What a pity there’s no Hibernian high jumper in Paris
I’m sure I speak for all Flann O’Brien fans in saying that a disappointment of Ireland’s belated confirmation as a global sporting powerhouse has been the continued failure of any jumping events to feature.
“That was always one thing, said Shanahan wisely, that the Irish race was always noted for, one place where the world had to give us best. With all his faults and by God he has plenty, the Irishman can jump. By God he can jump. That’s one thing the Irish race is honoured for no matter where it goes or where you find it – jumping. The world looks up to us there.
But puking or not, the policeman replies with a jump of “twenty-four feet six”, confounding the critics and proving his national credentials. And yet Ahearne may not even have been the best triple jumper in his own family. His older brother Tim had won the gold medal at the Olympics in 1908, representing Great Britain.
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