Dan Coyle was one of Ireland's leading hammer throwers across more than a decade, assembling an impressive collection of national titles before competing at the 1948 London Olympic Games. From Castleblaney, the son of a well-known local auctioneer, he came to Dundalk in the late 1920s and opened a butcher's shop there in 1934. He won eight national hammer titles under NACAI rules between 1937 and 1948, and when he switched allegiance to the AAUE and joined Crusaders AC in 1948, he secured his only AAUE title with a champion throw of 47.28m at College Park. The prospect of competing at the Olympic Games encouraged him to postpone retirement and make the switch. Remembered warmly by his teammates, David Guiney described him as 'a giant of a hammer thrower from Dundalk' - 'a beautiful man, big, soft, gentle, always smiling, always kind' - the father figure of the Irish athletics group in London. In London he did not advance to the final throws in the hammer. He was part of the AAUE contingent admitted through IOC intervention.
Athletics
