As we prepare to watch Irish athletes perform in this month's Olympics in Athens, it is worth remembering that Ireland once organised and hosted its own version of the Olympics exactly 80 years ago, during the early years of the Irish Free State.
The idea for the event was first suggested by Michael Davitt at the time of the foundation of the GAA. Davitt called for the staging of a national festival of athletics, art, music and poetry that would involve "the Celtic race throughout the world". Several decades passed before the matter was raised again by Eamon de Valera when he proposed the staging of an "Irish Race Olympic" to the Dáil in 1921. The following year, J.J. Walsh was put in charge of planning the event with Croke Park as the major venue. Having established an organising committee, he was able to announce the planned eight-day programme to the Dáil in March 1922.
After paying tribute to de Valera's role in conceiving the idea, Walsh claimed that the programme of events went "far beyond anything attempted at the Greek Olympiad". Competitive entry was restricted to those of Irish birth or able to lay claim to an Irish heritage.
The Tailteann Games, otherwise known as Aonach Tailteann, were meant to revive the ancient games of Queen Tailte, held at Tara in the seventh century BC. It is perhaps worth noting that the time-span of these legendary games was longer than that of the ancient Greek Olympics.
Despite the outbreak of the Civil War in June 1922, some politicians were still in favour of the event taking place that year to help "relieve the present tension"; but it was eventually decided to postpone the games for a year.
In April 1923 it was announced that the event would be postponed for a further year. In January 1924, a letter in the Freeman's Journal called for yet another postponement of four or five years on the grounds that no proper facilities were in place for visitors or spectators. An editorial in the same paper the following day supported this view, arguing that the Games needed much more than J.J. Walsh's "buoyant enthusiasm".
The Earl of Mayo asked in March 1924 that the Seanad request the government to improve passenger accommodation at Dún Laoghaire Pier, as otherwise those visiting Ireland for the games "will come once and they will never come again". As late as May 1924, the decoration of Dublin streets in advance of the Games was criticised on the grounds that "any attempt made at decorating in this way would render us grotesque unless some serious attempt is made to remove the highly objectionable and far from picturesque ruins in O'Connell Street".
There were others, however, who aired their views in much more optimistic terms. William Davin trusted that "in view of the Tailteann Games and the Olympic Games and the return to normal conditions in this country, anything that is concerned with the promotion of sport will receive the support of the Government" and felt that by getting "people to think more about sport and less about politics in this country you would have a more normal condition of things". John Daly defended the provision of proper housing in June 1924 by saying that he thought that it was "mandatory on the Government to provide that any such obstacles as those in the way of rearing up people who would be able to compete in the future Tailteann Games should be removed immediately".
Finally, on April 13th, 1924, the definite programme for the Games was announced. The events were to occupy almost three weeks, from August 2nd to 17th August, and to include a highly diverse range of sporting, cultural and artistic activities. Present at the opening ceremony, which took place exactly 80 years ago today, were John McCormack, John Devoy, Sir John and Lady Lavery, Sir Edwin and Lady Lutyens, to name but a few of the many distinguished guests. Teams travelled from Scotland, England, Wales, the US, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. As President Cosgrave was in England on urgent state business, Walsh saluted the march-past of competitors from such varied fields as arts and crafts, archery, billiards, clay pigeon shooting, chess, golf, shinty and tug-o'-war, as well as hurling and football.
That same evening a banquet took place at the Metropole Hotel. Although a strike by municipal workers had deprived the building of electricity, The Irish Times claimed that this was "scarcely noticeable, as the result of a judicious arrangement of petrol lamps and large candles in the dining rooms". Senator W.B Yeats deputised for Cosgrave and Kevin O'Higgins delivered the address of welcome. Other speakers included John Devoy and G.K. Chesterton. Mike Cronin refers, in a recently published article on the subject, to Yeats describing the Aonach Tailteann on this ocasion as "a symbolic coming of age for the Free State". W.F. Mandle wrote in his history of the GAA that the speeches at the opening ceremonies "represented an apotheosis of aspiration and achievement on the part of those who had succeeded in bringing about what the founders of the GAA had sought 40 years before, namely a recognition of the values of the Irish athletic ideal".
One hopes that Irish athletes competing in the forthcoming Olympics will find within them a rekindling of the spirit that animated the "Irish Olympics" of 1924.