Irish Examiner view: Olympics a chance to unite a divided world

For France, the Games offer a much-needed opportunity for joie de vivre after a snap election in which the far right was narrowly defeated

The Paris Games offer an unrivalled opportunity to come together.  Picture: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

There is a pleasing symmetry in recalling that it is exactly a century since the very first Irish team competed at the Olympic Games, and that it did so in the very same city which is now gearing up to host what promises to be a spectacular opening ceremony.

In 1924, a newly-independent Ireland sent 48 athletes to Paris to compete in seven events. Two of them came home with medals in disciplines that no longer exist. Oliver St John Gogarty won a bronze medal for his poem ‘Ode to the Tailteann Games’, while Jack B Yeats won silver in art for The Liffey Swim.