A special programme is being prepared for this weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final hurling clash between Cork and Limerick, which includes a one-off commemorative feature on the first-ever Irish Olympic team in Paris in 1924 and tells the story of JJ Keane, the Anglesborough man who founded the Irish Olympic Council back in 1922. The 2024 Olympics in Paris mark the 100th anniversary of when Ireland first took part in 1924, also in Paris, as a result of Mr Keane’s tenacity.
Today in Anglesborough hangs a plaque to the founder of the organisation (today called the Olympic Federation of Ireland). Back in 2009, the plaque was unveiled by Jarlath Burns, the current president of the GAA, alongside local man Pat English, who at that time was chair of Galtee Gaels and John Quane, former Limerick and Galtee Gaels footballer.
Contemporary reports of the 2009 unveiling, in both The Avondhu and in an article penned by Jarlath Burns, are critical of the Olympic Council as they did not attend nor even respond to an invitation at the time, later blaming it on a ‘breakdown in communication’. The chair in 2009 was Pat Hickey, who later resigned from his position in the wake of the 2016 ticket touting scandal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Full story in this week’s Print & Digital Edition
