The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Kerry’s golden Olympians of yesteryear
The first Irishman to win an Olympic title at the modern Olympic games, John Pius Boland (1870-1958), had a strong Kerry connection. Although born in Dublin, his family holidayed at Derrynane, and he later represented Kerry South in the Westminster Parliament for almost twenty years.
Boland studied law at Oxford University and while there he became interested in the Olympic movement. He was friendly with Costantinos Manaos, son of one of the organising secretaries of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. Boland went to Athens to watch the games as a spectator.
His friend Manos persuaded him to enter the lawn tennis. Only 12 others had entered, and the first tennis club had only been established in Athens the previous year. Boland managed to beat three Greeks and a German to win the Olympic title.
After beating Friedrich Traun, a German athlete, in the second round, Boland and Traun teamed up in the doubles, and duly won that title. Thus Boland was not only the first Irishman to win an Olympic title, he was also the first to win two such titles.
Although usually described as Ireland’s first Olympic gold medalist, winners at the first two modern Olympic Games were presented with silver medals, and there was bronze medal for the runner-up. The gold medal was not introduced until the 1904 games at St Louis.
Few Kerry people would have heard much about John Pius Boland’s proficiency as a tennis player, because he never considered himself as such. His Olympic victories were essentially due to the low standard of competition. He would later be best remembered as the MP for Kerry South from 1900 until 1918.
One of Boland’s daughters, Honor, married Fred Crowley, who served in the Dáil as a Fianna Fáil deputy for Kerry South from 1927 to 1945. She went on to win the by-election following her husband’s death, and she represented Kerry South until her own death in 1966.
Ironically the most recongnised Irish tennis player of 1896 was actually a Kerryman, Harold Mahony. Shortly after Boland’s triumph in Athens, Mahony — who from Dromore Castle near Templenoe, won the Wimbledon singles title.
Although born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father was working as a barrister in 1867, Harold grew up in Dromore Castle, which was owned by his family. It had its own tennis court.
While the Scots now claim that Andy Murray is the first Scottish-born player to Wimbledon since Mahony, the latter was always recognised as an Irish tennis player. After being beaten in Wimbledon semi-finals twice, Mahony managed to make it to the final in 1896, when he defeated the threetime winner, Wilfred Baddeley, by 6-2,6-8, 5-7, 8-6, 6-3 in one of the longest finals ever.
Mahony reached the final again in 1897, but was defeated by Reggie Doherty, who went on to win the Wimbledon singles title four times in a row.
In 1900 Mahony competed at the Paris Olympics. At 33, he was the oldest competitor in the tennis singles in which he reached the final without losing a set. But he was then beaten in straight sets by Laurie Doherty, the younger brother of his old nemesis Reggie Doherty. Laurie went on to demonstrate his prowess winning five straight Wimbledon singles titles.
Reggie Doherty teamed up in Paris with Charlotte Cooper to defeat Mahony and Helene Prevost of France in the final of the mixed doubles. Thus, Mahony ended with two bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
He was still only in his 30s when he was killed in a cycling accident at the foot of a steep hill near Dooks on June 27, 1905. He came off the bike, breaking his neck, and dying on the spot.