Daniel Delany Bulger
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Daniel Delany Bulger (18 December 1865 – 8 December 1930) was a leading Irish athlete. Along with his younger brothers,
Michael Joseph Bulger Michael Joseph Bulger (15 May 1867 – 20 July 1938) was an Irish rugby player, athlete and medical doctor. Along with his brothers, Daniel and Lawrence, he was prominent in the Irish sporting world in the late 19th century. Bulger achieved las ...
(1867–1938) and
Lawrence Bulger Lawrence 'Larry' Quinlivan Bulger (5 February 1870 – 17 March 1928) was an Irish rugby union player, athlete and doctor. Bulger played international rugby for Ireland and in 1896 was chosen to represent a British Isles XV in their tour of So ...
(1870–1928), he was prominent in the Irish sporting world in the late 19th century. Daniel was one of the 79 delegates who attended the Congress of the Sorbonne in Paris in 1894 that lit the flame of the Olympic Games of the Modern Era in Athens in 1896.


Family background

The Bulger family were from Moore Street,
Kilrush Kilrush () is a coastal town in County Clare, Ireland. It is also the name of a civil parish and an ecclesiastical parish in Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe. It is located near the mouth of the River Shannon in the south-west of the county. ...
,
County Clare County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...
, where their father, Daniel Scanlan Bulger (1831-1904), was a woollen merchant and draper and ran a loan office. Around 1880, the family moved to Dublin, where Daniel Scanlan Bulger became a member of the Dublin Stock Exchange and his sons were educated at
Blackrock College Blackrock College () is a voluntary day and boarding Catholic secondary school for boys aged 13–18, in Williamstown, Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded by French missionary Jules Leman in 1860 as a school and later became al ...
and
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
, from where Daniel Delany Bulger graduated with a BA degree in 1886.


Athletic achievements

Between 1885 and 1892, Bulger was the winner of 25 gold medals at Irish athletic championships run by either the
Irish Amateur Athletic Association The Irish Amateur Athletic Association or IAAA was a governing body for athletic sports in Ireland between 1885 and 1923. The IAAA was formed as the Irish offshoot of the English Amateur Athletic Association in 1885. This was partially in reactio ...
(IAAA) or the
Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional Irish sports o ...
(GAA). On 1 August 1887, he set the Irish Native Record for 100 yards of 10.2 seconds at the GAA Championships held at the County Kerry Athletic Club Grounds, Tralee. He held this record, jointly with Norman D. Morgan
896 __NOTOC__ Year 896 ( DCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * February – King Arnulf of Carinthia invades Italy at the head of an East Frankish expeditionary army. He storms ...
Denis Murray
904 __NOTOC__ Year 904 ( CMIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * July 29 – Sack of Thessalonica: A Muslim fleet, led by the Greek renegade Leo of Tripoli, appears outside ...
and James P. Roche
907 __NOTOC__ Year 907 ( CMVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Rus'–Byzantine War: Varangian prince Oleg of Novgorod leads the Kievan Rus' in a campaign against Const ...
until Frederick R. Shaw (Dublin University Athletic Club) clocked 10.0 seconds in Belfast on 20 July 1913. Alaso in 1887, he was a member of the Irish athletics team that visited America. Between 1889 and 1892, he won five British Amateur Athletic Association Championships. The first was the long jump event at the
1889 AAA Championships The 1889 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held on Saturday 29 June 1889 at the Stamford Bridge (stadium) Stamford Bridge () is a football stadium in Fulham, ...
and this was followed by two wins in the 1891 AAA Championships in the 120 yards hurdles and long jump. The fourth and fifth titles were at the 1892 AAA Championships, when he repeated the double of hurdles and long jump. His achievements included multiple Irish championships in each of the 100 yards, 220 yards, 120 yards hurdles, and long jump, as well as British championships in the long jump and 120 yards hurdles. He introduced the crouch start into Irish sprinting. In the 120 yards hurdles, he equalled the world record of 15.8 seconds at the IAAA championships at Ballsbridge on 1 August 1892. The full list of his Irish athletics titles is as follows: IAAA 100 yd Champion: * 1888 – 10.4 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1889 – 10.5 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1890 – 10.6 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1892 – 10.4 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin GAA 100 yd Champion * 1886 – 10.6 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1887 – 10.2 sec ounty Kerry Athletic Club, Tralee* 1888 – 10.4 sec arket’s Field, Limerick* 1889 – 10.6 sec uke’s Meadow, Kilkenny* 1890 – 10.4 sec lonturk Park, Drumcondra, Dublin IAAA 220 yd Champion * 1885 – 24.6 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1886 – 23.4 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin GAA 220 yd Champion * 1886 – 23.8 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1887 – 24.0 sec ounty Kerry Athletic Club, Tralee* 1888 – 24.6 sec arket’s Field, Limerick IAAA 120 yd Hurdles Champion * 1888 – 17.0 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1892 – 16.4 sec DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin GAA 120 yd Hurdles Champion * 1887 – 17.6 sec ounty Kerry Athletic Club, Tralee* 1888 – 17.2 sec arket’s Field, Limerick* 1889 – 17.0 sec uke’s Meadow, Kilkenny* 1890 – 16.8 sec lonturk Park, Drumcondra, Dublin IAAA Long Jump Champion * 1889 – 20 ft 11½ in .39 m DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1892 – 22 ft 10 in .96 m DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin GAA Long Jump Champion * 1888 – 22 ft 0½ in .72 m arket’s Field, Limerick* 1889 – 21 ft 5¼ in .53 m uke’s Meadow, Kilkenny* 1890 – 21 ft 4 in .50 m lonturk Park, Drumcondra, Dublin His other Irish Championships placings included: * 1885: Irish Athletic Championship 100 yards – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1886: IAAA Championship 100 yards – 3rd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1886: GAA Championship 120 yards Hurdles – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1887: IAAA Championship 100 yards – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1887: IAAA Championship 220 yards - 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1887: IAAA Championship 120 yards Hurdles – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1888: IAAA Championship 220 yards – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1888: All-Round Championship – 12 events – 3rd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1890: IAAA Championship Long Jump – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1890: All-Round Championship – 10 events – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin* 1891: IAAA Championship 120 yards Hurdles – 2nd DS Showgrounds, Ballsbridge, Dublin The full list of his British athletics titles is as follows: AAA Long Jump Champion * 1889 – 21 ft 6 in .55 m tamford Bridge, London* 1891 – 20 ft 4 in .20 m equal 1st with Malcolm W. Ford (USA) ld Trafford, Manchester* 1892 – 21 ft 4¼ in .51 m tamford Bridge, London AAA 120 yd Hurdles Champion * 1891 – 16.6 sec ld Trafford, Manchester* 1892 – 16.0 sec tamford Bridge, London


Olympic involvement

Bulger was prominent in Irish athletics not only as a successful participant, but also as an administrator. As Vice-President of the I.A.A.A., he was one of the Irish delegates to the Congress of the Sorbonne in 1894, organised by Baron
Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; 1 January 1863 – 2 September 1937), also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic ...
, resulting in the foundation of the modern
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
in 1896. From 16 – 24 June 1894 Daniel Bulger and Joseph Magee of the I.A.A.A. Competitions' Committee attended the Congress in Paris, as representatives of the I.A.A.A. This international congress led to the establishment of the Olympic Games of the Modern Era, the creation of the International Olympic Committee and the decision to hold the inaugural Olympic Games in Athens in April 1896. Bulger and Magee played an integral part for Ireland in this momentous Olympic Congress.


Personal life

In 1892, Daniel Delany Bulger was admitted a member of the Dublin Stock Exchange, and taken into partnership by his father. He married his first wife Maria Frances Daly on 18 January 1893 at St. Francis Xavier Church on Upper Gardiner Street in Dublin.''Irish Times'', 30 December 1892; ''Freeman's Journal'', 19 January 1893. Around 1900, they moved to London, where she died in 1904. He remarried in 1910, to Elsie Mary Regnart (1881-1972). During World War I, he held a commission in the East Surrey Regiment, Royal Army Service Corps. He died in Hampstead in 1930.


References


Bibliography

*White, Cyril (2003) ‘An Irish-French Sporting Connection: Daniel Bulger, Pierre de Coubertin, and the Modern Olympic Games’, pp. 33–44 in S. A. Stacey (ed) Essays on Heroism in Sport in Ireland and France. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press. *Dublin University Harriers and Athletic Club, Trinity's Brightest Stars


External links


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by Cyril M. White {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulger, Daniel Delany 1865 births 1930 deaths Athletes from County Clare People from Kilrush People educated at Blackrock College