Paul Rouse: A century ago, the Tailteann Games upstaged a Paris Olympics

The 1924 Games were a triumph for the government of the new Irish Free State.

Tailteann Games 1924: Ireland v USA in hurling. 1924.  Photo by Independent News And Media/Getty Images

Exactly 100 years ago on this day, the Tailteann Games saw more than 5,000 competitors compete in a remarkable range of sporting events. It was the biggest sporting event organised across the world in that year – bigger even than that year’s Paris Olympic Games.

Against the backdrop of a War of Independence, partition and a nasty civil war – and indeed partly because the legitimacy of the new state was so contested – the Games were a triumph for the government of the new Irish Free State.