WHO is/was Ireland's greatest athlete? Leaving out Finn McCool there appears to be just one obvious and overwhelming contender for the title Michelle, Our Belle. No other Irish athlete has ever won three gold medals and a bronze at the same Olympic Games.
But there is another, very worthy contender. A man who won five Olympic gold medals, three Olympic silver medals, and one Olympic bronze, at the St Louis Games (1904), the special Athens Games (1906) and the London Games (1908). His name was Martin Sheridan, and he came from Bohola. Proud son of Mayo, and of Ireland.
He was born on March 28th 1881, one of six children of Martin snr and his wife, Jane Durkin. Martin snr was active in the Fenian movement and co founded the Land League along with Michael Davitt, which no doubt accounted for, Martin jnr's deeply felt patriotism and probably played no small part in the marriage of his brother Joe to Michael Collins's sister Kitty, years later. Kitty came to Bohola as a national school teacher.
Destined to Shine
Martin jnr was 19 when he went to New York, where his brothers Richard and Andy were already. He and Richard joined the police. Andy started in the hotel business. All three became involved in track and field events on the extensive Irish clubs' circuit at the time, and it was not unusual for them, to take the first three places in events. But Martin was the destined to shine.
He was 6 ft 1 in, weighed 191 lbs, and over a 14 year span won those nine Olympic medals, three world all round championships, 12 national (American) championships, and more than 30 Canadian, metropolitan, and regional championships. All in track and field events.
He first came to notice when he won a discus competition in New York in 1901, in 1904 he took the American discus and shotput titles. He was chosen to represent the US in both events at the St Louis Olympics that year. He won gold in the discus event, with a throw of 128 ft 10 1/2 ins.
Remarkably he shared the gold with a man called Ralph Rose, who threw the same distance. It was the first, and only time, in Olympic history that there was a tie in discus throwing. Within three weeks, how ever, Martin Sheridan had established his supremacy, with a recorded throw of 133 ft 61/2 ins. By then, too, he was exciting the sports writers into superlatives. One wrote of him at the time, "he was the most handsome of athletes and although he was a giant in size he could run the 100 yards in a little more than 10 seconds".
Expression of Patriotism
But it was at the Athens Olympics in 1906, with the first official US Olympic team, that his fame began to spread internationally. It was there also his patriotism found its most public expression. Always aware of his background and keenly tuned in to events at home in Ireland, he created a stir during, the opening ceremonies when he deliberately ignored protocol as a protest against the conduct of affairs in Ireland.
It was customary for athletes taking part in the Games to lower the flag of their native country while passing the dignitaries stand. However, as he passed the King of Greece, Martin Sheridan refused to lower an Irish flag he was carrying - it was the custom of the time to carry the flag of one's motherland. Questioned afterwards he said Ireland had bowed too often, but not anymore. Hearing this the king was so impressed he had a statue erected to him in Athens, and presented him with a gold goblet and, vaulting pole.
Martin Sheridan won gold, with a 136 ft discus throw. He also won gold in the shotput, and three silver medals - in the standing long jump, as it was - then called, the standing high jump, and stone throwing competition. He was expected to take gold too in the pentathlon, but developed a leg injury. No wonder the King of Greece was impressed with him. New York sportswriters were now describing him as the greatest track and field athlete of all time. So much for Finn McCool!
Created 16 World Records
He won those world all round championships, comprising 10 track and field events, in 1905, 1907 and 1909, setting new world records on each occasion. Over the years, he created a total of 16 new world records. But the climax of his career was surely at the 1908 (American) national indoor championships in the old Madison Square Garden, New York, when he won five firsts, two seconds, and a third place, creating two new records in a feat unparalleled in the history of track and field competition. In June of that year also he set another world record in the discus with a throw of 139 ft 6 1/2ins. As a result of these superb achievements, he was nominated to represent America in every field event at the 1908 Olympics in London.
He won two golds and one silver there, and visited Ireland afterwards, where he was feted all over the country, as the all conquering hero come home. In Bohola, they had a major celebration and presented him with a citation/scroll dedicated to "our greatest athlete Martin Sheridan". From the "priest and people of his native parish of Bohola" they welcomed him, with eulogy. "Greece had her, Seander, Rome her Spartacus, and Scotland her Wallace but it remained for Ireland to turn out the best athlete of them all," it continued.
Martin Sheridan continued in athletics for another three years, during which he won the world all round championships for the third time (1909) and set new world discus records of 140 ft 6 1/2 ins in 1909, and 141 ft in 1911. His last American championship appearance was in 1911 also, when he took the discus title. And, though his discus records have been broken since, his all round successive championships performances have never been equalled.
He began to withdraw from athletics to concentrate on policework. In March, 1918, he became a victim of the flu epidemic then sweeping the world. While working for a colleague he contracted the virus, and died in New York on March 25th, within three days of his 38th birthday.
Peerless Athlete
Members of the NYPD and the American public erected a Celtic cross over his grave at Cal vary cemetery in the city. Its inscription reads: "Martin J. Sheridan. An intrepid American, an ardent lover of his motherland; a peerless athlete; devoted to the institutions of his country and to the ideals and aspirations of his race.
A Martin J. Sheridan Award for Valour was established by the NYPD, and presented each year subsequently for bravery.
In 1966 a bronze bust of Martin Sheridan was unveiled in Bohola, Co Mayo, at a ceremony attended by many of the village's other famous sons, including his brother Andy, Bill Keary, then president of the Empire State building, and the great American civil rights lawyer Paul O'Dwyer.
The original Sheridan family homestead is well preserved in the village, and in November 1994 the local people opened the Sheridan Memorial Community Centre there, wherein you can now find a fine museum to the memory of this great athlete, who in 1988 was inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame at Indianapolis, Indiana. He is the first and only Irish person to achieve such distinction. A fitting tribute to Ireland's Spartacus.