'Ireland' and Athletics: 1920-1960

This presentation intends to map out and explain aspects of Anglo-Irish relations through the prism of ‘Ireland’ and athletics during the period between 1920 and the 1960s. Two immediate caveats are necessary. While aspects of events in the 1920s clearly had a bearing on what followed, our focus today is on this latter period. In addition, our work is ongoing, and thus we tend to say more about the inter-war period than more recent times. Yet, what we highlight continued as a feature of Ireland and athletics during the 1960s and beyond. Our work is underpinned by multiple archival and oral history sources, at local, national and international levels, involving sporting, state and personal papers and is, in some ways, at odds with official records and collective memories. In the printed version as a whole we discuss notions of identity, Irishness and Britishness, the role that sport plays in identity politics, imperial culture and diplomacy, and the contemporary relevance of our findings for how countries deal with post-imperial identities.