“I’ve had a year of living somewhat normal,” says Kellie Harrington, stirring her coffee on the North Strand. “And normal is not for me. It’s just not for me, for now.”

In a nutshell, that’s all there is to it. When it comes right down to it, Ireland’s two-time Olympic gold medallist isn’t done being a boxer. She said she was. She maybe even thought she was. Paris was definitely supposed to be the end. Now, it turns out, it wasn’t.

“Every fight I have, I put so much pressure on myself. I can’t wait to fight – and then, come three, four weeks before the fight, I’m wondering why I do it. ‘Why am I still here? What the hell am I at?’

“And I suppose then after the Olympics, I just announced my retirement. But that’s the good thing about life, we’re allowed to make our minds up, we’re allowed to change them again and make it back up and change it again.

“I’ll be 36 in December. So, why not? I’m saying nothing about the [next] Olympics or anything like that. Everybody knows me. I’ll never say anything about winning or going to the Olympics. I always look at one fight at a time, one competition at a time. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

“But I do just think, imagine if I didn’t give it another go. I’m fit, I’m kind of healthy. I have a few niggles at the moment but in general I’m healthy. So why wouldn’t I?”

Harrington is going to fight in the Nationals in January. She has a couple of kilos to shed before then to get down to her 60kg fighting weight so there’ll be a purge of sugar products from the house over the coming weeks and months. Her first time back in the ring will be on December 2nd, with a night of exhibition boxing in the Round Roo