Olympic scholarship... Just for the record

Ryle Dwyer’s piece on the first Irish man to win an Olympic medal made for interesting reading but contains one piece of mythology that should be retired at this stage of Olympic scholarship.

There was never any question of John Pius Boland engaging in any type of nationalist protest regarding the hosting of the Union flag to mark his victories in Athens.

This is made clear in the diary he kept of his journey and time at Athens, which was discovered in 1974. At the presentation ceremony, Boland was so concerned when he inadvertently committed a minor breach of protocol as he forgot “to descend the steps backward” that he felt concerned enough to mention it in his diary and was at pains to explain that he made up “for the omission by bowing” when he got to the bottom.

He refers to himself as an Englishman in the diary and only rediscovers his Irishness on his return from Athens.

Matt Cooper also provides considerable embellishment to Peter O’Connor’s protest in 1906 (Irish Examiner, 20/7/2012). According to Cooper’s account, “when the British flag was raised, O’Connor went after it, to the consternation of the watching Greek and British royalty.

He pulled it down and replaced it with an Irish flag.” O’Connor never claimed such an intervention. He climbed the flagpole and waved his Irish flag about, an episode that was hardly noticed by those present. Rather different to pulling down the British flag.

Dr Tom Hunt

Mullingar

Co Westmeath