Irishman and nobody can take that from him. Although as expected, the greasier depths of social media commentary in the numbskull wearisome anti-English section of it begs to differ.

There is no doubt but in sport more than anything else, patriotism and sport are inextricably linked. We display our national pride through the prism of sport. That same sense of place and identity uniquely defines the GAA at parish and county level too. There is no taking away from that. But it should not exclude us from celebrating and recognising the excellence of our sports stars that happen, in some cases out of necessity, to represent another country.

But why should the crest on the singlet or jersey mean more to us than the birth cert?

We don’t bat an eyelid about the issue when it comes to rugby and we will belt out the Fields of Athenry with gusto if a Bundee Aki try manages to win us a big world cup match this autumn and rightly so.

Here’s hoping. But why should the crest on the singlet or jersey mean more to us than the birth cert? I have little doubt but both Diver and Morgan would prefer to be winning things wearing green.

The fact that they are not representing Ireland shouldn’t take away from the reality that they are Irish. And if it wasn’t for the fact that Shane Lowry is now nailed on to win all the Irish sports star of the year awards, Morgan’s name would certainly be worthy of consideration. Anybody who doesn’t agree does so from the viewpoint of old anti-English tribalism. Time to move on.

Any regrets?

What with a few gaffes and a drop in the polls, one wonders if rural Fine Gael TDs who sided with Leo Varadkar regret they didn’t go for the more solid-performing Simon Coveney instead.