ON THIS DAY
FROM THE ARCHIVE DECEMBER 4, 1956
IN the small hours of this morning, Ronnie Delany crossed the line in baking-hot Melbourne to win the 1,500m and secure Ireland’s first ever Olympic gold. Delany, 21, is believed to have sent a telegram to his school athletics coach, Jack Sweeney, which read: ‘We did it Jack.’ Ireland’s first Olympic medallist is Jack B. Yeats, who won silver in 1924 for his painting The Liffey Swim. Of the two men, you might say: One was handy with running watercolours, while the other ran straight for the water coolers.
DECEMBER 4, 1990
MARY Robinson has been inaugurated as Ireland’s first female President at Dublin Castle. In her speech, Mrs Robinson, right, thanked ‘mná na hÉireann agus fir na hÉireann’ and said the country she will represent ‘is a new Ireland, open, tolerant, i nclusive... we have already passed the threshold to a new pluralist Ireland’.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
PAUL MCGRATH, 61. The soccer legend, left and national treasure was born in London to an Irish mother and Nigerian father. ‘Ooh-ah’ started his career at Pearse Rovers and Dalkey United in south Dublin, and earned his nickname The Black Pearl of Inchicore while playing for St Pat’s. He went on to star for Man United, Aston Villa and, of course, the Republic of Ireland under Jack Charlton. Widely regarded as one of the game’s great defenders, Ooh-ah is now known to a new generation as the man who advertises a sauce for curry chips. Well, he did save Ireland on many occasions when the chips were down.
EAMONN HOLMES, 61. The Belfast-born broadcaster studied journalism in Dublin and made his first foray into TV on UTV’s Farming Ulster, before teaming up with Jackie Fullerton on the station’s sports desk. Holmes was the centrepiece of what may be the most embarrassing TV moment of all time. In 2001, illusionist David Blaine appeared on GMTV and refused to talk to Holmes. Instead, he stared at him and gave him the ‘evil eye’ which was drawn on his palm.
BORN ON THIS DAY
RONNIE Corbett (1930-2016). The Edinburghborn comedian, one half of The Two Ronnies, was 5ft 1in. His aunt sent him on a course called How To Become Taller with a daily mantra ‘Every day and in every way I’m getting taller and taller’, but it had no effect. When Corbett, above, was awarded an OBE in 1978, he was delighted to discover that the Queen was a Two Ronnies fan.
ON DECEMBER 4. . .
IN 2006, staff at an equestrian centre in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, discover a camel called Gus has munched his way through 200 mince pies intended for their Christmas party. IN 2009, folk singer Liam Clancy dies.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Grume (c.1550) A) A clot of blood; B) The metallic dust that accumulates after grinding metal; C) To grumble. Answer below. PHRASE EXPLAINED To jump out of the frying pan into the fire: describes moving from a difficult or bad situation to a worse one; it was coined around 1530 by Sir Thomas More of Tyndale’s translation of the Bible.