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Product Description
The Tailteann Games were the biggest public events organised in Ireland in
the decade after independence. They were at once sporting and cultural events,
celebrations of Ireland and its diaspora, and a declaration of national identity
by a state striving to rise from the ashes of an independence struggle, partition
and civil war. They were spectacular and imaginative embodiments of Irish
cultural identity, harping back to an idealised past but also highly modern and
forward thinking in their programmes.
In some respects, The Tailteann Games 1922–32 and the Shaping of a Nation takes up another story after independence. No sooner was Ireland admitted to the Olympic Games but the new nation’s political and sporting leaders staged what were intended to be its own sporting and cultural celebration of the ‘Irish Race’ and did so on a quite remarkable scale.
The reasons for the revival of these ancient Irish Tailteann Games, the
roles of the GAA and other sports bodies, of political figures, civil servants
and volunteers are all examined in detail, as are the reasons for the eventual
decline of the Tailteann festival after 1932. Using previously untouched
material, this deeply researched study allows McCarthy to expose established
myths and notions with the aid of uncovered information, statistics, images
and data. This is ultimately the story of the people behind Ireland’s Games: the
competitors, the administrators, the supporters; and their passion, sometimes
madcap notions and brilliant innovations.
The Tailteann Games 1922–32 and the Shaping of a Nation is a fascinating
insight into the role of sport, competition and ceremony in shaping the Irish
nation in the infancy years of independence.
Kevin McCarthy has written a number of textbooks and local histories but his first love is sports history. His book, Gold, Silver and Green: The Irish Olympic Journey 1896–1924, was awarded the Karl Lennartz Award by the International Society of Olympic Historians in 2010.
