An Irishwoman's Diary: Maeve Kyle fought all the odds to compete in the Olympics

Clodagh Finn joins Deirdre O'Shaugnessy to discuss the woman who became known, rather inaptly, as ‘The Kilkenny Kitten’.

She competed in three separate Olympic games; competed for Ireland in hockey, tennis, sailing and cricket, and even won the support of Eamon deValera who sought her out to compliment her “fine race” at Trinity College in the early 1950s.

But Maeve Kyle fought against all the odds, including her own in-laws, when she decided to compete in the Olympics despite having recently become a mother for the first time.

A letter writer to the Irish Time described her as a “disgrace to motherhood” , but she blew off the criticism to become a popular sporting figure and the backbone of athletics in Ireland for many years.

Irish Examiner columnist Clodagh Finn joins Deirdre O'Shaugnessy to discuss the woman who became known, rather inaptly, as ‘The Kilkenny Kitten’.