ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IRISH OLYMPIANS … Faster, Higher Stronger – A History of Ireland’s Olympians is the essential guide for anybody who plans to watch the Beijing Olympics. Researched and written by two of Ireland’s leading sports journalists, Lindie Naughton and Johnny Watterson, it illustrates vividly how Ireland, for such a small population, has a substantial history of Olympic achievement, going right back to 1896 when tennis player, John Pius Boland, won Ireland’s first Olympic gold medal. Since then, many Irish heroes have stepped onto the winner’s podium in several sports, from athletics to boxing. Want to know the name of the Irish sprinter who competed for Britain at the “Hitler Games” of 1936? Or how Fred Tiedt missed out on boxing gold in Melbourne 1956? Or that Jerry Milner was the oldest Irishman ever to compete at an Olympic Games when he won the free rifle (1,000 yards) in 1908 in London? Need reminding of Sonia O’Sullivan’s great silver in Sydney in 2000?
All these facts and yarns plus many more can be found in this fascinating account of Ireland’s history at the Olympics, which is fully illustrated throughout and with a foreword by Sonia O’Sullivan. No Irish achievement has been forgotten – from archer Beatrice Hill-Lowe, who in 1908 became the first Irish woman to compete at an Olympics, to Clifton Wrottesley, the man who almost took a Winter Olympics medal in the skeleton for Ireland in 2002.
Faster, Higher Stronger is based on over 100 years of facts and figures, anecdotes and interviews, and the highs and lows of sports men and women throughout Ireland, north and south. There are also chapters dealing with many of Ireland’s best-known (and sometimes controversial) Olympians, including Wayne McCullough, Michael Carruth, Michele Smith, Sonia O’Sullivan and Cian O’Connor.
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No one has been forgotten and for the first time, every Irish Olympian since 1896 is listed in a scrupulously researched reference section. And with a full list of Irish teams from 1924 until 2004, it is the indispensable guide for all sports fans looking forward to Beijing.
Faster, Higher Stronger — A History of Ireland’s Olympians by Lindie Naughton and Johnny Watterson is published by Ashfield Press. Fully illustrated throughout and with a foreword by Sonia O’Sullivan, it is on sale now for €22.50 in all good bookshops and through www.ashfieldpress.com.
BIOGRAPHIES
LINDIE NAUGHTON writes weekly columns on athletics and minority sports for the Evening Herald. Other books include Let’s Run – A Handbook for Irish Runners (Ashfield Press, 2007). She is a member of Three Rock Orienteering Club and still actively coaching.
JOHNNY WATTERSON is a former Irish international hockey player and a sports journalist with the Irish Times, specialising in rugby and tennis. He is the co-author of Irish Olympians 1896-1992.
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Date: July 2008
From: Judith Elmes, Ashfield Press
Tel. 01-2807375 (direct) / 087-2396673 (mobile)
Email j.elmes@ashfieldpress.com
Web www.ashfieldpress.com
SOME MORE FACTS FROM FASTER, HIGHER, STRONGER…
• SONIA O’SULLIVAN has competed at four Olympic Games in distances from 1500m to 10,000m – her silver for 5000m came at the Sydney Games of 2000.
• ROBERT HILLIARD, who boxed for Ireland at the Paris Olympics of 1928, is mentioned in the Christy Moore song, Viva La Quince Brigada. Hilliard, an ex-Church of Ireland minister, was killed as a republican volunteer in the Spanish Civil War.
• A man with a unique Olympic record is TERRY McHUGH, with six Olympic Games appearances. McHugh threw the javelin at the four summer Games from 1988 to 2000 and competed in the bobsleigh at the winter Games of 1992 and 1998.
• EDDIE HERON is the only Irish diver ever to be selected for an Olympic Games. Sadly the team was withdrawn before it could compete at the London Games of 1948.
• TV commentator JERRY KIERNAN finished sixth in the marathon at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angles – ahead of him, JOHN TREACY won the silver medal.
• Irish-born hammer throwers won all but one of the gold medals at the Olympic Games from 1900 to 1932. JOHN FLANAGAN won in 1900, 1904 and 1908; MATT McGRATH 1in 1912; PAT RYAN in 1920 and PAT O’CALLAGHAN in 1928 and 1932.
• OWEN NOLAN, born Belfast 1972, and GERALDINE HEANEY, born Lurgan 1967, have both won ice hockey gold medals at the Winter Olympics playing for Canada.
• EAMONN COGHLAN, fourth at two Olympic Games and 5000m world champion in 1983, remains the only man over 40 to have broken four minutes for the mile.
• CAROLINE O’SHEA, an 800m specialist from Dublin, was the first Irish female athlete to make a track final at the Olympic Games. Women’s marathon only made its Olympic debut in 1984 when REGINA JOYCE and CAREY MAY were the pioneering Irish representatives.
• Football teams competed for Ireland at the Olympic Games of 1924 and 1948.
• BARRY McDONALD is the only Irish gymnast to have qualified for an Olympic Games, which he did in 1996.
• Tenor RONAN TYNAN won a gold medal for the discus at the 1984 Paralympic Games
• Boxer FRANCIE BARRETT, who carried the flag for Ireland at the 1996 Olympic Games, was the first member of the travelling community to be selected for an Irish Olympic team.