Jack B Yeat’s painting ‘The Liffey Swim’ famously won Ireland’s first Olympic medal (silver) in Paris 1924 when Art, broken down into five categories (painting, literature, music, sculpture and architecture, all on a sporting theme) was an official Olympic event from 1910 to 1948. The first Liffey Swim took place in 1920, his painting was of the 1923 race and his Olympic medal are now on display in the National Gallery in Dublin. But Dublin poet Oliver St John Gogarty also won a medal in 1924 which arguably carries even more sporting resonance and history. He won bronze for ‘Ode to the Tailteann Games’ a poem reportedly written at the request of the Irish government to mark what has been described as the ‘Gaelic Olympic Games’ which were first held in 1924 to celebrate Irish Independence. The opening and closing ceremonies were held in Croke Park, sports ranged from GAA, athletics and horseracing to car and aeroplane races. It was staged after the Paris Olympics, thereby attracting several high profile American Olympians whose passage home stopped over in Cobh. The swimming took place in a re-purposed pond in Dublin Zoo and the competitors included US swimming champion Johnny Weismuller, who later found Hollywood fame as the Tarzan actor.
