Our success at the European Under-18 Championships, the silver medals collected at the World Under-20 Championships and some super performances by the seniors at this week's Cork City Sports and Morton Games have made this an incredible few weeks.
We don't get many opportunities to celebrate success and over the past week I found myself jumping up and down in my living room as the Irish women's Under-20 team won the 4x100m silver in Finland, a first for Ireland at a major global outdoor championships.
I'd love to see more of that, especially at senior level, but research suggests it's going to be a major uphill struggle.
Earlier this week I spoke to Dr Áine MacNamara and UL's Phil Kearney, who have both done extensive research into what makes a champion and, on the flip side, what results in so many teenage stars burning out or fading away.
In the paper, the authors interviewed athletes and gauged their reaction to challenges and the various external factors that influenced their development. There was a clear trend established between the factors that made a 'super-champion' and the ones identified in those who didn't quite make it.
At underage level, the super-champion progressed slowly – they often had a bumpy passage to senior level, whereas many of the 'almosts' enjoyed a smooth path of consistent success in their teenage years.
The super-champions had parents who were supportive and encouraging, but were also separate to the sport. They had strong and challenging coaches who would test them, whether that was pitting them against older people at times or putting them on the sideline to see how they reacted to it.
Their coaches would also collaborate with other groups to challenge their athlete.
The super-champion, individually, often has a very high personal drive that would have caused bumps along the way, holding themselves to high standards and often questioning themselves, always adapting to what came their way.
They also had a positive reaction to setbacks – problems like injuries only stimulated them to strive for better next time.
The almosts, however, were people who were very talented underage performers and then didn't really kick on. They usually committed early to their chosen sport so they specialised, trying to chase success in a single discipline at the cost of overall, all-round development.
