| Ireland at the Olympic Games | ||||||||||||
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| Olympic history | ||||||||||||
| Summer Games | ||||||||||||
| 1924 • 1928 • 1932 • 1936 • 1948 • 1952 • 1956 • 1960 • 1964 • 1968 • 1972 • 1976 • 1980 • 1984 • 1988 • 1992 • 1996 • 2000 • 2004 • 2008 • 2012 | ||||||||||||
| Winter Games | ||||||||||||
| 1992 • 1994 • 1998 • 2002 • 2006 • 2010 | ||||||||||||
| Other related appearances | ||||||||||||
| Great Britain and Ireland (1896–1920) | ||||||||||||
A team representing Ireland has competed at the Summer Olympic Games since 1924, and at the Winter Olympic Games since 1992. The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) was formed in 1922[1] during the provisional administration prior to the formal establishment of the Irish Free State. The OCI affiliated to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in time for the Paris games.[1]
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Prior to 1922, Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Irish competitors at earlier Games are counted as British in Olympic statistics. At early Olympics, Irish-born athletes won numerous medals for the United States, notably the "Irish Whales" in throwing events.
Prior to the 1906 Intercalated Games, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were generally non-existent and athletes could enter the Olympics individually. John Pius Boland, who came first in two tennis events in 1896, is now listed as "IRL/GBR".[1][2] Tom Kiely, who won the "all-around" competition at the 1904 Olympics in St Louis is listed as "Great Britain".[3] Kiely had refused offers by both the English Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) and the New York Athletic Club to pay his fare to compete for them, and had instead raised funds in counties Tipperary and Waterford to travel independently and compete for Ireland.[4]
The British Olympic Association (BOA) was formed in 1905, and Irish athletes were accredited to the BOA team from the 1906 Games. That year, Peter O'Connor and Con Leahy objected when the British flag was raised at their victory ceremony, and raised a green Irish flag in defiance of the organisers.[1][5]
At the 1908 Games in London, there were multiple British entries in several team events, including two representing Ireland. In the hockey tournament, the Irish team finished second, behind England and ahead of Scotland and Wales. The Irish polo team finished joint second in the three-team tournament, despite losing to one of two English teams its only match.
The OCI has always used the name "Ireland", and for many years claimed to represent the entire island of Ireland, even though Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom.[6] These points have been contentious, particularly from the 1930s to the 1950s in athletics, and until the 1970s in cycling.[4]
The governing bodies in Ireland of many sports had been established prior to the 1922 partition, and most have remained as single all-island bodies since then. Recognition of the Irish border was politically contentious and unpopular within the Free State. The National Cycling and Athletic Association (Ireland), or NACA(I), was formed in 1922 by the merger of rival all-island associations, and affiliated to both the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).[4] However, some Northern Ireland athletics clubs soon left and in 1930 formed the Northern Ireland AAA, which later formed the British Athletic Federation (BAF) with the English and Scottish AAAs.[4] The BAF then replaced the AAA as a member of the IAAF, and moved that all members should be delimited by political boundaries.[4] This was not agreed in time for the 1932 Summer Olympics —at which two NACA(I) athletes won gold medals for Ireland— but was agreed at the IAAF's 1934 congress.[4] The NACA(I) refused to comply and was suspended in 1935, thus missing the 1936 Berlin Olympics.[4] The OCI decided to boycott the Games completely in protest.[4][7]
The UCI likewise suspended the NACA(I) for refusing to recognise the border. The athletics and cycling wings of the NACA(I) split into two all-island bodies, and separate Free-State bodies split from each and secured affiliation to the IAAF and UCI. These splits were not fully resolved until the 1990s. The "partitionist" Amateur Athletic Union of Éire (AAUE) affiliated to the IAAF, but the all-Ireland NACA(I) remained affiliated to the OCI. The IOC allowed AAUÉ athletes to compete for Ireland at the 1948 Olympics, but the rest of the OCI delegation shunned them.[4] At that games, two swimmers from Northern Ireland were prevented from competing in the OCI team. This was a FINA ruling rather than an IOC rule; Danny Taylor from Belfast was allowed by FISA to compete in the rowing.[4] The entire swimming squad withdrew,[8] but the rest of the team competed.[9]
Athletes born in what had become the Republic continued to compete for the British team.[4] In 1952, new IOC President Avery Brundage and new OCI delegate Lord Killanin agreed that people from Northern Ireland would in future be allowed to compete in any sport on the OCI team.[4][10] In Irish nationality law, birth in Northern Ireland grants a similar entitlement as birth within the Republic itself. Northern Ireland athletes retain the right to compete for Britain.[10]
UCI and IAAF affiliated bodies were subsequently affiliated to the OCI, thus regularising the position of Irish competitors in those sports at the Olympics. Members of the all-Ireland National Cycling Association (NCA) with Irish Republican sympathies twice interfered with the Olympic road race in protest against the UCI-affiliated Irish Cycling Federation (ICF). In 1956, three members caused a 13-minute delay at the start.[11] Seven were arrested in 1972; three had delayed the start[12] and the other four joined mid-race to ambush ICF competitor Noel Taggart, causing a minor pileup.[13] This happened days after the murders of Israeli athletes and at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland; the negative publicity helped precipitate an end to the NCA–ICF feud.[14]
In 2004, the OCI objected when the British Olympic Association changed its style from "Great Britain" to "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" in the runup to the Athens games. This was reported to have embarrassed the (ultimately successful) London bid to stage the 2012 Games.[10]
The OCI sees itself as representing the island rather than the state, and hence uses the name "Ireland".[4] It changed its own name from "Irish Olympic Council" to "Olympic Council of Ireland" in 1952 to reinforce this point.[4] At the time, Lord Killanin had become OCI President and delegate to the IOC, and was trying to reverse the IOC's policy of referring to the OCI's team by using an appellation of the state rather than the island. While the name "Ireland" had been unproblematic at the 1924 and 1928 Games, after 1930, the OCI sometimes sometimes used "Irish Free State". IOC President Henri de Baillet-Latour supported the principle of delimitation by political borders.[4] At the 1932 Games, Eoin O'Duffy persuaded the Organisers to switch from "Irish Free State" to "Ireland" shortly before the Opening Ceremony.[4] After the 1937 Constitution took effect, the IOC switched to "Eire"; this conformed to British practice, although within the state so designated the use of "Eire" soon became deprecated. At the opening ceremony of the 1948 Summer Olympics, teams marched in alphabetical order of their country's name in English; the OCI team was told to move from the I's to the E's.[4] After the Republic of Ireland Act came into effect in 1949, British policy was to use "Republic of Ireland" rather than "Eire". In 1951, the IOC made the same switch at its Vienna conference, after IOC member Lord Burghley had consulted the British Foreign Office.[15] An OCI request to change this to "Ireland" was rejected in 1952.[16] The name "Ireland" was accepted by the time of the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne.
The following tables include medals won by athletes on OCI teams together with one poet. All medals have been won at Summer Games. Ireland's best result at the Winter Games has been fourth, by Clifton Wrottesley in the Men's Skeleton at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total [17] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 Paris | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1928 Amsterdam | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1932 Los Angeles | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 1936 Berlin | did not participate | |||
| 1948 London | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1952 Helsinki | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1956 Melbourne/Stockholm | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 1960 Rome | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1964 Tokyo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 1968 Mexico City | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1972 Munich | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1976 Montreal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1980 Moscow | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 1984 Los Angeles | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 1988 Seoul | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1992 Barcelona | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 1996 Atlanta | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| 2000 Sydney | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2004 Athens | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2008 Beijing | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Total | 8 | 7 | 8 | 23 |
| Sport | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | 4 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Swimming | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Boxing | 1 | 4 | 7 | 12 |
| Sailing | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 8 | 7 | 8 | 23 |