The Mother of Athletes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5, 1 February 1906, Page 6

The Mother of Athletes

Drained of the best of her population, as she is week after week, Ireland is still the mother of the greatest and brawniest of the world's athletes (says the Newry ' Frontier Sentinel '). The best of them, somehow, always hail from the southern half of the island. Ulster has- never wanted for excellent men in the running path, or as jumpers or weight-throwers; but all the ' record-makers ' whose fame has become world-wide have hailed from Munster and Leinster in our time. The advent of the Gaelic .Athletic Association gave the southern giants and men of speed a grand opportunity of distinguishing themselves. It ' brought them out,' and for twenty years the wide world all over has not produced jumpers or weight-throwers fit to stand in the field with the ' champions ' of Munster. What a Glorious Band those Gaels were :— John Purcell, the great brothers Davin, Shanahan and Looney, M'Carthy, of Macroom ; O'Reagan, of Mourne Abbey ; the swift O'Sulhvans of Cork and Kerry ; fleet Tommy Conneft, from Kildare ; poor Willie Real, Drs. Barry and Daly ; Kiely, evergreen and yet invincible after nearly twenty years of invincibility as an ' all-round athlete.; Mitchell, who was once unequalled at the heavy weights ; Denis Horgan, the working farmer of Banteer, whose weightthrowing has been the wonder ol the world for nearly a quarter of a century ; the Mangans ; John Flanagan, king of weight-throwers and the greatest wielder of the ' ponderous hammer ' since the days of Cuculain ; Tim O'Connor and Morty O'Brien ; Frank Dineen, prince of sprinters and still to the fore as 'Gaelic handicapper ; the brothers Phibbs, Sheehan and Dan O'Neill, long-dis-tance runners who never seem to tire — these were but a few of the mighty band whom Finn himself might be proud to lead to the battle or the chase, or to the heroic contests on the field of the Tailtean. Some are still to the fore in Ireland. Some, like the peerless Flanagan, who has never been beaten, have emigrated to ithe Western Republic. It may be remarked that while Irish-born men in the States are the greatest athletes who uphold the fame of America in almost every department, we cannot remember one of the first-class springing from amongst the Irish exiles of the second or third generation. The Old Motherland is still the 1 true nursery of bone and muscle and endurance—and ever it will. The Gael may attain to physical and intellectual eminence away from the hills of Ireland ; but the extent of his development abroad can never be more than a poor earnest of the height to which he might reach under favoring conditions at home. The conditions have ever been as unfavorable as they well could be ; yet the pre-eminence of the old race's mind and muscle has asserted itself despite of all. At Gaelic sports held in Westport not long ago,, despite the most noble Browne, who is Marquis of Sligo, and who ordered the Gaels off his lands when he discovered they were Gaels — a youth named Con Leahy — one of a wonderful pair of brothers — jumped a bar placed, 6ft 4in from the level ground. Wo have seen the first prize taken in Ulster by a competitor who succeeded in clearing 4ft 3in. Leahy comes from Charleville, on the borders of Cork and Limerick. If any, reader wishes to realise what the feat meant, he need only place a lath across posts 6ft 4in high and contemplate the possibility of flying over it. And it was a fair square jump from the grass, and not a leap from a carefully prepared ' take off.' We do not believe there is another man living in the world who would have followed Con Leahy, of Charleville, over the bar that day in the West, just as no man on earth can come within fathoms of Flanagan, of Kilmallock, with a 161 b hammer. In Prosaic Ulster we pay little heed to these things : in the South they are as proud of the Leahys, Kielys, Flanagans, and Sullivans as they are of the poets and orators and political leaders that spring up amongst the people. And it is right and good that this is so. Finn and Oscar and Cuculain and Ferdiah— giants of the olden day&— live in the minds and hearts of the people still after all the centuries : they are far more real than the primal bard, Oisin, whose songs gave immortality to r jtheir deeds. These young men of the South whose feats challenge the wonder and admiration of the world are alKof the native Gaelic race, and to the native Gaelic Association their success is directly due.