LONDON — Good Lord, I can only imagine the tears that would have been shed back home if Katie Taylor had not won the gold.

For reasons only they know, this 26-year-old boxer has been adopted as the nation’s princess, if not queen. I grew up in a thoroughly Irish atmosphere, and I would have said the epitome of what a male of Irish descent thinks is appropriate athletic endeavor for the female of the species is step-dancing. The idea of some sweet young thing pounding an adversary about the face and stomach before frenzied fans would have been both distasteful and unimaginable.