What a very good sport!
Has anyone played in both the national football and rugby teams? Given the different demands of the two sports, this is very rare, so much so that Dublin-born brothers Kevin O’Flanagan (1919-2006) and Mick O’Flanagan (b. 1922), who represented ireland at both sports, are the only players to have done it.
Kevin, one of the most revered sportsmen in ireland, joined Bohemians football team in 1937, making his first team debut at 16. That summer he played for an ireland junior team against a Birmingham FA Xi at West Bromwich and scored twice in a 4-3 win.
His performance drew offers from Liverpool, Aston villa and Manchester United, but he chose to finish his education. in 1937, he enlisted on a medical degree course at University College Dublin (UCD).
He continued to play football for Bohemians and, on november 7, 1937, aged 18, scored on his senior debut for ireland against norway, in a qualifier for the 1938 World Cup. Between 1937 and 1947, he made two appearances for an irish Free State Xi and a further ten for the Republic of ireland.
Kevin was also one of the best athletes in the country: at UCD he won the 60 yards, 100 yards and long jump titles at the irish national athletics championships, and had there been an Olympic Games in 1940, he would certainly have competed.
Kevin qualified as a doctor in 1945 and in the same year signed for Arsenal. in the 1946/ 47 season he made 14 Arsenal appearances, scoring three goals.
He had also taken up rugby union at UCD and in 1942 was chosen to play for an ireland Xv against a British Army Xv at Ravenhill. in 1946, while with London irish, he played on the wing in an unofficial international against France. in 1947, Kevin won his only official cap in a Test against Australia, a 16- 3 defeat at Lansdowne Road.
in 1948, he was one of the doctors attached to the British Olympic team and, once resettled in Dublin, established a successful practice in Upper Fitzwilliam Street. Kevin went on to build a parallel career in ireland’s Olympic Council, of which he became vice-president. From 1960 to 1976 he was chief medical officer to the irish Olympic squad.
in 1976, he was elected as a member of the international Olympic Committee itself — only the third irishman to achieve such a position — and after he retired in Q : What was the ‘tank’ that delivered the Clarkson petition to the BBC? Is one allowed to drive a tracked vehicle on a public highway?
George White, Portsmouth. Q : The enormous USS Theodore Roosevelt has more than 80 combat aircraft crowded onto her four-and-a-half acres of deck. How soon can she get any of them into the air?
Stuart Lang, Corby, Northants. Q : How did Weeping Cross, an estate in Stafford, come by its sad name?
Elaine Dewsbury, Eccleshall, Staffs. 1995 he remained an IOC honorary member. His brother Mick made his only appearance for ireland’s football team on September 30, 1946, in a 1-0 defeat against england at Dalymount Park. Kevin was also in the team that day.
Mick began playing rugby union with Lansdowne RFC in 1947 and on February 28, 1948, was capped for ireland against Scotland in a 6-0 win at Lansdowne Road.
Jon oliver, Liverpool. In 1989, the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS) confidently reported an alien encounter somewhere near the Ural mountains. What happened? On SEPTEMBER 27, 1989, TASS reported the testimony of several youths who claimed to have witnessed a UFO landing in voronezh, a city about 300 miles southeast of Moscow.
According to TASS, two boys and a girl from a local school were playing in a park on the evening of September 21 when ‘they saw a pink shining in the sky and then spotted a ball of deep red colour’ about ten yards in diameter.
A crowd gathered ‘and they could clearly see a hatch opening in the lower part of the ball and a humanoid in the opening’.
Two three- eyed aliens, about 9 ft tall, dressed in silvery overalls and bronze boots with a disk on their chests emerged, accompanied by a robot. One terrified boy began to scream, but with a stare of the alien’s shining eyes, TASS said, the boy was silenced, seemingly paralysed.
After a brief disappearance, the three returned, but this time one of the ‘humanoids’ had ‘what looked like a gun’ by his side — a long silver tube that it directed at a 16-year- old boy. The boy, whose name was not given in the report, promptly vanished, but reappeared after the alien re-entered in the ball.
TASS later published several eyewitness accounts, including one from Lt Sergei A. Matveyev of the voronezh district police station, who claimed to have witnessed the landing. The original article also quoted Dr Silanov, of the voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, as confirming the location of the landing using biolocation.
He later denied this. ‘Don’t believe all you hear from TASS,’ he stated. ‘We never gave them even part of what they published.’
The purported close encounter was actually one of many to appear in the Soviet media which, under the policy of glasnost (openness), publicised a series of UFO claims in an attempt to promote new press freedoms. The newspaper Pravda declined to print or comment on the strange tale.
M.R. Lewis, Torbay, Devon. How come the Republic of Uganda has a king? UGANDA was established as a country by the British from the late 1890s to 1918, using a process of negotiation, backed by force where necessary. it brought together several kingdoms and chiefdoms, the most powerful of which was the kingdom of Buganda in the south. Other major kingdoms were Toro, Busoga, Bunyoro and Rwenzururu.
On October 9, 1962, Uganda was granted independence with A. Milton Obote as Prime Minister. At first, Buganda was given considerable autonomy, and when Uganda became a republic in 1963, Kabaka (King) Mutesa ii of Buganda became president.
But the first years of independence were dominated by a struggle between central government and Buganda and, in 1966, Obote introduced a new constitution ending Buganda’s autonomy and making him president in place of Mutesa with unlimited powers under ‘state of emergency’ rules. in 1967, another constitution was adopted, abolishing traditional kingships.
in 1986, Yoweri Museveni became president — a position he still holds. To alleviate tribal tensions, he permitted the restoration of traditional kings in Uganda in 1993, though only in a ceremonial and constitutional capacity.
in March 2008, the Ugandan Cabinet endorsed the Kingdom of Rwenzururu as a cultural institution with Charles Mumbere as Omusinga (king). Several other kingdoms and chiefdoms were also officially recognised
Joseph opio, London SW14.