The Tailteann Games or Aonach Tailteann was an Irish sporting and cultural festival held in the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in 1924, 1928, and 1932. It was intended as a modern revival of the Tailteann Games held from legendary times until the

Norman invasion of Ireland The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland took place during the late 12th century, when Anglo-Normans gradually conquered and acquired large swathes of land in Ireland over which the monarchs of England then claimed sovereignty. The Anglo-Normans ...

; as such it drew inspiration from the Modern Olympics revival of the Ancient Olympics.

Croke Park Croke Park (, ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Named after Archbishop Thomas Croke, it is referred to as Croker by GAA fans and locals. It serves as both the principal national stadium of Ireland and headquarters of the Gaelic At ...

, the Dublin headquarters of 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 ...

, was the venue for the opening ceremony and many of the sports events, which were open to people of Irish birth or ancestry. The Tailteann Games were held shortly after the Summer Olympics, such that athletes participating in Paris 1924 and Amsterdam 1928 came to compete. Participants coming from England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, the USA, South Africa and Australia as well as Ireland.History of Croke Park – Hogan Stand

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

competitions were held in conjunction with the Irish Chess Union as part of the Tailteann Games. There were also artistic competitions and industrial displays. The games became regarded as a Cumann na nGaedheal project, and when that party lost power to

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil ( ; ; meaning "Soldiers of Destiny" or "Warriors of Fál"), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party (), is a centre to centre-right political party in Ireland. Founded as a republican party in 1926 by Éamon de ...

after the 1932 election there was no financial backing for further games.

Games

# 1924 Tailteann Games # 1928 Tailteann Games # 1932 Tailteann Games # 1937 Tailteann Games was cancelled.

Origins

This revival "meeting of the Irish race" was announced by

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (; ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was an American-born Irish statesman and political leader. He served as the 3rd President of Ire ...

in Dáil Éireann in 1921. The 1922 Irish Race Convention supported the plan for an "Irish Race Olympic". However, due to the Anglo-Irish War and

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

it was not held until 1924. The meeting was launched to celebrate the independence of Ireland. The Hogan Stand was built and opened for the 1924 games. A report to revive the games was debated in the Dáil in June 1922. Modern sports such as

motorcycling Motorcycling is the act of riding a motorcycle. For some people, motorcycling may be the only affordable form of individual motorized transportation, and small-engine displacement, displacement motorcycles are the most common motor vehicle in ...

and

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

were to be included, along with a parade of massed choirs. The possibility of out-doing the

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 ...

was mentioned: "We have got representations from America to the effect that it would be advisable to depart from the idea of confining the Tailteann games to the Irish race and seeing that they predated the Greek Olympic by a thousand years we should be justified in entering upon a more varied programme." The first games were held in August 1922, with JJ Walsh, Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, as chair and Catherine Gifford Wilson, BA as secretary to the organisation.

Symbols

Commemorative medals were struck for all three games, in gold, silver, silver gilt, and bronze. They depict

Tailtiu Tailtiu or Tailltiu (; modern spelling: Tailte) is the name of a presumed goddess from Irish mythology. The goddess's name is linked to Teltown (< OI ''Óenach Tailten'') in Co. Meath, site of the Óenach Tailten. A legendary dindsenchas "lore of ...

, the patron deity of the ancient Tailteann Games, with inscription "An Bhainrioghan Tailte" ("Queen Tailte").

1924

The games opened with the "Tailteann choir" singing the "Tailteann ode", with words by Oliver St. John Gogarty and music by Louis O'Brien. ; The ode won Gogarty a bronze medal in the literature section of the 1924 Olympic art competition. The Irish flag was carried by Tom Kiely, winner of the 1904 Olympic all-around (decathlon) title. To increase the quality of the competition, some Olympic stars without Irish heritage were invited to compete as guests. The dissident Irish republican movement which had lost the Civil War urged a boycott of the games "falsely described as Aonach Tailteann", because it rejected the legitimacy of the Free State government which sponsored the games.

Rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

was excluded from the program because the

Irish Rugby Football Union The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) () is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where a ...

was seen as "undemocratic and almost un-Irish".

Billiards

Billiards events were held in the Catholic Club in O'Connell Street.

Clay Bird Shooting

Chess

Run in conjunction with the Irish Chess Union, there were three competitions, the overall competition was won by the reigning Irish Champion Philip Baker, the Major Competition was won by Lord Dunsany, with Aaron Sayers as runner-up. Dublin Chess Club provided its premises in Regent House, Trinity College Dublin as well as equipment for use for the Competitions.

Dancing

Golf (men and women)

The women's golf event was held at Portmarnock. The Men's golf event may have been held at Dollymount.

Hurling

hurling Hurling (, ') is an outdoor Team sport, team game of ancient Gaelic culture, Gaelic Irish origin, played by men and women. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goa ...

, teams from England, Wales, the United States, Scotland, and Ireland played. A shinty–hurling match was played between Scotland team organised by the

Camanachd Association The Camanachd Association (in Scottish Gaelic, ''Comann na Camanachd'') is the world Sport governing body, governing body of the Scotland, Scottish sport of shinty. The body is based in Inverness, Highland (council area), Highland, and is in ...

and an Ireland team organised by the

(GAA). The Camogie Association planned national and international camogie competitions, but withdrew after a dispute with the organisers, reflecting the anti-Free State bias of the association's leadership. An exhibition match was played without the association's sanction, while an association "Ireland" team played in London.

Handball

The handball events were played in Ballymun and Clondalkin.

Motor Cycling

Races took place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.Irish Newspaper Archive, July 1924

Music

Musical events came in several types and were held in a number of venues. There were performances and competitions. Some performances including operas took place in The Theatre Royal. Some competitions such as band contests were held in Ballsbridge and some were in the Metropolitan Hall in Lower Abbey Street.

Rowing

The rowing events were held at the centre of rowing in Ireland, namely, Islandbridge on the River Liffey.

Swimming

Swimming events were held in the pond at Dublin Zoo. American Johnny Weissmuller and Australian Andrew "Boy" Charleton took part.

Athletics

Were held in Croke Park, Dublin. The American Harold Osborn, the 1924 Olympic high jump champion, won the same event in the Tailteann Games at Croke Park.

Sailing

The Sailing events of 1924 were sailed in Kingstown (now

Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...

) on Saturday in the second week of August.

Motor Boating

The Motor Boat event of 1924 took place in

Dublin Bay Dublin Bay () is a C-shaped inlet of the Irish Sea on the east coast of Ireland. The bay is about 10 kilometres wide along its north–south base, and 7 km in length to its apex at the centre of the city of Dublin; stretching from Howth He ...

in conjunction with the sailing regatta. Match on declared speed, allowances conceded at start. First boat at 4.15 pm. Shantax. winner.

Cultural programme

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

persuaded the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

to award prizes. The gold medal went to Stephen MacKenna for his translation of

Plotinus Plotinus (; , ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a Greek Platonist philosopher, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher was the self-taught philosopher Ammonius ...

; other winners were Oliver Gogarty, Francis Stuart, and James Stephens. A banquet presided over by T. M. Healy, the

Governor-General of the Irish Free State The governor-general of the Irish Free State () was the official representative of the sovereign of the Irish Free State from 1922 to 1936. By convention, the office was largely ceremonial. Nonetheless, it was controversial, as many Irish Nat ...

, had an "oddly assorted" group of guests invited by Yeats, including

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

, Sir

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

, writers Compton Mackenzie, G. K. Chesterton, Lennox Robinson, and Carlos Magalhães de Azeredo; cricketers Ranjitsinhji and C. B. Fry; and diplomats Willem Hubert Nolens and Erik Palmstierna. Chesterton accepted the medal on his behalf of the absent MacKenna, who later refused it. An art and craft exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy displayed 1,597 works, more than half entered for competition in 32 categories. The overall "Tailteann Trophy" went to Seán Keating's ''Homage to Hugh Lane''.Cronin 2005, p.65 Other gold medallists included Margaret Clarke, Francis Doyle Jones, Letitia Hamilton, Power O'Malley, and Patrick Tuohy. At the Theatre Royal two recent operas by Irish composers were performed: Geoffrey Molyneux Palmer's ''Sruth na Maoile'' (1922) and Harold White's ''Seán the Post'' (1924), along with ''Shamus O'Brien'' (1896) by Charles V. Stanford. The last was not successful: "there seemed to be a greater number of people in the orchestra than in the audience". In the

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

competition, Charles Lamb won a silver medal for ''Dancing at a Northern Crossroads'', depicting a traditional crossroads dance.

1928

The programme for the 1928 games included athletics,

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue stick, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . Cue sports, a category of stic ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

, camogie, chess, cycling, Gaelic football,

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

Gaelic handball Gaelic handball (known in Ireland simply as handball; ) is a sport where players hit a ball with a hand or fist against a wall in such a way as to make a shot the opposition cannot return, and that may be played with two (singles) or four player ...

, hurling,

, rowing, and swimming. At the awards ceremony in the Iveagh Gardens, the pageant ''The Coming of Fionn'' by Seamus MacCall was staged.

Chess

The 1928 Games was won by John O'Hanlon a multiple Irish Champion.

Rowing

Was held on the Lee in Cork.

Swimming

Took place in Blackrock bathsSunday Independent, 5 Aug. 1928

Tug of war

The Barnacullia tug of war team (mostly composed of stonecutters) beat the Guinness tug of war team.

Motor Boating

The Motor Boat event of 1928 took place at Ballyglass, Co. Westmeath, home of the

Lough Ree Yacht Club Lough Ree Yacht Club is a sailing club based in Ballglass, Coosan, near Athlone, Ireland. Founded in 1770, albeit under the name Athlone Yacht Club, it claims to be one of the oldest yacht clubs in the world, although another Irish yacht club, ...

, and Motor Yacht Club of Ireland, on 16 August. Races took place in various classes: *Race 1. Free for all sweepstakes. 1st. 'Fiend' J.W. Shillan. 2nd. 'Irish Express' Major H. Waller. 3rd. 'Miss Chief' J. C. Healy. *Race 2. Handicap for boats with outboard engines not exceeding 350cc. Boat min. weight 120 lbs. 1st. 'Miss Chief' J.C. Healy. 2nd. 'Busy Bee' Lt. Col. Mansfield. 3rd. 'Imp' D. Tidmarsh. *Race 3. Handicap for boats with inboard engines exceeding 20'-0". 1st. 'Shrike' Lt. Col. Mansfield. 2nd.'La Vague' Dr. V. S. Delany. 3rd. 'Janet' J. C. Healy. *Race 4. Handicap for boats with outboard engines of unlimited cc. Boat min. weight 140 lbs. 1st. 'Baby Costume' L. Hogan. 2nd.'Fiend' J. W. Shillan. 3rd. 'Busy Bee' Lt. Col. Mansfield. *Race 5. Free for all scratch race. Outboard engines. 1st. 'Fiend' J. W. Shillan. 2nd. 'Miss Chief' J. C. Healy. 3rd. 'Busy Bee' Lt. Col. Mansfield. *Race 6. Handicap race for boats with inboard engines, length not exceeding 20 ft. 1st. 'Udra' Dr. V.S. Delany. 2nd. 'Mermaid' Mr. J. Ryan.

Sailing

Race 1. Yachts over 10 tons and under 40 tons. race of 24 miles. 'Mavourneen' F.S.J. Worrell

1932

With the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932, in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held du ...

begin held in Los Angeles, the Tailteann Games was originally scheduled for 1931 to avoid a clash, but postponed to 1932, which meant Olympic athletes from Ireland or abroad could not be present. The Games' main backer, minister J. J. Walsh, lost office when Fianna Fáil took power after the 1932 election, and public funding was cut. Against a background of the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and the Anglo-Irish Trade War, the Games cut from two weeks to one; they made a £12 profit. The change of Irish Government left the Tailteann games without government support, and as a result there were very few competitions.

Cycling

The cycling event was won by J.P. Woodcock.

Chess

The third games was won again by John O'Hanlon who was also Irish Champion in 1932.

Gymnastics

These events were held in the Mansion House in Dublin.

Handball, National and International

Events were held in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.,

Rowing

The Regatta was held in Drogheda on 29th and 30th June.

Sailing

Held in Dublin Bay on 14 August 1928. Event 1. yachts over 10 tons and under 40 tons.

Sailing

The sailing events were hosted by the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire in July 1932.

1939

In 1937

organised an inter- departmental committee into the feasibility of staging another games, which reported in June that it would be possible to stage one in 1939. De Valera used the split in Irish athletics governance as an excuse to defer consideration, to the chagrin of J. J. Walsh. The onset of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

deferred any progress and nothing further happened after the war.Rouse 2015 p.255

References

Sources

* * * * * *

External links

Tailteann Games
index of

Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news, news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a Movie theater, cinema, newsreels were a source of cu ...

clips
Tailteann Games
digitised photographs from the ''

Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray backgrou ...

'' at the

National Library of Ireland The National Library of Ireland (NLI; ) is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The mission of the National Library of Ireland is "To collect, preserve, promote and make accessible the ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tailteann Games 1924 in Irish sport 1928 in Irish sport 1932 in Irish sport 1924 establishments in Ireland Recurring sporting events established in 1924 1932 disestablishments in Ireland Recurring sporting events disestablished in 1932 Gaelic Athletic Association competitions Multi-sport events in Ireland Sports festivals in Ireland Irish diaspora Arts festivals in the Republic of Ireland Celtic festivals Celtic Revival Festivals established in 1924 Defunct festivals 1924 in multi-sport events 1928 in multi-sport events 1932 in multi-sport events 1920s in Irish music 1930s in Irish music