GAVE UP £20,000 TOUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 53, 4 March 1939, Page 4

GAVE UP £20,000 TOUR

EX-GAMES CHAMPION MISHAP IN HAMMER-THROWING EVENT RECALLED Dr. Patrick O'Callaghan, lhe Irish athlete and former Olympic Games champion, told in the Dublin Bankruptcy Court how his hopes of receiving £20,090 from an American boxing and wrestling tour which he began in May last, were dashed. I was in America for six and a half months," he said, "during which I was paid £4O a week. My contract stated I was to get a percentage of gate receipts, and when I found the money was not forthcoming I returned home.” Dr. O'Callaghan, who was being publicly examined, stated that he had contracted a debt of £3OOO over a Court action. He said that in 1931, at a sports meeting in Mallow, he was throwing the hammer when the chain snapped and the head flew off, hitting a boy who had encroached on the pitch. The boy sued him and the sports committee, and on the morning of the trial his solicitor was told by counsel for the committee that the case had been settled for £6OO. I “Apparently a loophole was left,” ' declared Dr. O'Callaghan, “for when ■' my solicitor had gone back to his I office I hey went in and obtained judg- ' ment against me. “I was not aware of it until a year later, when 1 got notice to pay dam- | ages of £2OOO and costs. I "A statement was made in court that the boy was injured for life, but he is now walking about as well as ever he was.' 1 Mr. Justice Johnson commented he though there had been a "terrible miscarriage oi justice.” After a solicitor had given evidence he adjourned the examination to allow Dr. O'Callaghan to take counsel's opinion. Dr. O’Callaghan said he was a dispensary doctor in Smly, Co. Tipperary, until he went to America. He I gave his address now as Roseville, Clonmel!.