Olympic hero Ronnie Delany turns 90 on March 6. To mark the occasion, Val O’Donnell recalls the famous day in Melbourne when the Crusaders athlete ran into the record books
….. and the heart of a nation.

 

Week-end mornings in our boarding school were always the best. An extra hour in bed until 7.30; sausages for breakfast, and no back-breaking ‘charge’ to be performed afterwards.

But on this particular Saturday morning – 2nd December, 1956 – something altogether more promising trumped the usual bonuses. Exciting enough to entice a cohort of senior boys from their beds in the early hours of a cold winter morning.

We wrapped up well with coats over our pajamas, or pulled on any convenient clothing, before rushing down the cold stone stairs, skimming over the waxed corridors, and into the dim snooker room.
There, our small group gathered in anticipation, around Brother Brennan’s radio, as he applied an expert touch to tune into the BBC Long Wave reception from Australia.

Our hero was competing in the Fifteen Hundred Metres final – the glamour event of the Melbourne Olympics, and we would witness – albeit remotely – the greatest ever achievement by an Irish athlete in a field event.
In those far-off days before television a more balanced and sober attitude prevailed. There had been no media frenzy driving the Nation to near hysteria, after our hero had qualified for the final, a few days earlier. So now we listened more in hope than expectation. And there was good reason to discount any unrealistic expectations.

Our hero’s performance in coming third in his qualifying heat had been described as ‘impressive’, but nothing more. He had not been tipped as a serious medal contender by any of the experts, though one national paper had suggested that he stood a good chance of finishing in the first three places.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own