GAA celebrating athletics and Olympic history as part of Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final
In the words of Peter Byrne, the doyen of sportswriting late of this parish, it was the race which provided nearly all the excitement on the closing day of the Tailteann Games, staged on a sweltering hot Monday in Croke Park in May of 1966. And a mile record some people said might never be broken.
Still, there are strong and lasting ties that bind, particularly with that 1924 Olympic team. Given the fact Paris also hosted those Games and are now welcoming the sporting world back 100 years later, it’s an apt celebration too, Croke Park also being one of the original playing grounds of Irish athletics.Player Watch: Jamie Osborne proves he is worth another shot at fullback
Earlier this year, the Olympic Federation of Ireland initiated a series of centenary events, beginning with an official list of the 911 Irish names who have represented the country at the Olympics, starting in Paris in 1924, up to the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.While the credit for Ireland’s first Olympic appearance goes to the football team, who played Bulgaria on May 28th, 1924, and won 1-0 , it happened many weeks before the official opening of the Games on July 5th, 1924.
The OFI gave the honour of Ireland’s first Olympian — as in number one of their current list of 911 — to Stanley, and last month in his home village of Caragh, they erected a monument with Stanley’s name and marking the height of 6ft 3⅛in he cleared in Croke Park when the Tailteann Games were first revived in the immediate aftermath of those 1924 Olympics.
Long before the days of super spikes and wave-light pacing, maybe it’s a time worthy of its status, even if it hasn’t been challenged once in Croke Park in all the years since.
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