Larry Stanley holds a unique place in Irish sporting history as the first person ever to compete for Ireland as an independent nation at the Olympic Games, taking to the high jump pit at the 1924 Paris Olympics at the Stade de Colombes – the moment at which Ireland’s Olympic story began.

He finished equal 10th with a jump of 1.80m, and the following month cleared 1.90m in Dublin – a height that would have placed him fourth in the Paris final.

A member of An Garda Síochána who retired as a detective sergeant in 1954, Stanley was also one of the most celebrated Gaelic footballers of the twentieth century, described by the great GAA chronicler Carbery as the most brilliant Gaelic footballer the game had known.

He captained Kildare to the All-Ireland senior football title in 1919 – his brother Fr. Jim Stanley also played in that final – and won a second All-Ireland medal with Dublin in the delayed 1923 final played in September 1924.

He was the inaugural recipient of the GAA’s All-Time All Star Award in 1980 and was posthumously selected at midfield on a special all-time Garda football team in 2005, alongside Kerry’s Paddy Kennedy. In his athletics career he won the high jump at the Irish Athletics Championships in 1924 and 1925, the pole vault in 1926 and the AAA high jump title in England in 1924, and reached runner-up in the long jump, standing long jump, triple jump and javelin.

He later reached a lifetime best of 1.91m at the Tailteann Games.