A team representing Ireland has competed at every Summer Paralympic Games but the country has never taken part in the Winter Paralympics. Irish athletes have won 178 Summer Paralympic medals, 47 gold, 57 silver and 74 bronze.

Paralympics Ireland Paralympics Ireland (formerly known as the Paralympic Council of Ireland) is the National Paralympic Committee in Ireland for the Paralympic Games movement. It is a non-profit organisation that selects teams, and raises funds to send Irish compe ...

(formerly the Paralympic Council of Ireland) is the

National Paralympic Committee A National Paralympic Committee (NPC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Paralympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), NPCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the ...

. Athletes from

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

may compete for either

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

or Ireland at the Paralympics, on the same basis as at the Olympics. At the first Paralympic Games in 1960 in Rome Ireland were one of 23 nations to enter athletes. The team finished 12th in the medals table with both of Ireland's gold medals being won by

Joan Horan Joan Horan (26 February 1918 – 9 December 1965) was an Irish paralympic athlete, and the first Irish woman to compete in the Paralymic Games. Early life and family Joan Horan was born Joan Dempsey at 7 Merrion Square, Dublin on 26 February 1 ...

. Horan won her medals in two different sports, one in women's St. Nicholas Round open archery and one in the women's 25 m Crawl complete class 2 swimming event. At the next Games, hosted by Tokyo in 1964, no Irish athlete won a medal, this remains Ireland's only Summer Paralympics with no medal winners. The most medals won by Ireland at a Paralympic Games is 65, 20 of them gold, at the 1984 Games hosted in New York and Stoke Mandeville. At the

2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was f ...

, held in Beijing, Ireland won five medals in total, three of them gold. There was controversy over the participation of

Derek Malone Derek Malone is a paralympic athlete from Ireland competing mainly in category T38 middle-distance events. Derek competed in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sp ...

in the 7-a-side cerebral palsy football tournament. Malone, who had competed in the 800 m event at the Athens Paralympics was ruled as ineligible to compete by Games classification authorities on the grounds that his disability was not severe enough.

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Medals by summer sport

Updated to the

2016 Summer Paralympics The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...

References

{{National sports teams of Ireland

Medal tables

Medals by Summer Games

Medals by summer sport

See also

References