Making an Irish Free State City – The Tailteann Games

August 1924 coincided with the inauguration of the Tailteann Games in Dublin. It was the brainchild of Corkman JJ Walsh TD and Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, who organised it with a strong committee.

The games were a nod to ancient funerary games in Ireland in pre-historic Ireland, but were also pitched as a way to progress the narratives of the Irish Free State. The games were a type of political healing mechanism event by bringing people together whilst also working on Ireland’s internationalisation programme and promoting culture, tourism, industries and pastimes.

Souvenir reports of the games in the National Library, Dublin highlight that between 2 August and 17 August 1924, approximately 6,500 competitors took part across 20 different events. Some of the international athletes were fresh from the Paris Olympics of 1924. There were participants from across Ireland including some from Cork city and county. There was not much success for Cork sports people but the ethos of the games makes for very interesting reading in the study of the Irish Free State.

The Cork Examiner outlines that on Saturday 2 August 1924 historic scenes were witnessed when the Aonach Tailteann or Tailteann Games were opened. JJ Walsh, TD, as Director of the games, delivered the opening address in the presence of the Governor-General of the Irish Free State Tim Healy.

At night the Irish Governor-General and eminent visitors were entertained at a distinguished banquet. Noted representatives of all continents were present including from the United States of America, Brazil, Argentine, Canada, India, Persia (modern day Iran), Italy, France, Spain and Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain. In the absence of President Cosgrave, Senator and poet William Butler Yeats presided at the banquet and in welcoming the guests said the nation was celebrating its coming of age. “In our long struggle for national independence our people have been scattered through the world, in the seventeenth century our nobility, and in the nineteenth our poor, and I see round me many representatives from those countries of the old world into which our nobility carried their swords, and many representatives of the new world into which after our great famine, and in the years of poverty, which followed our poor have carried their labour. It was natural and fitting that we should call you together, now that at last we are an independent nation, a victor at last in the struggle of centuries.”

On Sunday 4 August, the games began in earnest. From early morning the staff at railway termini in Dublin witnessed tens of hundreds flocking into the city. There were many choices of venue to enjoy outdoor sport. At Croke Park, hurling and football matches were hosted. On the opening weekend, Ireland easily defeated England in hurling and in the football event Leinster defeated Connaught by 1 goal 1 point.

A week later, at the close of the international hurling contest, the cup and medals were presented to the Irish team who had won the national football final. The presentation was made by Fenian and journalist John Devoy.

JJ Walsh in introducing John Devoy said Mr Devoy had come over especially from New York by ship to witness the revival of the ancient games of Ireland. JJ Walsh outlined that he was proud of the fact that no less than five Irish provincial teams in international hurling and two in international football were fielded against teams from America and UK teams from Scotland and Wales.

National golf tournaments were run at Portmarnock and Dún Laoghaire. The handball competitions were carried on at Clondalkin and Ballymeen, while the chess and boxing were conducted at Trinity College and Portobello Barracks. Cork Corporation councillor Seán Good is noted as taking part on the chess tournament.

There were feasts of music at the Metropolitan Hall, where competitors in traditional singing, harp, uilleann pipes, fiddle and cinema band contests were taking place. During the ensuing days, programmes at the hall also embraced from soprano solo, mezzo-soprano, tenor voices to bass solo competition to wind instrument combinations and choir singing.

One of the major competitions in the singing class was confined to male and female singers who had won first prize distinction at the Feis Ceoil or any other town or regional musical competitions. They would be judged on the interpretation and selection of songs and their potential to have a career in singing and music. The great feature of the contest was that John McCormark, the great tenor, was the adjudicator.

In the second week of the games, billiard competitions were held at the Catholic Club on O’Connell Street, yachting and motor boat racing was held in the beautiful harbour of Dún Laoghaire, motor cycle racing in the Phoenix Park, a 60 kilometre cycling race, athletic contests in Croke Park including javelin, decathlon and long jump, band contests at Ballsbridge, lawn tennis at Landsdowne Road, swimming (with some entrants from Australia), archery in Lord Iveagh’s gardens and diving at an outdoor lake at the Zoological Gardens.

Rowing was held at Islandbridge. Over several days, the rowing fixture drew large crowds of spectators anxious to see the famous Australian crews rowing in the contests. Competing national crews came from Cork, Galway, Waterford, Limerick, Derry and Down. Cork’s representative club of Shandon Rowing Club were unfortunately not successful in their bid for first place in their class.

Tug o’war and gymnastic contests at the RDS in Ballsbridge, a 3,000 metre steeple chase at Ballsbridge and claybird shooting. In Dublin’s Theatre Royal, a Charles Villiers Stanford work called ‘Shamus O’Brien' was produced. It was a new comic opera set after the 1798 rebellion in the mountains of Cork.

Dancing competitions were held in hornpipe, reel and jigs at Dublin’s Mansion House. The Cork Examiner details that the latter dancing events attracted over 560 competitors from across Ireland (including Cork) and from further afield from Great Britain and USA.

On the last days of the games on 17 August, the individual War Pipes Competitions opened at Ballsbridge. Amongst the competitors were the following – Tadgh Ó Craodhaligh of the Lee Pipers, Cork and Sean Ryan of 106 Gerald Griffin Street, Cork.

In the weeks that followed Minister JJ Walsh deemed the games a success and aimed to host them again in 1928. They were hosted four years later and again in 1932.

Kieran’s upcoming September tours (end of season), all free, 2 hours, no booking required:

Saturday 14 September, Cork South Docklands. Meet at Kennedy Park, Victoria Road at 2pm.

Saturday 21 September, Fitzgerald’s Park: The People’s Park. Meet at the park band stand at 2pm.

Sunday 22 September, Stories from Blackrock and Mahon. Meet in adjacent carpark at base of Blackrock Castle at 2pm.