Eighty years ago, on 21 May 1932, American aviator Amelia Earhart crash-landed in a field outside Derry after crossing the Atlantic. Footage of Earhart while she was in Derry has just been unearthed in the Northern Ireland Public Record Office. Belfast flying enthusiast Grenville Mackie heard about Earhart on the radio and flew up in … Read more
In 1897 the Greater New York Irish Athletic Association purchased approximately seven acres of land in the suburban farming community then known as Laurel Hill, Long Island, for $9,000. Soon an athletic complex—Celtic Park—was built. For the first two decades of the twentieth century, athletes were nurtured and trained by the Irish-American Athletic Club (as … Read more
At the London Olympic Games in 1908 Irish-born athletes won 33 medals. In athletics Irish-born athletes won five golds—hammer, 200m sprint, triple jump (then known as the ‘hop, step and jump’), discus and discus (Greek-style). Silver medals were won in the shot-put, the hammer and the high jump, and bronze medals in the 100m sprint, … Read more
When hammer-thrower Pat O’Callaghan returned from Amsterdam in 1928 as the first Olympic champion from an Irish state, he declared: ‘I am glad of my victory, not of the victory itself, but for the fact that the world has been shown that Ireland has a flag, that Ireland has a national anthem, and in fact that … Read more
(in the order in which they are mentioned)National Athletics and Cycling Association of Ireland (NACA), founded in 1923 as an all-Ireland body.International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF), the international athletics organisation founded in Stockholm in 1912.Irish Amateur Athletics Association (IAAA), founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the English AAA. GAA Athletics Council, founded in 1906.Irish Cycling … Read more