In the run-up to the Paris Olympics, Irish Times sports journalists have looked back at the Irish Olympic stories you didn’t know. This podcast series brings you a selection of those pieces, as read by their authors.
In episode one, Malachy Clerkin tells the story of how Ireland won its first ever Olympic medal in an unusual category. It is the ultimate annoying quiz question. Do you say Pat O’Callaghan in Amsterdam in 1928, the first Irishman in any sport to win a medal since independence? Or do you go with John McNally in Helsinki in 1952, the first medal after the establishment of the Republic? Do you pick one and not the other and turn a benign sports question into a political hot-take riot? No. You do neither.
Listen to Episode 1 here or on your podcast app. You can read all the stories in the series here.
