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.