Pat O’Callaghan won Olympic gold medals in the hammer throw at both the Amsterdam 1928 and the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games.

O’Callaghan was from Kanturk, County Cork and developed his athletics career while studying medicine at University College Cork.

He travelled to the 1928 Olympics with his brother, Con O’Callaghan who completed in the decathlon event.

Pat O’Callaghan was a gifted athlete and despite only taking up the Hammer a few short years previously, he won the competition at the 1928 Games, Ireland’s first Olympic sporting medal as a nation. The medal presentation ceremony marked the first time the Irish tricolour was raised at the Olympics and the first airing of newly adopted Amhrán na BhFiann.

O’Callaghan later remarked that he was glad of his victory, not for the victory itself, but for the fact that the world had been shown that Ireland had a flag, that Ireland had a National Anthem, and, that they had a nationality.

Pat O’Callaghan went on to defend his title and claim a second gold medal in the hammer at the 1932 Los Angeles Games.