Champion remembered

Ronnie Delaney has been invited to unveil a full sized memorial statue to Paddy Ryan, winner of a gold medal and a silver insignia for the 16lb hammer throw and 56lb weight, respectively at the Olympic Games in Antwerp, in 1920.

The unveiling will take place in the late Mr Ryan’s birthplace of Pallasgreen, county Limerick, at 3pm Saturday.

Present at the ceremony will be Paddy Ryan’s five daughters, Mrs Josephine Kilban, New York, Mrs Bernie O’Dwyer, Cashel, Mrs Mary Weatherhead, Pallasgreen, Mrs Catherine O’Grady and Mrs Chrisse O’Donovan, both living in Limerick.

Paddy Ryan was born in Pallasgreen in 1883, and emigrated to America in 1910. In the Olympic hammer throw he had 13 feet to spare over second placed Carl Lindh of Sweden. He died in 1962 at the age of 82.