An Irish Race Convention? Body Politics and the 1924 Tailteann Games

Introduction

Conceptualised as early as the late nineteenth-century, the 1924 Tailteann Games marked one of the most ambitious social developments of the early Free State. Envisioned by its organisers to serve as an Irish ‘race Olympiad’ comparable in stature to that year’s Paris Olympics, the games invited guests from around the world to compete against Irish athletes and explore newly independent Ireland. ¹ Combining celebrations of Irish industry, arts and sport, the Games sought to unite Irish born emigres with those still within the island. At a time when the Irish Free State was still, according to Daly, seeking to establish an identity independent from revolutionary politics, the games marked one potential pathway. ² As detailed by Cronin’s work on the subject, the Tailteann games served to project an image of a new Irish nation through culture and sport. ³ Whereas Cronin’s encompassing work has focused more so on the financial and ideological problems associated with the games, the present article concerns itself instead with the idea of a new image for the Irish race as depicted in the Tailteann’s opening ceremony. Subsequent scholarly work on the games has largely substantiated Cronin’s claim that the games sought to present a new identity for the Free State. Reynold’s study, for example, has highlighted the class and race identities found within the Game’s promotion. Beatty on the other hand reframed the ceremony with a view to masculine and national discourses. Many, if not all, have noted efforts to promote an imagined and glorified past through the discourses surrounding the Tailteann. ⁴ Building on the previous scholarship, the present article argues that the Tailteann Games marked a deliberate attempt to depict the Irish Free State as a culturally distinct nation which was both modern and physically strong. In doing so, the article, through the use of minute books, newspaper articles and promotional ephemera, focuses exclusively on the Game’s opening ceremony. It was this ceremony which saw allusions to Ireland’s ancient past combined with modern technologies and mass gymnastic displays to project an image of an young, modern and culturally vibrant Ireland. Studies on European politics and recreation during the 1920s and 1930s have previously highlighted the importance of state-endorsed body displays regarding wider sociopolitical messages about political regimes, military strength and national health. ⁵ While the richest scholarship has undoubtedly stemmed from work on Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, respectively, studies on Scandinavian and English gymnastics have demonstrated that such connections were not unique to authoritarian regimes. ⁶ Returning to the Irish context, it is thus argued that the physically fit male and female body was called upon to present the newly independent Irish race as youthful, strong and healthy.

In doing so, the article begins with a brief overview of the Tailteann Games, namely who conceived it? What was its purpose? And finally, how was it implemented? While this is done with reference first to primary material, the article also considers the historical treatment of the games by later scholars. Having established a suitable background, the article will proceed to examine the Game’s opening ceremony in Croke Park on 4 August 1924. Inaugurating the 2-week competition in front of 20,000 spectators at Croke Park, attention is given to the appropriation of new technologies and body displays to present the Irish Free State in a favourable light to the domestic and foreign attendees. ⁷ The article concludes by evaluating the success of the games in forging a new identity for the Irish state. Previous studies on Irish sport have highlighted the nature in which Irish recreation has been utilised for wider political purposes. Although much of this work centres on the Gaelic Athletic Association, the case of the Tailteann Games demonstrates that the use of the body extended far beyond the playing field. ⁸ As becomes clear, the Tailteann’s organisers were acutely aware of the Game’s symbolic importance for the State’s identity. For the organisers, fit and healthy bodies, alongside modern technologies, became emblems for a new Ireland and the opening ceremony became their stage.

The Tailteann’s Revival

Writing a highly mythicised account of the Tailteann Games in 1924, T.H. Nally, an Irish playwright and fervent cultural nationalist, highlighted the importance of strength and knowledge as part of Ireland’s supposed heritage. Expressed as a sociocultural and political outlet, the Games were said to have originated in 632 BC when King Luaghaidh Lamhfáda ordered a celebration in honour of his foster mother, Queen Tailté. ¹⁰ In an account reminiscent of G.A.A.’s co-founder Michael Cusack’s claim that the Irish invented chess, Nally credited the Irish with creating a formalised sporting event some four hundred years before the famed Olympics of Ancient Greece. ¹¹ In place of Achilles stood Fionn MacCool, whose generation paid particular attention to the importance of physical culture as a conduit to educational learning. Unlike the English, whose interest in physical exercise Nally traced to the post-Norman conquests, the Irish were said to have long paid attention to matters of health and fitness. ¹² Strange as Nally’s writings may appear, and indeed several scholars saw them as highly fanciful, they were part of a broader societal push for cultural nationalism. ¹³ Returning to Michael Cusack, Mandle has previously discussed the manner in which the co-founder of the GAA utilised the legends and supposed ancientness of hurling to both valorise and promote the game. ¹⁴ Nally’s account of the games sought to do likewise and were in fact substantiated by the work of his fellow author MacAuliffe, whose 1923 The History of Aonach Tailteann and the Ancient Irish Laws claimed that the game’s origins could be found in a golden age in the Celtic past when there were ‘no heavy rains in Ireland, the land being watered chiefly by nocturnal dews’. ¹⁵ Perhaps unsurprisingly, both cited the Norman conquest of Ireland in 1169 AD with the end of the games and presumably the end of this golden age of Irish culture. While Nally and MacAuliffee were the game’s most ardent supporters, the idea of a Celtic utopia, disturbed by the Norman invasion, had permeated parts of Irish society since the late nineteenth century. ¹⁶ It was no coincidence that the first man to seriously begin promoting the idea of reviving the Tailteann was Michael Davitt, the Irish republican and land agitator. ¹⁷ According to Cronin, Davitt’s desire was seconded by Maurice Davin, one of the co-founders of the Gaelic Athletic Association formed in 1884. ¹⁸ Both Davitt and Davin were known for their promotion of Gaelic culture and did so during a time when other cultural groups such as the Gaelic League were likewise seeking to revive traditional forms of Irish life. ¹⁹ The fetishisation of the past by groups such as the G.A.A. and the Gaelic League has been noted by historians as an attempt to distinguish an Irish culture and identity from that of their imperial governors, the British. ²⁰ Nally’s work, underpinned by the idea that Ancient Ireland was physically strong and that Ancient Britain was not, neatly fits into such a thesis. Although the idea of a Tailteann revival emerged in the late nineteenth century, it did not come to fruition until the 1920s when Ireland’s political situation had changed irrevocably. Speaking to the Dáil in 1922, the Postmaster General and the man ultimately responsible for organising the games, J.J. Walsh noted:

The revival of the Aonach Tailteann, or ancient games of Tara, has been mooted frequently in recent years, but no concrete step in this direction materialised until the late Cabinet, under President de Valera, conceived the idea of an Irish Race Olympic in conjunction with the Irish Race Convention…. ²¹

Open to all Irish born athletes and those of Irish heritage, the inaugural Tailteann Games of 1924 were depicted in the press as an ‘Irish Race Olympiad’, comparable to the Paris Olympic Games held some weeks prior to the Tailteann’s opening ceremony. ²⁶ The game’s restrictive entrance requirements were echoed in the selective manner in which events were chosen. Rugby was excluded owing to its perceived foreign nature, a decision which barred London Irish Rugby club from participating in the games despite the team’s largely Irish player base. Motorcycle races on the other hand were not deemed foreign but rather as a modern delight, thereby reiterating the organiser’s highly specified and at times confused selection process. ²⁷ Pairing athletic events with industry parades and art competitions, the 1924 Games sought to echo the utopian past depicted by Nally which combined sport and high culture in equal measure. Attracting athletes from the United States, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand amongst other countries, the Game’s promotional ephemera highlighted the importance of the contest as a cultural project. ²⁸ The souvenir programme created for the games welcomed spectators to a display of ‘the athletic, musical and dramatic talent of the Irish race’. ²⁹ Similarly, it was noted in quasi-reverent tones that ‘since the earliest days of the Red Branch Knights the fame of the athletic prowess of the Irish race have never been surpassed in any land…’. ³⁰ Another booklet proclaimed that the games would ‘show forth Ireland to the world as an Athletic entity’. ³¹ The games were, to paraphrase Cronin, an attempt to project a new Irish identity to both Irish and foreign spectators. ³² This new Ireland, forged in the fires of nationalist struggle, had deep ties to a supposed golden Celtic past, free from English influence. ³³ In both Irish and foreign periodicals, the games were similarly infused with a nationalist fervour that promoted a new, oftentimes undefined, sense of Irishness.

Unsurprisingly given the discourses surrounding the games, previous scholarly work has placed the Tailteann within a broader sociopolitical framework centred on Ireland’s newly independent status. Cronin’s various articles stressed the game’s political importance in forging a new identity for the Irish Free State. In doing so, Cronin contrasted the desire to present the Free State in a positive light with more banal political concerns surrounding budget balancing and consensus building. ³⁴ Cronin also argued that attempts to promote traditionally Irish pastimes such as Gaelic football or hurling were hampered by the public’s greater interest in modern events such as motor car racing. In these accounts, modernity is used both for and against ideas of Irish nationalism predicated on Ireland’s past. ³⁵ Dean’s work on the Tailteann Games has similarly viewed it as a state building exercise designed to allow the Free State practice the new rituals of statehood. Contrasting Cronin’s study, Dean stressed the importance of imagery and pageantry in these process irrespective of the financial concerns attached to the event. ³⁶ Shifting attention away from the game’s events and towards its audience, Reynold’s discussion of the 1924 contest sought to uncover the ‘imagined audience’ envisioned for the spectacle. Highlighting the fact that Walsh and his organizing committee firmly believed they were preparing an event for an international audience, Reynolds stressed the organiser’s often anxious efforts to attract and sustain the interest of a foreign audience. ³⁷ Finally, Rouse depicted the games as a ‘triumph of legend over history’ noting that Nally and others’ fabrications regarding the Tailteann’s origins were eventually overlooked as it became apparent that the games had been a resounding success. ³⁸ Although making a slight loss financially, a point Cronin noted was to plague the organisers for the next several years, the games were viewed as an ideological and sporting success upon their closure on 18 August 1924. ³⁹ On the sporting side, Ireland had finished second behind the United States in terms of total medals won, 14½ as opposed to 6½. ⁴⁰ More importantly, the Tailteann had seemingly succeeded in presenting the new Irish Free State in a positive light on the world stage. Whereas previous work has focused primarily on the contradictions surrounding the event such as the government’s decision to support the event but not financially or the ongoing fear that political strife or even a lack of accommodation would derail the celebrations, the present article prefers instead to focus on the symbolism of the opening event. As detailed by Mosse’s work on Nazi Germany, the opening event of a competition can serve as the most visceral platform for a social or political agenda. ⁴¹ Similarly, Wagg’s discussion of the 2016 London Olympics, which paid great attention to the opening ceremony, made a strong case for the need to scrutinise such events. ⁴² As will become clear, the Tailteann’s opening ceremony sought to present the Irish Free State as a modern nation, which possessed a strong and athletic people. While Cronin believed that the popularity of modern sporting events during the games overshadowed the emphasis on traditional Irish sports, the article argues that the dichotomy between modernity and traditional Ireland was quashed by the event’s organisers who sought to unite the two.

The Opening Ceremony

Commenting on the upcoming Tailteann games, the Dublin-based newspaper Sport wrote enthusiastically of the events to come. For two weeks, Dublin would be besieged in a whirlwind of commercial pageants, art competitions, banquets, sporting contests and parades of various kinds. That evening’s opening ceremony would mark the beginning of the Free State’s tenure as a recognised state. According to the Taoiseach, W. T. Cosgrave, the games would serve ‘to remind the Irish people, as Thomas Davis sought to remind them, that there is more, much more, in the life of a nation than politics and economics’. ⁴⁴ They would remember that ‘nationality meant much more than affairs of state’, that it meant a sense of pride and wonder in a country’s cultural heritage. ⁴⁵ In the days before the Tailteann’s opening, Dublin city was decorated in a sea of green flags and green banners, which included statues and public monuments of note. Similarly, shops displayed welcome signs, encouraging visitors to enjoy their stay. ⁴⁶ On Saturday, 2 August, the welcoming ceremony began with a grand parade of industrial exhibits. ⁴⁷ Although slighted dated, Richards’ discussion of Britain’s 1851 Great Exhibition highlighted the relationship between commercial prowess and ideas of national progress. ⁴⁸ With the nation still in its infancy, clear efforts were made to position Irish businesses and Irish enterprise as cornerstones of the Free State’s identity. Once the tour ended, spectators were ushered to the newly developed Croke Park stadium for the event’s official launch. In front of an estimated 20,000 spectators, the Tailteann Games were opened by an opening salvo of church bells and rifles operated by the Free State army. ⁴⁹ Amplifying the noise was the presence of Irish military planes who flew overhead to the delight of those present. An opening procession of roughly 2,000 athletes and several hundred Irishmen and women garbed in ‘traditional’ Irish clothing then took to the field as the opening address began. ⁵⁰ Paying homage to its tenuous links to the past, the opening procession was led by a Queen Tailté impersonator alongside her retinue of Irish wolfhounds and noblemen carrying spears. The newly developed stadium, the opening gun salvo by the Free State Army and the presence of recording equipment sought to juxtapose ancient Irish identities with those forged by the modern world. Utilising Bayly’s somewhat curt definition of modernity as believing yourself to be modern, it is clear that industry and technology were emblems for a new Irish modernity, which importantly, still recognised the significance and continuation of its cultural heritage. ⁵¹

Equally important of course, was the parade of athletes around Croke Park. Milford’s work on Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics highlighted the multifaceted meanings which can be applied to the athlete’s body by different societal groups. ⁵² Whereas Owens came to be seen as a sign of American exceptionalism and also as an emblem of beauty, the Tailteann’s parading athletes were seen through a prism of health, strength and athleticism. Satisfactorily exhibited to the crowd, the 2,000 athletes representing several nations, were ushered from the field for the Game’s first athletic contest, a game of shinty between Ireland and Scotland. Although the hosts lost the game, the press coverage the following morning was generally positive, with many noting that the previously unknown game of shinty, a mixture of hurling and field hockey, had been well received by those in the audience. ⁵³ The evening’s final event witnessed a mass gymnastic display by five hundred boys from the Artane Industrial school. ⁵⁴ Described in equally positive terms the following day, the non-competitive event served as a literal stage for the newly independent nation’s health and strength. It is notable that while gymnastics featured as an athletic event in its own right at the Tailteann Games, it was the only pastime to feature more than once. ⁵⁵ Aside from opening ceremony and the subsequent gymnastic events, periodic gymnastic displays were found at several points during the Tailteann’s two week run, thereby re-iterating their importance and prominence during the event. ⁵⁶ In the days following the opening ceremony and once again at the end of the Tailteann, domestic and foreign newspapers praised the ‘gala’ spirit evident at the event. Some praised the ‘carnival’ atmosphere, while others wrote in wonder of the modern stadium and technologies on display. Many more commented on the health, vigour and vitality evidenced by the athletes and gymnasts. ⁵⁷ Modern technologies, Irish identity and athletic bodies were combined to great effect. Echoing McDevitt’s work on ‘Muscular Catholicism’, one found an expression of Irishness, through sport and expressions of physical fitness. ⁵⁸

The attempt to project an image of the Free State as a young, healthy and vibrant nation had of course, taken several years to plan. Indeed, the Tailteann’s organisers placed a notable importance of displays of human strength and vitality in the lead up to the games. As early as 1922, J. J. Walsh told the Dáil that he was loathe to omit gymnastics from the Tailteann owing to its ‘national value’. ⁵⁹ Thus began a series of public articles on the role of gymnastics in the upcoming events. In December of that year, The Irish Times endorsed T. A. Burke’s suggestion that the organising committee begin to promote gymnastic competitions within Irish schools in anticipation of the Tailteann. ⁶⁰ Similarly desirable was the question of including some form of weightlifting as part of the contest. While the latter suggestion ultimately came to nothing, Burke’s promotion of youth gymnastics quickly gained support. The following September, an unnamed gymnastics reporter, most like J. M. Neilly, gushingly wrote that with the prospect of ‘an Aonach Tailteann on the way’ that the upcoming gymnastic season would prove ‘the most interesting and important ever experienced in the city’. ⁶¹ Noting that mass gymnastics had previously featured in the Olympic Games, the author envisioned a display of five hundred Irishwomen and girls at the Croke Park ceremony. This, he believed, would not only showcase the gymnast’s prowess but serve to elevate the Irish games to an equal par with the Olympics. ⁶² Undoubtedly the most ambitious public discourses were found in Health and Strength magazine, a British physical culture magazine first produced in 1898. Distributed from the magazine’s base in London, Health and Strength has been viewed by scholars as a precursor to the bodybuilding and weightlifting magazines of the modern age. ⁶³ It was a periodical intensely interested in the body, the building of the body and the exhibition of the strong physique. Attracting numerous Irishmen and occasionally Irishwomen since its inception, the magazine was well placed to serve as a platform for promotors. In a series of articles published by J. M. Neilly, who ran a physical culture column in the Irish Times in the decade preceding the Great War, readers were informed that the fostering of ‘health and strength’ in Ireland had intensified owing to the Tailteann Games. ⁶⁴ Noting the improvements being made to Croke Park, Neilly issued a rallying call for all Irish physical culturists interested in the development of athleticism to become part of the spectacle, either as volunteers, participants or coaches. Subsequent articles would extend this invitation to female strength enthusiasts as well. ⁶⁵ Cardon-Coyne previously viewed the body as a key site for post-Great War reconstruction. Stemming from the atrocities of the Great War, individuals and groups within Great Britain returned to classical ideals of the body and sought to forge new ideas through the body beautiful. ⁶⁶ Neilly’s writings in Health and Strength suggest that this project was not confined to Great Britain.

The minute book for the 1924 Tailteann Games committee reveal an equal interest in gymnastics and body displays. As early as February 1922, J. J. Keane successfully petitioned for a gymnastic event to be held during the Tailteann. ⁶⁷ Subsequent efforts by Keane and his compatriot J. B. Richardson would see a series of strength-based displays such as weightlifting, physical culture displays and tug-of-war muted over the next two years. ⁶⁸ For reasons of availability and practicality, it was eventually decided that gymnastics would be the chosen path, despite the difficulties this presented. ⁶⁹ In March 1922, Keane lamented the disorganisation amongst the country’s gymnastic clubs owing to the War of Independence, 1919–1921 and Civil War, 1922–1923, respectfully. ⁷⁰ By the year’s end, other committee members, such as T. A. Burke, began advocating for the promotion of gymnastic competitions within schools, with the ultimate aim being the elevation of the younger generation’s health. Like Keane and Richardson’s previous suggestions, this too was accepted. ⁷¹ Undiscouraged by the game’s first delay in 1922, a gymnastic sub-committee was formed in June 1923 tasked with encouraging existing efforts in the country and planning for the Tailteann. Headed by Sergeant Major Wright from the Free State Army, the committee first announced its intention to hold a mass display in October 1923. ⁷² This display, consisting of ‘Swedish Drill Standing Exercises’, would serve to demonstrate the nation’s health and fitness. Mass displays in the pre-war period had traditionally been associated with military or police forces versed in drill. ⁷³ It was perhaps no surprise then that Wright’s committee found a similar benefit in holding such an event. Seeking to include the entire nation, the sub-committee somewhat optimistically noted the inclusion of Ulster gymnastic clubs within this display. ⁷⁴ Owing to logistics and political loyalties, the display would ultimately be restricted to the Free State only. As the prospect of the Tailteann Games moved from ideological to practical, plans to hold a mass display intensified. Over time, it was decided to include male and female performers, with Richardson promising at one point a series of mass displays by 15,000 women and girls. ⁷⁵ Such was the demand and interest exhibited by the committee members in gymnastics that it was eventually decided to pair two evenings of competition-based gymnastics with two evenings of mass displays. Ultimately it was decided that ‘attractive displays of mass drill would be given by the Artane Boys, Dublin Working Girls and Girls Brigades, Boys Brigades, Curragh Command and Civic Guard’. ⁷⁶ The combination of adults and children appeared to traverse age and class lines. The reality of course was that a strict emphasis was placed on the youthful and energetic body. As noted by Ó Conchubhair and Guinnane, fears of race deterioration within Ireland existed since the late nineteenth century. ⁷⁷ The still lingering effects of the Irish Potato Famine and the mass emigration it encouraged resulted in fears that the strongest and healthiest of Ireland’s youth had emigrated. For Ó Conchubhair, the rise of indigenous Irish sport and pastimes in the late nineteenth century, such as the GAA, emerged as a reaction to these fears. ⁷⁸ The Tailteann could certainly be viewed in a similar way. While discourses regarding race decline were perhaps strongest in the first decade of the twentieth century, they nevertheless remained relevant in the 1920s. The mass displays thus served as a perfect opportunity to highlight that despite the country’s ever falling population, a vitality still existed. ⁷⁹

The combination of mass gymnastic displays with new technologies and invented stories of Ireland’s past served to create a nationalist phantasm of an advanced and ambitious nation. Although described by Dean as ‘an uneasy reliance’, the juxtaposition of modernity and mythology proved pivotal to the game’s success. ⁸⁰ Returning to Cronin, it is clear that for Irish and foreign spectators, the allure of modern sports and events was powerful. ⁸¹ Additionally, the repeated messages about Ireland’s noble past served to re-iterate the Tailteann’s heritage. Regarding the technology utilised during the opening ceremony, it is important to distinguish between the entertainment and military devices used. The filming of the event, subsequently distributed by British Pathé, served to lengthen the Tailteann’s reach. It is important to note that such recordings did not begin in 1924 but rather had their origins in 1922. Although far fewer in number than 1924, films from 1922 featured Irish athletes competing in qualification rounds and staged meetings of the Tailteann’s organising committee. ⁸² Equally important were the devices used to record these events. Scattered throughout Croke Park, itself redeveloped into a modern stadium, the cameras served both as functional tools but also monuments to a new modernity, capable of capturing a moving image through time. ⁸³ To further illustrate the State’s modernity, planes from the Free State Army were flown overhead and later, a brief gun salvo was provided by Free State soldiers. ⁸⁴ Having won independence through battle, the Free State’s populace was all too familiar with the nation’s military capabilities. ⁸⁵ Nevertheless, organisers still recognised the symbolic importance of modern machinery and weaponry to form a carnivalesque atmosphere for spectators. That a Free State committee relied upon new machinery to project an identity as a modern state should not be too surprising. Despite literature pointing to the state’s initial conservativism, the commissioning of the Shannon Hydroelectric Plant in 1925 was likewise shrouded in a discourse of modernity and new statehood. ⁸⁶ The Tailteann Games was arguably a precursor.

Finally, the continued references to the State’s pre-colonial and pre-British past were a thinly veiled attempt to call upon a noble Irish heritage. In the souvenir programme, T. F. Kiely linked the athletic prowess of the present Irish competitors to the ‘Red Branch Knights’ of Ireland’s earliest days. ⁸⁷ Other works spoke of Queen Tailte and the glory days of Royal Meath prior to the Norman invasion of 1169 AD. ⁸⁸ Members of the Dáil proved equally willing to ascribe an ancient significance to the event. Patrick Baxter argued that the games had been ‘the greatest event in the lives of the people’ of ancient Ireland and that by reviving the games, the government and citizenry had the opportunity to make the 1924 Games ‘what they were in the Ireland of old’. ⁸⁹ D. J. Gorey, echoed Baxter’s optimism, claiming that the Tailteann Games were ‘the greatest national festival we had’. ⁹⁰ The media too, proved eager to promulgate this idea. In 1924, the Freeman’s Journal featured a large segment on the history of the games which seems to have informed many of the subsequent articles on the Tailteann. ⁹¹ The discourses surrounding the Tailteann, especially in its opening ceremony, were not however restricted to the written word. The inclusion of supposedly ancient costumes in the procession of ‘Queen Tailté’, alongside spears and Irish wolfhounds served as a visual reminder of the Game’s legacy. Wills has similarly highlighted the use of traditional Celtic emblems and logos in much of the Game’s promotional ephemera. ⁹² Equally important was the use of the Irish language to promote the games, a point previously noted by Billings. ⁹³ That the one competitive event chosen for the opening ceremony, shinty, was likewise said to have an ancient and noble past was illustrative of the interest in the past on the behalf of the event’s organisers. ⁹⁴ Such nostalgia was not a new phenomenon in Irish public life, and indeed the period preceding the Great War had witnessed several groups from the Gaelic League to the Gaelic Athletic Association call upon an ancient Irish heritage to gain legitimacy. ⁹⁵ For O’Leary, the juxtaposition of ancient dress, language and games was used by previous cultural groups in Ireland as ‘a source of cultural integrity and validity’. ⁹⁶ The Tailteann Games were no different albeit on a much larger scale. Previous research has asserted that the Tailteann Games were an attempt by the Irish Free State to announce itself as a sovereign nation to the world stage. ⁹⁷ Similarly as explained by Foster in a documentary on the subject, the games were an attempt to demonstrate that even if the Free State was not yet independent politically, it was culturally. ⁹⁸ While concurring with Cronin and others regarding efforts to project an Irish sovereignty through the games, it is clear that the identity being projected was not of a nebulous ‘Irishness’. In combining mass displays of gymnastics and Swedish Drill with stories of Ireland’s ancient past recorded through video cameras and projected through public announcing systems, the Game’s organisers sought to position Ireland as a young, vibrant and strong nation, capable of commanding modern technologies and not losing the connection with its perceived noble and Celtic past. That the opening ceremony proved largely successful in doing so was a testament to their efforts.

The 1924 Games in Perspective

In evaluating the Tailteann’s initial success, it is important to distinguish between domestic and international responses. Domestically, at least in the immediate period following the Tailteann Games, the opening ceremony and the athletic events were spoken of in the highest possible terms. Writing during the closing ceremony, an unnamed reporter for the Irish Times relayed the praise emanating from several sections of society ranging from local politicians to international actors. In other articles, notable figures such as John McCormack, the famous Irish tenor, was on record declaring his appreciation of the opening ceremony. Indeed, such was the emotion stirred within the operatic star, that ‘tears almost rushed’ to his eyes during the opening processions. ⁹⁹ Others too commented on the formidable feelings engendered by the ceremony. The Governor-General, T. M. Healy revealed that despite his own lack of sporting prowess, he ‘never felt a prouder man’ than at the Tailteann’s opening ceremony. ¹⁰⁰ Echoing Cronin’s claim that the 1924 games sought to bridge political disunities wrought by the Irish Civil War, many commentators explicitly linked the wonder of the opening ceremony to a new style of Irish politics centred on conciliation rather than conflict. ¹⁰¹ An example of this was the invitation extended to John Devoy, a famed Irish rebel exiled in the United States since the 1870s. Invited at the behest of the organisers, Devoy warmly commented that he believed ‘happy times’ were before the Irish nation following his attendance of the ceremony. ¹⁰² Many newspapers agreed. The Kerryman for example was unabashed in its statement that the Tailteann’s opening ceremony had brought back ‘old-time glories’ amidst scenes of pomp and splendour. Part of this carnivalesque and optimistic attitude was due, according to the article, to the utilisation of old legend with novel and unique attractions. ¹⁰³ Similarly, the Irish Independent noted that prior to the games, there were two paths facing the organisers. One path, a parochial event, would lead to mediocrity and failure whereas the other path, understood to mean an international event, would certainly mean success. ¹⁰⁴ The organisers, much to the newspaper’s delight, had chosen the latter course of action. The sense of a new Irish state, unencumbered by its recent history echoed throughout the newspaper’s praises. Readers were informed that

Men and women, who up to recently, were loath to work in harmony, pulled together as one great team, for a common objective – the advancement of their country…. ¹⁰⁵

Returning to the initial domestic responses, it is important to note the emphasis placed on the gymnastic events and displays from organisers and members of the public. According to an anonymous journalist within The Irish Times, the ‘pronounced recent slump’ in Irish gymnastics over the past half-decade had been arrested by the Tailteann Games. ¹⁰⁸ Such enthusiasm was echoed by J. J. Walsh, the Tailteann’s chief organiser and at times, driving force. Speaking following a prize giving ceremony for that day’s gymnastic events, Walsh declared that

He had hoped that ever since his youth that the Irish nation would follow the example of neighbouring countries and realise the importance of gymnastic training as a means of developing the body…. The object of the Tailteann revival was to alter that regrettable state of affairs…. ¹⁰⁹

Internationally, the ceremony and the Games were spoken of in largely glowing terms. In Britain daily coverage of the games was found in regional and national newspapers while the inclusion of Pathé cameras, previously noted, ensured that British audience’s visual appetites were suitably whetted. Upon the closing of the tournament, British newspapers such as the Evening Telegraph and Northern Whig praised the warm welcome received on the part of the athletes and similarly expressed optimism about the nation’s future. ¹¹⁵ While far less impressed with the use of modern technology than Irish newspapers, praise was singled out for the revival of ancient games. ¹¹⁶ This also proved to be the case with American periodicals which focused more on the game’s historic lineage, the warm welcome received by fans and athletes and of course, the American’s dominance of the sporting events. ¹¹⁷ Equally important however, were individual reactions to the mass body displays so favoured by J. J. Walsh. Commenting on the opening ceremony, the British sportsman turned politician C. B. Fry cited the ‘best exhibition of massed gymnastics by a large party of boys that I have ever seen’ when referring to the Artane Boys School’s display. Continuing Fry exclaimed that

If you have got in Ireland a school where the atmosphere of affection and discipline is such that out of it can grow an exhibition of mass gymnastics, such as I saw to-day, and if you have got nothing else in Ireland, you have got the germ, no matter what befalls you, of success for the future…. ¹¹⁸

Concluding Remarks

Despite the relative good will engendered by the Games in 1924, Cronin previously highlighted the organiser’s obstacles to build on their momentum. Financial constraints, including the Department of Finance’s insistence that loans and not grants be allocated for the Games, largely hampered subsequent iterations. ¹²¹ Similarly, frustrating was a lack of innovation on the part of the organisers. In 1924, spectators had been treated to a juxtaposition of ancient and heritage mixed with a sense of wonder and pantomime. In 1928, visitors to the games were presented with the same format as four years previous, including an opening gymnastic ceremony and parade of Queen Tailté. ¹²² The rise of De Valera’s Fianna Fáil party to office, the arrival of the 1932 Eucharistic Congress and a general disinterest from sporting groups in 1932 signalled the end of the Tailteann experiment. While the games went ahead in 1932, the level of interest from athletes and spectators alike had waned considerably. ¹²³ Walsh’s complaints to De Valera in 1939 that he was ‘gravely disappointed’ at the treatment of the Games by the Fianna Fáil administration could just have easily been extended to the G.A.A. or Irish populace more generally. ¹²⁴ What had once captured the imagination now struggled to excite.

Still recovering from an internecine civil war and seeking to achieve international recognition, the Irish Free State in the early 1920s was in many ways primed for an event as ambitious as the Tailteann Games. The ravages of the Great War had, according to Carden-Coyne, ignited many nation’s desire to celebrate the body beautiful and connect it to ancient pasts, free from the scourges of modern civilisation. ¹²⁵ While this desire found its expression most notably in the continuation of the Olympics, the Tailteann Games allowed those of Irish birth or descent to similarly celebrate the body and ancient traditions in equal measure. Scholars have long noted the relationship between sport and national identity within the Irish context. From Cronin’s seminal work Sport and Nationalism in Ireland, to more recent discussions by Rouse, it is clear that physical activity and displays of athleticism have often taken on a greater societal importance than is often realised. ¹²⁶ Turning to the Tailteann, scholars have previously noted its importance in projecting an image of an independent and sovereign Ireland. ¹²⁷ While agreeing with the existing scholarship, the present article has sought to highlight the specific and exact nature of this image. In examining the opening ceremony of the Tailteann Games and the organisation leading up to it, it is clear that the games were used as an opportunity to present Ireland as a culturally distinct, modern and physically strong nation. Combining body displays, modern technologies and ancient stories proved a potent combination. The goal for future historical works is to compare and contrast this identity with contemporary celebrations in Ireland such as the 1929 centenary celebrations of the Catholic Emancipation Bill or the 1932 Eucharistic Congress. As demonstrated by the recent work on the 1916 centenary, how a nation celebrates its past and positions itself in public events matters a great deal. ¹²⁸