Pádraig Harrington believes Ireland is one of the "better countries" on the planet when it comes to reveling in the success of the country's athletes.
The three-time major winner was speaking at an International Sports Diplomacy Strategy launch at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday.
The strategy has four main priorities. Among those is to promote Ireland as a sporting nation as well as engaging in major sporting events.
"We punch well above our weight. We're a tiny, small country in the scheme of things," Harrington told RTÉ Sport's Michael Corcoran.
"But we certainly have successes and we celebrate our successes. I think we're one of the better countries in the world for enjoying our sport and enjoying the success of our athletes.
"Especially if someone thinks that we're negative in any way at home, it's never negative away.
"When you go and meet Irish people around the world, they just love everything to do with Ireland, everything to do with the athletes.
"Because that ties them to home, even though they're away. Being able to watch athletes perform in any sport and we do remarkably well.
"We really do punch above our weight. We're very good for that. There are loads of reasons for it but I don't know exactly the reason.
"Maybe we're just that little country that just wants to keep proving ourselves."
Gaelic games feature in the strategy's framework particularly in strengthening connections with the diaspora.
Harrington said the seeds of that were evident in his globe-trotting career.
"My last event in Bahrain, during the Saturday and Sunday, there was an astroturf, a pretty good sort of facility beside the golf course and it was full of GAA players - actually camogie players one of the days," he said.
"You just see that as you travel around the world and what the Government are trying to do is to pull it all together, so that we're all going in the same direction, that we're all helping each other out.
"It's more to do with business and diplomacy than just individual athletes out there."
Harrington added that he was keen to see business and technology intersect further with the world of Irish sport within the remit of the strategy.
"This isn't all about tourism. There's lots more to this," he said.
"It's about trade, it's about building the tech behind business so that we can be elite in the world when it comes to technology and businesses.
"We have that tech in the country and it's tying it all together. So we're talking trade, we're talking tourismk we're talking diplomacy and we're talking athletes - both elite athletes and to get elite athletes you've got to invest in grassroots and have all the weekend warriors behind them because that's where the elite ones come from."
