The most recent Olympic Games in Paris may signify a major achievement for Ireland, establishing its late but significant emergence as a global sports power. However, the event also signifies a significant dip in Irish ambition compared to the preceding games held in the French capital, a hundred years ago.
The 1924 Olympic Games concluded a bit earlier, in July, compared to this year. By mid-Augish, a hundred years ago this week, the Games no longer dominated news headlines. They had been over-shadowed by a mammoth event – Ireland’s home-grown Olympiad, the Tailteann Games held at Croke Park and other locations.
The revival, inspired by a festival thought to have made its debut in Meath in 632 BC and held routinely until the Norman invasion of 1169 AD, aimed to showcase Ireland’s historic sports heritage whilst supporting the newly established Free State.
Initially, it was scheduled to take place in 1922, but the Civil War put a halt to these plans. Nonetheless, the silver lining was that the two-year postponement allowed the event to ride on the coattails of the Paris games, attracting global athletes to an event initially intended solely for athletes of Irish birth or descent.
In spite of this, the Free State was economically strained and still faced many challenges in 1924. The £10,000 spent on renovating Croke Park for the event sparked controversy. Some members of the Cumann na nGadheal government also feared that political adversaries might sabotage the event.
For visitor accommodation, the Royal Hibernian (military) School in Phoenix Park was one of the options. Unfortunately, Eoin O’Duffy, the Chief Commander of the Free State Army, denied permission. He reasoned that one or more of the estimated 400 guests could be an anti-Treaty republican with schemes of setting the building ablaze.
The industrial turmoil lent an exceptional atmosphere to the opening night banquet held under candlelight, where WB Yeats gave a speech. This was a fallout from a municipal workers’ strike. A key indicator of the prevailing tough conditions was the workers’ fight – not for a pay rise, but against a proposed weekly pay cut of six shillings. The eventual agreement saw a substantial cutback on the pay cut.
Jack B Yeats, brother to WB Yeats, had previously garnered fame by clinching one of only two medals for Ireland in Paris, in the category of sports-related art. The second, awarded for sport-inspired poetry, was won by Oliver St John Gogarty.
When it came to actual sports and the commencement of the Tailteann Games, the introduction of the United States on the global stage brought about a significant change. Currently, competing and landing a win against the Americans requires an almost complete devotion to rigorous training. Unfortunately, only a handful of young Irish men can afford this commitment. In consequence, Ireland falls short in events like running and jumping, particularly when compared to some of our foreign participants competing at Croke Park this week.
Nevertheless, the execution of the games was an outstanding success, particularly evident in the swimming events that optimised limited resources. Despite lacking a pool adequate for the event and ignoring Yeats’ suggestion to utilise Dublin’s main river, organisers creatively substituted with a pond in the Dublin Zoo.
Exceptional performances there included those by the Australian Andrew “Boy” Charlton, who demonstrated his stature as the world’s best swimmer in the 200m and 800m events. An especially notable attendee, Johnny Weissmuller, who was a swimming star before becoming more well-known as Tarzan in Hollywood films, found the zoo setting curiously predictive. As a noteworthy aside, Maureen O’Sullivan, the actress who would later play Jane alongside Weissmuller’s Tarzan, was growing up in a different part of Ireland during that period.
The Tailteann Games, an ambitious project, did not receive praise from all spectators. The event was described as an exercise in pointless self-praise by Augustus John, a Welsh artist. His judgement, however, may have been influenced by his extreme alcohol addiction, heightened by his stay at Lord Dunsany’s mansion in Meath, where the lord was a non-drinker. Overcome by frustration, John penned in a letter “I have to leave this place” and subsequently managed to overstep the wall of Dunsany Park late at night and walked a distance of 14 miles towards Dublin.
The Tailteann Games occurred twice more under the governance of Cumann na nGaedheal, mirroring the four-year cycles of the Olympics in 1928 (held in Amsterdam) and 1932 (held in Los Angeles). However, the 1932 event was marred by the transition of power to Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil. The Games were disapproved of by the new ruling party as they were seen to be linked with the opposition. Consequently, the celebration was allowed to gradually disappear. Many years later, the concept of Ireland hosting the actual Olympics was proposed by a Fine Gael TD named Gay Mitchell (also the lord mayor of Dublin). However, this suggestion was welcomed with less than enthusiastic spirit.