After an Olympics in which Team Ireland's boxers have fought valiantly, Kevin Byrne joined The Olympics Show to sound a minor note of caution.
Ireland have been mooted as the 'Cuba of Europe' in the past, with boxers like Andy Lee and Michael Conlan continuing a fine tradition of excellent fighters.
Irish boxing
Byrne believes that Ireland may be in danger of losing those in the Irish boxing fraternity to other countries.
"I think that the Irish boxers out there in Tokyo, they left it all in the ring and I could not fault any of them for their efforts. They got it tactically right, but at the end of the day four of the seven boxers lost their first fights - 10 bouts with five wins and five losses.
"It is not exactly the form of the 'Cuba of Europe' as Ireland were looking to become. Cuba have won 12 fights lost one out there. Britain have won five medals so far, they are in line to win seven, which would be our best Olympic Games.
"We are getting a little bit overtaken. We cannot afford to lose our best talents to foreign countries. These are internationally renowned coaches; Billy Walsh is that his sixth Olympic Games. That sort of experience should be in an Irish corner, but is directing the USA.
"But it's happened and you have to move on from it."
Medal chase
That said, Byrne believes that Irish pundits and fans should not take medals in boxing lightly.
"Two medals is pretty good. Two medals probably papers over some of the cracks but two medals cannot be sniffed at either. I was chatting to Hughie Russell, who won the bronze at the 1980 Olympics and he was the first Irish medallist since 1964 at Tokyo. He was saying that we can't get too blasé about the Irish team winning medals.
"So we should celebrate Aidan Walsh's bronze medal. Hopefully Kellie Harrington can get over the line and go and get gold. there has only been two Irish gold medallists in the past and Kellie is looking good. She was businesslike and got the job done, she didn't look like she overextended herself or showed her full arsenal or form.
"But that form is there, we saw it in the European qualifiers and she's been building towards these games. She gave a very mature interview afterwards, and she's cool - she's going to be very hard to stop.
"If Kellie Harrington wins a gold medal then it's a great games for Ireland. We don't win gold medals very often."
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