DUAL GOLD WINNER:IRISH DUAL Olympic gold medal winner Dr Pat O'Callaghan is to be honoured in his native Dromtarriffe, Co Cork, next Sunday with an event to mark the 80th anniversary of his second gold medal triumph as the Olympic Games begin in earnest.
A native of Derrygallon, Dromtarriffe, near Kanturk, Dr O’Callaghan became the first Irishman representing the Irish Free State to get an Olympic gold medal when he won the hammer event at the 1928 Amsterdam games, having taken up the sport only a year earlier.
Four years later he repeated the feat and, along with hurdler Bob Tisdall, reminded the world that Ireland was a new and independent state as the tricolour flew over the winners’ podium twice after the two friends won gold medals at the Los Angeles games.
Many believed Dr O’Callaghan would have made it a hat-trick of gold medals in Berlin in 1936 but a dispute barring National Cycling and Athletic Association members from international competition meant he had to watch from the stands as German Karl Hein won with a throw 10 feet shorter than O’Callaghan’s best.
Now, Dromtarriffe, in the barony of Duhallow, is to remember Dr O’Callaghan, who died in 1991 at his home in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, with a hammer-throwing competition during its family day being held as part of the “Discover Duhallow” initiative.
“When we sat down to put our heads together, the obvious event was to honour Dr Pat O’Callaghan, especially as 2012 is the 80th anniversary of his second gold medal win in Los Angeles,” said Dromtarriffe hall committee chairman Jerry Murphy.
“It is an honour to have such a great Olympic champion from the parish and we hope that local families will come out on Sunday to enjoy all the events that will take place,” said Mr Murphy.
“Discover Duhallow – a day of the region” is the theme for 10 days of cultural, educational, sporting and enterprise activities organised by rural development company IRD Duhallow in 21 communities in north Cork and east Kerry, funded under the EU Leader programme.
