Another Irish Olympian- John Pius Boland

The first modern Olympic games were held in Athens in 1896 and perhaps not widely known is that an Irishman enjoyed success. His name was John Pius Boland and in 1960 the Irish Press looked back on Boland’s exploits comparing them with the then recent success of Ronnie Delaney in Melbourne in 1956. Boland was also a politician and played an important role in Irish political life in the first two decades of the 20th century:

RONNIE DELANY and John Pius Boland were born sixty-five years apart, and I am almost certain that they never met. As a matter of fact, I do not think I would be too far wrong in saying that Ronnie Delany has probably never heard of John Pius Boland. Yet, by a strange series rather extraordinary fashion.

While still a youngster, Ronnie came to live in Sandymount, grew up there and eventually went to school at C.B.S. in Leeson Street and so too did John Plus Boland.

At the end of his schooldays in C.B.S., Ronnie left Ireland to do his University studies in another country ... and so too, did John Pius Boland.

Delany went on to win Olympic honours for Ireland —and so, too, did John Pius Boland. And for a brief period in 1956, their Olympic gold medals were together in Melbourne.

As a tribute to the memory of his wife, who had been a native of that city, and also at the request of the International Olympic Committee, John Pius Boland sent his medals to Australia, and they were on display in Melbourne for the duration of the XVIth Games.

But there the coincidences end. For while Ronnie Delany's name is known today to almost every man, woman and child in Ireland, the sporting fame of John Pius Boland has faded over the years, and now his name has been forgotten by the vast majority of people in this country.

And not so very long ago, I was included with that vast majority. I knew absolutely nothing about him, in fact, I had never heard of him I certainly did not know that he had won two Olympic gold medals for Ireland.

Until one afternoon in the National Library, reading through the dusty files of a Kerry newspaper for 1900. I came across a small paragraph :

"A Mr. J. P. Boland, barrister-at-law, who practices In London, has been invited by the Irish Nationalist Party to contest the South Kerry elections. We are informed that Mr. Boland is a native of Dublin and pursued his studies at Oxford University. We are also informed that he is a keen tennis player, and represented Ireland successfully at the Olympic Games in Greece some years ago."

The Beginning Of A Long Search

…a search that ended only a few weeks ago, in a room in Leinster House, where I had a long chat with John Plus Boland's daughter —Mrs. Honor Crowley, Dail Eireann representative from East Kerry.

It was a thoroughly satisfying and rewarding search .... for John Pius Boland was a very remarkable and colourful personality in many spheres of life.

In addition to winning two Olympic gold medals for Ireland, I discovered, among other things, that he was a dynamic and vigorous Parliamentary figure between 1900 and 1918 Whip for the Irish Nationalist Party at Westminster author, early careers are linked in orator and brilliant conversationalist.... friend of Tim Healy, Joe Devlin, Bonar Law, Winston Churchill, Kier Hardie, Joe Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin. The man mainly responsible for the erection of the Parnell Monument in O'Connell Street... father of Bridget Boland, who, some years ago, wrote the very successful play " The Prisoner." But I could go on and on, for John Pius Boland was a very remarkable man. And, regretfully from my point of view, he was also an extremely modest ' man. Never, in any interview, did he speak of his two Olympic gold medals, and in one of his books—"A Day in Parliament"- he dismissed his victories at Athens with a few short words... "I was lucky enough to win the singles and the doubles." However, after quite a deal of research, I did manage to piece together the story of how he came to be at the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 and how he became one of Ireland's first Olympic champions.

He first became Interested in tennis while at school in C.B.S., where as he wrote some years afterwards—"I received great encouragement from Father Watters, Father Morrin and Father Doherty." He then moved on to London University and eventually to Christ College, Oxford, and in his leisure hours from study, he continued to play tennis and cricket.

For more on Boland search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive (www.irishnewsarchive.com )