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Ireland’s first (official) Olympic medals, London 1908

John Pius Boland was Ireland’s first Olympic champion but he was not our first ‘gold’ medallist—his prizes in Athens in 1896 were silver medals and olive wreaths. Up until London, […]

John Pius Boland’s Olympic tennis diploma

When John Pius Boland, born in Capel Street, Dublin, went to Athens for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 he did so as a scholar-tourist, seeking respite from a […]

The Olympic Games,THEN and NOW

THEN, for me, was 1956, when the Olympiad came to Melbourne, Australia. The first intimation that I had been chosen to represent Ireland was the official letter informing me that I […]

Cycling spokes and political strokes

Most Irish Olympians up to 1924 were either representatives of adopted homelands, like the USA or the Commonwealth dominions (in 1912 Kennedy McArthur from County Antrim became the only Irish-born […]

Irish women’s athletics and the Olympic Games

The first step towards organising international athletics for women was taken in May 1921, when some 300 athletes from Italy, Norway, Switzerland, England and France competed at the Olympiades Feminines […]

September 20

1920 Two RIC officers were shot dead in a public house in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin, after which the RIC and Black and Tans rampaged through the town, burning business premises and houses. Two suspected republicans were bayoneted to death.
1920 Three British soldiers from the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, including Pte Harold Washington (15), were shot dead by the IRA as they collected bread from Monk’s bakery in North King Street, Dublin. Kevin Barry (18) of H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, was arrested at the scene.
1970 Leo Rowsome, celebrated piper, died suddenly in Riverstown parochial hall, Co. Sligo, while adjudicating in the ‘Fiddler of Dooney’ fiddle-playing championship.
1914 In a speech at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, the Irish Parliamentary Party leader, John Redmond, called on the Irish Volunteers to join the British army and fight wherever the war took them.
1803 Robert Emmet, United Irishman, was hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin.
1922 Four Irregulars, including Brian MacNeill, son of Eoin MacNeill, were trapped by Free State forces on Ben Bulben, Co. Sligo, and summarily executed.

Ireland’s first (official) Olympic medals, London 1908

John Pius Boland’s Olympic tennis diploma

The Olympic Games,THEN and NOW

Cycling spokes and political strokes

Irish women’s athletics and the Olympic Games

Personal Histories

On this Day

September 20