Ellen Keane and Thomas Barr will join Patrick Kielty on tonight’s Late Late Show to celebrate the life and legacy of Ciara Mageean.
RTÉ has confirmed that the two athletes, both friends of Mageean, will take part in the tribute on Friday 6 November. The programme begins at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
Mageean passed away last Sunday, aged 34. The Portaferry athlete was a European champion and Olympian whose career brought some of Irish athletics’ most memorable moments.
Friends To Pay Tribute
Tonight’s programme will give Keane and Barr an opportunity to remember Mageean as a friend as well as a fellow athlete.
RTÉ has announced the tribute as a celebration of her life and legacy. With two people who knew her through sport joining Kielty, the focus will extend beyond the times and medals that defined her career on paper.
The European Champion From Portaferry
Mageean’s greatest championship victory came in Rome in June 2024, when she won European 1500m gold.
Finding a gap between Britain’s Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell in the closing stages, she accelerated towards the line to win in 4:04.66. It completed her collection of European outdoor medals, following bronze in Amsterdam in 2016 and silver in Munich in 2022.
Her reaction afterwards became almost as memorable as the race itself.
“I didn’t grow up playing camogie to get boxed in,” she told RTÉ’s David Gillick.
It was a line that connected the European champion standing on the track in Rome with the girl who had grown up playing sport in Portaferry.
Mageean also represented Ireland at the Rio and Tokyo Olympic Games and won Commonwealth 1500m silver for Northern Ireland in 2022.
When To Watch
The Late Late Show airs tonight, Friday November 6th, at 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
Ellen Keane and Thomas Barr are confirmed guests for the tribute. RTÉ’s programme announcement does not give a separate start time for the segment.
Watch on the RTÉ Player - Tonight’s programme details
