Belfast, Northern Ireland was the venue for roller skating events (at the Kings Hall), as well as the Special Olympics Scientific Symposium (held from 19 to 20 June).

[3] The opening ceremony was held in Croke Park and featured an array of stars and was hosted by comedian Patrick Kielty.

This was a series of relays carrying the Special Olympics Torch, the "Flame of Hope", from Europe to the Games' official opening.

[17] 30,000 volunteer officials and support staff assisted in the running of the games, including 900 staff of the Bank of Ireland who coordinated the host town programme,[18][19] and 800 members of the Irish Defence Forces who maintained the radio communication network, and provided support for bridge building, security duties, VIP drivers, standard bearers for ceremonial events.

[20] The Irish Red Cross, Order of Malta and St. John Ambulance Brigade of Ireland provided emergency medical teams at the event sites.

[31][32] The following teams participated, grouped by Special Olympics regions: 177 towns, cities and villages and the Aran Islands hosted national delegations in the run up to the games.

[8] Each town ran programmes to educate the local community about the customs of the country they would host and provided facilities for the teams to acclimatise.

[34] Wicklow (not specified) Athletes and coaches such as Lleyton Hewitt and his coach Roger Rasheed (tennis);[35] Seve Ballesteros,[36] Sandy Lyle and Andrew Marshall (golf),[37] Mick O'Dwyer (Gaelic football) and Brian Kerr (soccer) met and encouraged athletes at events during the games.