Bringing Back the Irish Whales
Irish Whales, the non cetacean types, are an endangered species. That is my takeaway from a July article written by Sinead Kissane in the Irish Independent where she noted that Ireland would not be represented by a single athletes in the field portion of the Tokyo Olympic athletics program. While Ireland certainly had Olympic success in the jumping events, the exploits of Long Jumper, Peter O’Connor and High Jumping brothers, Patrick and Con Leahy come to mind, but they are overshadowed by the extraordinary dominance of Irish born throwers in the early 20th century. These throwers, were known as the Irish Whales and their outside achievements and legacy are almost forgotten and lost.
Irish Hammer Throw Dominance
The Hammer Throw was introduced in the Paris Games in 1900 and native born Irish men won the event in each of the 8 subsequent editions with the exception of Paris games in 1924. The names of these men: John Flanagan, Matt McGrath, Paddy Ryan and Pat O'Callaghan are legend to those who are students of the event. These hammer throwers were joined by two other native born Irish gold medalists: Martin Sheridan and Pat McDonald were also draped with gold medals in the Discus and the Shot Put. Collectively these men won 10 Olympic titles in events that continue to be part of the Olympic program. Sadly all but two of these medals were attributed to the United States where these men migrated for better economic opportunities and to pursue their athletic craft.
It is a tradition that all Irish people should be proud of. The Finns lay claim to 7 gold medals in the Men’s Javelin, an event that is venerated in their country. Go to an athletics meet in Finland and you will find the Javelin at the top of the bill. No doubt there is much handwringing going on in Finland at the failure to medal in the past 2 editions of the games. I’d like to say that a similar concern is expressed at the demise of Irish Throwing, but it is barely a thought. Since Pat O'Callaghan won his second Gold Medal at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, no Irishman has made it onto the Olympic podium in the throwing events. The late John Lawlor came close in the 1960 Rome Games with a 4th place finish in the Hammer.
What Happened to Irish Throwing Dominance?
So what happened? I can point to three pivotal events:
- Ireland was barred from sending a team to the 1936 Berlin Games due to a dispute with the international governing body over the divisive issue of border politics and whether Ireland was entitled to select a team which could include athletes from the six counties. This meant that Pat O'Callaghan was unable to defend his Olympic title and match the three title tally of his predecessor John Flanagan. O’Callaghan talked of this disappointment in interview with Jimmy McGee in 1966
- A world record was lost. It’s a matter of conjecture whether O'Callaghan would have a secured a third consecutive Olympic title, but a year later he clarified his status in the world pecking order with a throw of 59.55m in Fermoy. That throw exceeded the 24 year old world record of Pat Ryan, however the throw was not recognized as a record due to Ireland’s ongoing athletic isolation over the jurisdictional border dispute. A quick view of the World Hammer record progression shows that O’Callaghan’s mark was not exceeded until 1949. Had that record been ratified, two Irish men would have held that standard for 36 years!
- Finally World War II intervened, there was a 12 year gap, 16 in the case of Ireland, between Olympic Games. Unsurprisingly, the sport suffered as a whole. A comparison of performances from the 1936 and 1948 Games across many events makes clear how global performance deteriorated, another casualty of the WWII inferno.
The loss of the 1936 Games, a world record in 1937 and Olympic isolation until 1948, were body blows to the throws in Ireland. It was enough to throttle a tradition where the margin between success and failure is fragile. Left unnurtured, a long winter set in briefly broken by John Lawlor’s heroics in the Rome Olympics. Sadly Lawlor’s contribution to the cause proved to be fleeting rather than a new dawn. It wasn’t till the 1980s that Irish throwers returned to some level of respectability.
Much of the credit for that improvement can be attributed to Philip Conway. Conway, like John Lawlor pursued his university education in America and ultimately competed in the 1972 Munich Games in the Shot Put having become the first Irishman to exceed 60' with a throw of 18.32m. On returning to Ireland, Conway would set himself the task of restoring Ireland’s fortune in the throws, not in his preferred events of Shot Put and Discus, rather he chose to focus on the Hammer mindful of building on a tradition still remembered by a few.
By the early 80s, Conway’s efforts had a direct impact with the qualification of Seán Egan for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Egan became the first Irishman to breech the 70m threshold, a measure at the time of international Hammer respectability. He would be followed into the Olympics by Declan Hegarty (1984), Conor McCullough (1984, 1988), Roman Linscheid (1996) and Paddy McGrath (2000). Conway had either a direct or indirect impact on all these throwers and his successes weren’t confined to the Hammer. He played a direct or supporting role in the careers of Olympians Nick Sweeney (Discus: 1992, 1996, 2000), John Menton (Discus: 2000), Patricia Walsh (Discus: 1984), Paul Quirke (Shot Put:1992), Victor Costello (Shot Put:1992) and Terry McHugh (Javelin: 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000)
Conway would be the first to acknowledge that that there was a cadre of coaches behind the successes of these athletes. Dan Kennedy coached Terry McHugh and Nick Sweeney. Paddy Creagh coached Conor McCullough and Conway’s own coach from his Rockwell secondary school days, Fr. Michael Lavelle, along with many others, had an enormous impact on the development of the sport through the last decades of the 20th century. What is undisputable is that all Irish throwers were touched by Conway’s work and few would have succeeded without his sustained effort.
Eileen O’Keefe competed in the 2008 Beijing games and as such is Ireland’s last Olympic thrower. Her story is partially detailed in Sinead Kissane’s article and and points to the difficulties that have led to the decline in Irish throwing fortunes.
The story is not all bleak, new talent is emerging under the guidance of David Sweeney, national field events coach. Properly nurtured it can exceed the successes of the 80s and 90s.
I’ll be exploring the challenges and difficulties faced by Irish throwers in more detail by talking with coaches, athletes and administrators to determine what needs to be done to lay the groundwork for future success. For now, we can point to history and acknowledge that the Irish throwing gene is strong. Ireland is a race of people nurtured and optimized for hard toil in the fields. That demanding labor, agricultural strength if you will, yielded great success in the early Olympic days, but things have changed and while that agricultural DNA survives, Ireland must now learn from the success of other nations which took control of it’s throwing legacy following WWII.
