Discover the legends of athletics in our monthly feature On the Shoulders of Giants!
Peter O'Connor
At the start of the 20th century one of the world’s leading athletes was an Irishman named Peter O’Connor. O’Connor was a prolific jumper who won National titles in Long Jump, High Jump and Triple Jump (Hop, Step and Jump as it was known at the time). He won Olympic Gold and Silver in 1906 and set a long jump world record that stood for 20 years and an Irish record that was unbeaten for an extraordinary 89 years!
Born in Cumberland in the North of England in 1872 to Irish parents, O’Connor’s family returned to their native Wicklow shortly after his birth. One of eleven children his parents were unable to afford to send O’Connor to Secondary School and so he set off to Galway to pursue a career as a solicitor’s clerk. It was here that Peter O’Connor first became involved in athletics, quickly finding success when representing his club in Clifden.
Towards the end of the 19th century, organised sporting events were beginning to grow in popularity. Huge crowds would attend GAA matches and athletics meets, where people soaked up the atmosphere and celebrated Ireland’s finest. A staunch nationalist, O’Connor became involved with the GAA and saw how sport could be a vehicle for national expression, a way to positively promote Irish identity. Politics were to play a key role in O’Connor’s athletics career even from these early days competing in the West of Ireland.
In 1898, Mayo athlete Walter Newburn set a Long Jump World Record and ignited a rivalry with O’Connor which would shape their careers for the subsequent years. O’Connor had outjumped Newburn on several occasions but always fallen foul to disqualification on technical grounds. O’Connor believed the Irish Amateur Athletic Association, a known unionist organisation, were favouring fellow unionist Newburn and instructing their judges to rule against him.
In 1899, Peter O’Connor at the age of 25 won the first of his All-Ireland titles, claiming Gold in the Long Jump, High Jump and Triple Jump. This achievement and his domination of British athletes at every meet he attended led to him being selected to represent Britain at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. O’Connor refused the call-up stating he wished to represent Ireland and only Ireland.
O’Connor’s relationship with the IAAA deteriorated, he decided to split from the organisation and only compete in the AAA British Championships. He won every AAA Championship Long Jump title between 1901 and 1906 and AAA High Jump titles in 1903 and 1904. After again refusing a callup by the British Olympic Council in 1904, Peter O’Connor, Con Leahy, and John Daly were nominated for the 1906 Olympics by the GAA and the IAAA. Dressed in green blazers and shamrock-emblazoned caps, the trio set off for Athens to be the first team to represent Ireland at an international event. On board the passenger boat to Greece, the athletes discovered that the Irish team would not be recognized, as Ireland did not have an Olympic Council, and instead O’Connor, Leahy and Daly would be competing for Britain.
By the 1906 Olympics, O’Connor was past his prime yet such was his class he won gold in the triple jump, at 34 the oldest ever gold-medal winner in this event, before winning silver in the long jump. O’Connor’s closest competitor in the long jump was the world famous U.S. athlete Myer Prinstein. Before the competition commenced it was announced that the sole judge would be Matthew Halpin, the American Team Manager. O’Connor voiced his disapproval but to no avail. O’Connor, just like in his early days competing in Connaught, felt he was unjustly treated and in the end, inevitably Prinstein was declared the winner.
The Irish athletes brought with them on their travels to Athens an Irish flag, the old 'Erin Go Bragh' (Ireland for ever) flag with a golden harp showing on a green background. At the Long Jump medal ceremony, O’Connor saw his chance to stage a protest at having to compete as part of the British team. He used his athletic prowess to scale a 20-foot flagpole and replaced the British flag with the green Irish flag. As the 55,000 spectators looked on, O’Connor waved the flag and his teammates and a number of Irish American athletes held off the officials who were attempting to scale the pole after him. It was the first moment in modern Olympic history where we see an act of political protest. O’Connor’s career faded out after this moment, fitting though for an athlete whose career was so interwoven with nationalism, politics and protest that is last act would be one of defiance.
Tadhg Crowley
28 June 2023