Dorothy Dermody passed away on 10 April 2012 at the age of 102 years and 350 days at the Killiney Grove Nursing Home, having been at the time of her death both Ireland's oldest living Olympian and the world's oldest surviving Olympic fencer.
One of the founding members of organised fencing in Ireland, she had answered a 1933 Irish Times advertisement placed by Guy Perrem - the sole respondent - and was a founding member of the Irish Fencing Club, based at the Earl of Iveagh's house at 83 St Stephen's Green. Her initial interest in fencing had come from lessons at the Physical Education College in Bedford and was later rekindled at the Ling Physical Education Institute in Dublin when Ulla Fryden, the Swedish foil champion, arrived as an instructor and required a fencing partner.
She was games mistress at Alexandra College, Dublin from 1943 to 1958, where one of her students was the future Olympian Maeve Shankey (Kyle). A distinguished all-round sportswoman, she won the Irish ladies' diving title six times between 1938 and 1946, and was the first woman to attend the annual meeting of the IASA as a delegate, in 1943. At the 1948 London Olympic Games she competed in the ladies' foil without her own equipment - which was not returned in time after the checking procedure. Rene Bougnol, the French men's champion and team captain, generously loaned her his glove, foil and mask.
Fencing
