Ballyragget connection earns Coe a heritage cert

MARK HENNESSY, London Editor

STANDING HIGH in the Olympic Stadium in London yesterday alongside gold-medal winner Sebastian Coe, President Michael D Higgins looked down on workmen below and dreamed of returning for the Games.

“It would be a great hope of mine, it would be my strong expectation,” he said, as he praised the beauty of the architecture of the stadium. “It is wonderful the way that it lifts away. The line of sight is magnificent,” he said on the second day of an official visit to London.

Coe, chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, is used to international political figures making the pilgrimage to east London, but few come, as Michael D did yesterday, carrying a certificate of national heritage.

The framed certificate, said the President, marks the fact that Coe’s great-grandfather, Edward Swann, came from Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny, and was a highly-regarded painter who later produced many of the Great Western Railway’s most iconic advertisements of the 1920s and 1930s.

“The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage . . . if we had discovered this before 1980 our store of gold medals would have been different.

“But even at this late stage we congratulate you on bringing the Olympics [to London] and more importantly to you and your colleagues for delivering such a wonderful project, but also to thank you for being proud of your heritage and Ballyragget,” said Mr Higgins.

Coe remains one of Britain’s most-remembered Olympic athletes for winning Olympic medals, including the 1,500 metres gold medal in 1980 and 1984, but, mostly, for his rivalry with his fellow British athlete, Steve Ovett.

Replying, Coe said he had told Pat Hickey, head of the Olympic Council of Ireland, of his Irish links – which are not enough to guarantee citizenship under the grandfather rule – over dinner one night: “I will long cherish the expletive that came from Pat’s mouth when I told him.”

Questioned about his interest in sport, Mr Higgins declared his loyalty to Galway United.

“I watch a great deal of soccer. My sons play. I like horse-racing, as well,” he said, while on the Olympics he said he was a track-and-field man.

• Email Us
• |