Ciara Mageean put Ireland on the map again for middle distance running

Ciara Mageean captured the hearts of a nation through her determination during her middle distance running career, and broke them with her death at the age of just 34 following a battle with cancer.

She lit up the track to become Ireland’s first individual European champion since Sonia O’Sullivan.

From the sleepy village of Portaferry on the tip of the Ards Pensinula in Co Down, Ciara credited the experience of playing camogie at various levels with being able to fight her way out of a running pack boxing her in.

Ciara Mageean with her silver medal after the Women’s 1,500m final at at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Martin Rickett/PA)

PA Archive

She described herself as a little girl from a small town with big dreams who “always knew I could be the best in the world”, encouraging youngsters to follow their own dreams with their whole heart.

As a teenager Ciara followed her own dreams, picking athletics and sparking excitement with silver medals at the World Youth Championships in 2009, before her first senior international competition at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

She relocated to Dublin to study at UCD for a BSc in physiotherapy on an elite athlete’s scholarship, before moving to Manchester in 2017, and continuing to develop, becoming the first Irish woman to run a sub-two minute 800m in 2020 in Switzerland.

Ciara competed at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021, battling injury and then Covid-19 before scooping silver medals in the 1,500m in both the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the European Championships in Munich in 2022 just behind Scottish runner Laura Muir.

Amid this glittering international career, Ciara maintained close links with home, and on December 23, 2023 took the Parkrun female crown with a 5,000m time of 15.13 set at Victoria Park in Belfast.

Just a year later came her career highlight with gold in the 1,500 metres at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome.

Mageean’s career highlight came when she won gold in the 1,500m at the 2024 European Athletics Championships (PA)

PA Wire

In a memorable post-race interview, Ciara spoke of her determination and plan being almost foiled after getting boxed in by other athletes, with a smile at the RTÉ camera she said: “I had all the legs left and nowhere to go – I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in though.”

She thanked everyone who had supported her in her mission to win her first senior gold medal for Ireland, and show world athletics that “the Irish are here”.

Ciara was forced to withdraw from the 2024 Summer Olympics due to an Achilles injury. The following year came the shocking announcement of her cancer diagnosis.

In June 2026 Ciara revealed her diagnosis was stage four cancer of the bowel with a likely terminal prognosis, and her best selling book My Greatest Race chronicling her sporting career and battle with cancer was published.

Ciara married her partner Thomas Moran, a union celebrated at Darver Castle in Co Louth just a week before her death.