The mid-1950s were definitely grey. A coalition government had gained power from Fianna Fáil. The unemployed workers marched in the streets but there were no jobs for them. Many workers left Ireland; the picture of them crowding onto the mail boat in Dún Laoghaire is etched deep in many people’s memories, including my own. Our … Read more
Lucania bicycles were manufactured by John O’Neill at the Lucania works in South King Street, Dublin. An advertisement for the Lucania in a 1911 edition of Sinn Féin carried the information also that the company had won a contract to supply the Post Office with 400 delivery bicycles. Following the Stockholm race, Sinn Féin quoted … Read more
The British Olympic Association (BOA) was founded in 1906 and some of its key members rose to prominence in the International Olympic Committee (IOC), helped by their hosting of the 1908 Olympics in London. The BOA was heavily Tory in its political make-up, and correspondence between its secretary and Baron de Coubertin of the IOC … Read more
In 1949 the North held its first official women’s championships and hired Franz Stampfl to promote athletics in the province. Stampfl would later coach Roger Bannister to the world’s first sub-four-minute mile, and in the North he helped to produce three outstanding Olympians. Thelma Hopkins broke the world high jump record in May 1956 and … Read more
The outstanding figure from the early years of Irish women’s athletics was Ellie Mary ‘Babe’ Leahy from Charleville, Co. Limerick, a sister of Olympians Con, Patrick and Tim. Ellie, a tall, athletic woman, regularly took part in high jump exhibitions and her brother Con thought her the best jumper in the family. In a diary, … Read more