Olympian task: Hunt to find Hitler’s films of Irish hammer-throwers’ secret

IT was such a coveted secret that Hitler sent his most trusted filmmaker to Ireland to capture it.

Intrigued by the stature of our hammer-throwers in the 1930s, the German dictator wanted to know what made them so good, in a bid to copy their technique before the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Now the hunt is on for the footage, with Brian Walsh, curator of the Dundalk County Museum, leading the chase.

“We heard about this film in our contact with some of the Olympians’ families and are trying to locate the footage. If anyone could help us with this, it would be fantastic.

“It appears Hitler wanted to know why the Irish were so good, so he arranged to have the athletes filmed so that their training regime could be analysed.

“We believe this was done before the 1936 Games and there is a suggestion that Hitler’s propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl may have been involved and we are seeking to clarify that.”

Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. She was later asked to film the Berlin Games.

The Dundalk museum is preparing to hold an exhibition on Irish involvement with the Olympics to coincide with the run-up to London 2012, and hopes to make the film a centrepiece.

One family Brian spoke to was that of Dan Coyle, whose son, Maurice, remembers hearing stories about German film crews being at training sessions. Dan, who was from Dundalk, represented Ireland in the 1948 Games. He died in 1972.

Maurice said his uncle, Ted, was also a keen athlete, and had accompanied his father on training sessions. He wrote to Maurice about the German film crew.

“There could be footage of my father somewhere and we have no other live footage of him at all,” said Mr Coyle.

“The Germans were very interested in the Irish technique.”

His father’s coach was Dr Pat O’Callaghan, who won Ireland’s first gold medal at the 1928 Games, where he set a world record in the hammer throw.

He did not compete in 1936 and it was reported in the 1930s that the Germans brought Dr O’Callaghan to Hamburg to film his technique.

“While we want to find out all we can about Ireland’s associations with the Olympics, it’s already been fascinating going into Louth’s Olympic history,” said Mr Walsh.

* The exhibition opens in June and anyone with information on the German footage or other Olympic memorabilia or anecdotes can email the museum at [e-mail]