Olympic oddities: Music, poetry, and town planning
“I must point out to you that the International Olympic Committee have laid down that a country should be named by that which it is known in the host country. For instance, Spain appears as Spain, not España. Your country is known as Éire.”
Thus it was that Ireland’s team of competitors, still widely regarded in Britain as Free-staters, had to go under a banner reading “Éire” rather than calling themselves “Ireland” at the opening ceremony of the XIV Olympiad.
