special to Irish Runner.com by Eoghan Young-Murphy

Neil Cusack's victory in the Boston Marathon of 1974 was not only sufficient to earn him a place in Irish sporting folklore - it also presaged a golden epoch for the discipline here at home.

A decade later that tradition reached its summit when Waterford's John Treacy, in his debut appearance in the grueling race, claimed silver in the Los Angeles Olympic Games. Such was the magnitude of this achievement that Jerry Kiernan's ninth place almost went unnoticed, let alone Dick Hooper's 24th.

For a ten-year period, it was customary for Ireland to send the full quota of three athletes to major championships. These were glorious times that will not be easily matched.

In recent years, the conveyer belt has come to a crashing halt. The tradition has corroded beyond all recognition; no Irish man has contested a major championship marathon in years; few would even have qualified for the women's equivalent. This is a far cry from the days of Cusack and Co.

Just a few years ago, Cusack was an average runner. But his meeting with Brendan O'Shea, that doyen of coaching, was the beginning of his transformation into an elite athlete. In 2003, he completed the Dublin Marathon in 2:42:23; now he looks capable of chipping at least 20 minutes from that time.

This past weekend he breasted the tape in the adidas Dublin Half-Marathon in 66 minutes and 55 seconds, leaving Peter Matthews languishing half-a-mile in arrears. Matthews is no journeyman himself: he finished tenth in the European Cross-Country Championships in Malmo in 2000.

This was merely the latest in a string of fine performances for Cusack, his next most notable being a 50:29 posting in the Frank Duffy 10 mile road race on August 20th.

Meanwhile, Mairead Murphy, of Mercy Waterford, was the star of the Kit Kat Irish Schools Combined Events Championships in Santry. Only last month Mairead won the British Championships and she took gold on Saturday with a total of 3,325 points.

And finally, Ellen Diskin was 18th in the Junior Women's 4.7km race at the World Mountain Running Championships in New Zealand on Sunday. She clocked 24:23 minutes; gold went to Russia's Jioulie Mochalova in 21.50.