As Down contest their Tailteann Cup Final our Cultural Corner provide us some insight into the history and importance of the first Olympic Games took place in Greece in 776BC.
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By this time, the Tailteann Games, a thirty-day annual sports festival that was held in what is now County Meath was almost 100 years old. This sporting gathering included events such as foot racing and stone throwing. It survived until the Norman invasion of AD 1169.
The Tailteann Games were revived by the GAA in 1924 to coincide with the Paris Olympics to attract international athletes – 24 medal winners from the Paris Olympics competed in the Tailteann Games, including Australian swimmer Ivan Steadman who won 2 golds, a silver and a bronze in the Tailteann Games.
The gold medal he won featured a crowned head of Queen Tailteann, the patron diety of the Tailteann Games and foster-mother of Ireland’s first High King, Lugh of the Long Arm. The inscription reads ‘An Baunrioghan Tailte’ and the reverse features Celtic designs of the four provinces of Ireland (by the 1920s) and inscription “Swimming”.
The Tailteann Games were held again in 1928 and 1932 but peaked in 1924 bringing positive international attention and much needed tourism to Ireland in the aftermath of the Irish Civil War.
The Spirit of our Gaelic Ancestors has always been associated with thd competitiveness of the Tailteann Games.
Here’s hoping that our Down footballers ❤️🖤 can emanate the feats of all those Celtic heroes of olden days and those they inspired in the renewed Tailteann Games when they meet the might of Meath 💚💛 in our Tailteann Cup Final.
An Dún Abú. An Dún ár gCroí.
Ádh mór oraibhse ❤️🖤🏐
| Pól MacConmhaoil Oifigeach Gaeilge agus Cultúir CLG Cheathrú Aodha Dhuibh |
Paul McConville Irish Language and Cultural Officer Carryduff GAA |
