While the rest of the world, including Irish athletes such as sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, middle distance runner Ciara Mageean and gymnast Rhys McClenaghan, descends on Paris and the 2024 Olympic Games this summer, many others interested in Ireland and Irish history might be forgiven for casting their minds back a hundred years to celebrate the centenary of another famous sporting event: the first modern Tailteann Games, which took place in Dublin in 1924.
In many ways much like their Olympic counterparts, the 1924 Tailteann Games — about which much more below! — were also a revival of an ancient sporting tradition.
But the Tailteann Games were also much more than just sports. Known variously throughout history as Tailtin Fair, the Aonach (or Áenach) Tailteann, the Assembly of Talti or the Fair of Taltiu, the event came to be known simply the Tailteann Games, and they represented an Irish cultural tradition that dated all the way back to pre-Christian times.
Let’s hear more about the history of the Tailteann Games, how they came to be revived in the first few years following Irish independence from the British crown, some of the stars who came to Dublin, and what the Games might mean now as we look back and consider their legacy.
The Origins and Ancient Traditions of the Irish Tailteann Games
According to the mythical history of Ireland outlined in the Book of Invasions, written by monks almost 1000 years ago, the Tailteann Games were said to date back another 4000 — which might have made them the same age as the Pyramids of Giza or the Brú na Bóinne burial landscape, which includes Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, in Ireland’s Boyne Valley.
Modern historians believe the Games originated quite a bit later — but still at least as far back as the 600s AD and quite possibly several centuries BCE, which might make them comparable to the ancient Greek Olympics which date from 776 BC.
The Irish Games were said to have come into being at the behest of the god Lugh Lámhfhada, (literally Lugh of the Long Hand), in honor of his foster-mother Tailtiu. According to the legend, Tailtiu had cleared all the plains of Ireland for agriculture and then, understandable perhaps after such an immense workload, promptly died from exhaustion. Legend has it that Tailtiu was buried under a mound in the small County Meath country landscape which has forever since bore her name — Teltown — and which would become the site of the games held in her honor.
The Tailteann Games took place during the second half of July, coming to a climax on the festival known as Lughnasadh, or Lammas Eve, around August 1st, which traditionally marked the beginning of the harvest season. The god Lugh himself (itself?!) was associated with skill, mastery, and sovereignty, and the establishment of the festival underscored the importance not just of physical strength, power and skill, but also of Ireland’s cultural and intellectual prowess.
The festival itself served a number of purposes beyond just sports and games, including honoring the dead and proclaiming new laws. For several centuries, then, it seems that the Tailteann Games took place almost annually in Teltown, just a few miles west of the aforementioned Brú na Bóinne across County Meath’s rolling green fields.
The Specifics of the Ancient Tailteann Games
Before we move onto the modern revival of the Tailteann Games after Irish independence, let us first reflect a little more on the specifics of the ancient Tailteann Games, and especially those three primary functions: honoring the dead and proclaiming new laws as well as the games, competitions and festivities.
A number of mourning rituals took place at the festival, including the Guba, a mourning lament sung by specially invited guests, and the Cepóg, which was (according to the indispensable The Aonach Tailteann and the Tailteann Games: Their Origin, History and Ancient Associations, a book by T.H. Nally originally published in 1922):
“A strange and beautiful dirge, sung by the druids and poets attached to the person or court of the deceased. It was initiated by the Chief Druid and taken up and improvised by each singer in turn, and recounted the family history, recited the personal exploits, and lamented the loss of the departed. It was no ordinary expression of regret; and its composition and intonation evinced an art requiring much study, cultivation and practice. Few who have ever heard this weird lament … can ever forget it.”
In what was both a ceremonial and deeply spiritual act, the dead were sometimes then cremated on a funeral pyre as the mourners faced the setting sun and chanted for his (or her) safe passage to the afterlife.
Of course, Ireland in ancient times was not always a place of perfect peace, but if there was a period of truce and calm, the the high king and others in positions of authority could take advantage of the gathered crowds to proclaim new laws and encourage the listeners to bring the news back to their clans in every corner of the country — the Games were the iPhone, messenger apps and biased news media all rolled into one, providing a great opportunity for the rulers of the day to tell the gathered masses just what’s what and invite them to bring all the new laws and diktats back to their hinterlands around Ireland.
Leaping flames being a powerful signal of power itself, more fires accompanied the proclamation of these new laws, which were again spoken into being by the bards, poets and druids whose ability to hold the attention of the crowds was a vital skill set deployed by those in charge.
Alongside these ceremonies and pronouncements, there was, of course, the main event: the games themselves.
The great game of hurling — which in the already iconic All-Ireland final of 2024 between Cork and Clare is fast attracting new fans from all over the world — played a central role in the games, alongside plenty more physical contests such as the long jump, the high jump, running contests, spear throwing, boxing, archery, wrestling, swimming and chariot racing.
On top of all that — this is Ireland, after all — minstrels, musicians, bards, seanchaís and storytellers regaled the gathered crowds each evening. There were competitions in singing, dancing, storytelling, crafts such as goldsmithing and weaving, and, intriguingly, strategy — all activities that provided entertainment to both participants and spectators alike, but also (and this is a key point) cultivated skills that were as important for survival and prosperity as overpowering or outrunning enemies.
Alongside the ceremonies, occasions of mourning and athletic and intellectual supremacy was one final fascinating aspect of the games: a mass arranged marriage event!
In our times the County Clare town of Lisdoonvarna plays host to an annual match-making festival, but the ancient Tailteann Games went a step — or thousands of steps — further. Perhaps hundreds of men and women from around Ireland met for the first time and were joined together in an ancient and perhaps uniquely Irish practice known as “handfasting”.
Handfasting is a Celtic ritual in which the hands are tied together to symbolize the binding of two lives, albeit in this tradition the couple is still allowed a grace period of a year and a day to decide whether they really want to stick together. As the 21st century world continues to look to the past for inspiration, handfasting has started to make a return to favor in all manner of marriage ceremonies, whether secular, religious or pagan.
The Celtic Tiger Stirs: The Irish Awakening of the Early 20th Century
The games were revived intermittently as the “Tailten Fair” during medieval times, when they retained elements of their original purpose, including contests of strength and skill, horse races, and religious celebrations and a move to more structured athletic and cultural events. (And of course, hurling.)
But it was at the turn of the 20th century — a period of great upheaval and revival in Ireland — when the Tailteann Games returned firmly to center stage. This was a time characterized by the growing influence of the newly established Gaelic Athletic Association (the GAA, founded in 1884, the governing body of the collection of Irish games which includes Gaelic football and hurling) and the broader Gaelic cultural revival movement.
Alongside this there was the spirit of political upheaval with growing support over several decades for devolution, or “Home Rule”, from the British crown, before a small band of revolutionaries took things in their own hands and the Easter Rising of 1916 brought bloody rebellion to the streets of Dublin. Within five years, Ireland would have full independence from Britain — or, at least, 26 counties of Ireland, with the other six making up Northern Ireland and still part of the United Kingdom as part of the so-called Treaty that brought about partition and caused plenty of strife and tragedy in the following hundred years.
When they weren’t occupied by the ensuing Civil War which erupted between the pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty sides, the thoughts of civic and political leaders then turned to ways to demonstrate and celebrate Ireland’s independence.
The Tailteann Games soon emerged as the most ambitious of choices.
The Legendary Corkman Behind the Tailteann Games Revival
The 1924 games were the first major international event held in the newly established Irish Free State, and a primary influence behind this revival was James Joseph, or JJ, Walsh, described memorably by Irish history blogger Éireann Ascendant as a man
“whose aim from the start was to get things done, the sensitivities of others be damned.”
Even before 1924 Walsh had emerged as a key Irish figure in several ways: he was a participant in the 1916 Easter Rising, was elected to Dáil Eireann — later becoming Minister for Posts and Telegraphs — and became chairman of the Cork GAA county board. (He saw the GAA not only as the guardian and promoter of Ireland’s national games, but also as a vital source of freedom fighters in Ireland’s independence struggle.)
Walsh’s political tenure was marked by some significant milestones, including the hugely symbolic repainting of the old Royal Mail post-boxes from red to green, and the establishment of the radio service called 2RN, which would later evolve into national broadcaster Raidio Teilifis Éireann (RTÉ) and achieved a notable breakthrough in 1926 when an All-Ireland hurling semi-final became the first live broadcast of a field sport in Europe.
As director of the Tailteann Games, Walsh was charged with making the event happen. And make it happen he did — despite several onerous challenges. For one thing, the Irish Civil War disrupted initial plans to hold the games in 1922, delaying them by two years, and he later had to bitterly defend an Irish government funding allocation of £10,000 to the GAA to improve the Association’s Croke Park stadium which would host many of the Games’ athletic events as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
The funding was eventually passed and Croke Park received its much-needed makeover. So, in July 1924, just four years after the stadium saw the murder of 14 people, including the Tipperary player Michael Hogan, by British Army troops in the Bloody Sunday massacre during the War of Independence, “Croker” hosted the opening ceremony of the first modern Tailteann Games as JJ Walsh’s grand vision was made real.
Photographs via the National Library of Ireland
As it turned out, the 1924 games were a monumentally ambitious undertaking for a brand new nation, with athletics, swimming, cycling, rowing, and other events taking place around Dublin.
Among the most notable participants was Johnny Weissmuller, then a strapping 20-year-old who had won gold medals in the 100 and 400 meters swim events in Paris, and won at the Tailteann Games in what was described as “a pond” in the grounds of Dublin Zoo.
Within a decade Weissmuller would find fame of a different kind in the new moving pictures industry, starring in the 1932 movie Tarzan The Ape Man and going on to appear in the leading role in 12 Tarzan movies between 1932 and 1948 in one of the most iconic of all Hollywood careers. 
But Johnny Weissmuller wasn’t the only Olympic gold medallist to land in Dublin in 1924.
High jump hero Harold Osborn also came to Ireland to showcase his skills, where he found a rival in the shape of an Irish sporting legend.
The GAA legend who faced up to an Olympic champion
While future Tarzan was doing his stuff in the Parisian pools, Osborn was emerging as a massive star in track and field, winning the Olympic high jump title before and stepping on the podium for a second time when taking the all-round decathlon. Indeed, at the time he would hold both the high jump and decathlon world record and a century on, his achievements remain unique in Olympic history — no one before or since has ever managed to complete the high jump/decathlon double.
In Dublin, though, the crowds did not just turn out to see the world record holder show off his skills, because there was a home favorite in contention too.
The 48-strong Irish Olympic team of 1924 had the honor of being the first Irish athletes to compete at an Olympic games, and high jumper Larry Stanley was among their number. Stanley was already a bit of a household name, as he had represented both Dublin and Kildare Gaelic football teams with distinction in previous years and captained Kildare to the All-Ireland football title in 1919. Stanley cleared a mighty six feet three inches in the Tailteann Games high jump to push Osborn (whose Olympic record stood at six feet six) all the way.
Despite the initial success of the Tailteann Games, the event soon faced problems in two directions, as the financial costs of staging the event became difficult to justify and, in what sounded the deathknell, there arose serious political opposition from those protesting against the Anglo-Irish Treaty, including the Sinn Féin political party. On top of that, the global tremors from the Wall Street Crash and the ensuing Great Depression and Anglo-Irish Trade War (or Economic War) made it impossible to carry on.
The last modern Tailteann Games were held in 1932, and subsequent attempts to revive the event proved unsuccessful.
Harold Osborn of the USA takes part in the long jump in the 1928 Tailteann Games.
image source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
A testament to Irish ambition — and prelude to the Celtic Tiger economy?
More than just a sporting event, the modern Tailteann Games were a statement of cultural identity, national pride and — 75 years or so before the Celtic Tiger economy truly roared — a grand symbol of Ireland’s global ambition.
That ambition soon met the reality of economic life in the 1920s and ‘30s, as the requirements of a new self-governing nation amid the wider economic landscape bit hard.
The third modern Tailteann Games took place in 1932, which would prove to be the last. The Games had tapered off after its early splash in 1924, with both public and official interest waning, and the 1932 Eucharistic Congress drew much more attention among the Irish people.
American athlete Johnny Weissmuller competed in the swimming competition during the Tailteann Games, which were held in the pond of Dublin Zoo in the Phoenix Park.
Photograph: Getty
As a grand combination of sporting, cultural and political ambition, the modern Tailteann Games reflected both the vast ambition of and the vast challenges faced by Ireland’s newly independent state.
While the Tailteann Games as a large-scale event have never (yet!) been revived, their legacy still persists. The famous Rás Tailteann, a multi-stage cycle race taking place over several days, took place for the first time in 1953 and has since had more than 60 editions, while the Tailteann Cup is a Gaelic football competition which was established by the GAA in 2022. The county GAA ground of Meath in the town of Navan, near the site of the ancient games, is known to one and all as Pairc Tailteann.
Ireland, and Ireland’s sporting heritage and institutions, has come a long way from the ancient origins of the Tailteann Games.
Still, a number of things have survived down the millennia — Irish pride and ambition, for one; the noted Irish capacity to combine both athletic strength and intellectual nous and charm, for two; and perhaps most notable of all, the legendary game of hurling, the world’s fastest field sport, which was a focal point of the ancient games thousands of years ago and is still winning fans around the world as the 21st century unfolds.
1 comment
Excellent article. Did you know Larry Stanley was commemorated in his home village of Caragh, County Kildare in June 2024, marking the 100th anniversary of his Olympic and Tailteann achievement!