DESCRIBED by RDS President Matt Dempsey as “one of the biggest crowds ever for a library event at the RDS”, friends gathered on Thursday evening for the launch of an exhibition celebrating the life of Tommy Brennan, and of a pictorial memoir.

The book, the brainchild of friends Michael Slavin, Pat O’Loughlin and Leslie Fitzpatrick, was launched by The Irish Field’s editor Leo Powell. He described the Olympian as “a colossus in every aspect of his own life, whether as a competitor, builder, mentor or simply as a human being”.