Olympic Cavalcade

CHAPTER 11 BETWEEN THE ANCIENT AND -THE MODERN OLYMPIC GAMES THR-OUGHOUT all the ages-and right on through the story of the world the love of sport and the joy of strength, skill and stamina has gone on. From the days which succ;eeded the decline and fall o( the Olym_pic Games and the Roman Empire come echoes of sporting contests such as wrestling, mimic sword play, archery, hurling the heavy stone and the use of the leaping pole. - The earliest reference we are able to trace_to many of the events which_ comprised an Olympic _programme is in The Book of Leinster. Therein reference is made to a great Oenach, or f~te, which was held at Tailti in– County !vfeath. There took place the Lugnasard, or Tailtin Games. Th(:!y were celebrated as long ago as 1829 B.c. and continued until A.D. 554· These Games were establishecll;>y Lugh of the Lpng Arm, son of Fia and Ara,– and father 9f the famous Irish Hercules, Cuchulain. Lugh's foster-mgther was named Tailti and-from her the place of celebration of the Lugnas<~rd took ifs name. - _ Legend credits th~~thletes of that peri~_d -with many outstanding feats. The link with our present era, but not with th~ anci~nt Olympic Games,_ lies in the mention of the roti} cleas, or wheel feat, which, we suppose, was a form of hammer- thro~ing. The outstanding champion in this event was Cuchulain, son of -the founder of th~ Tailtin Gain~s. - Most of what are noV! to us the weight eveJl1:s in aftlletics at the moder-n / Games, and the jumps, have suryLved from the orJginal Olympiads-· mainly, I think, because the jumps ·and the weight events were practised ~t · the - ~ Tailtin Games by the Irish, who haye always had a positive genius for-this_ branch of athletics. Irwas athletes of th~ Irisp-'tace, m0reover, who -settled in America and esrab_Iishe~_, the _phenomenal-_ Olympic successes of the United States. _ - _""' _ - __ - The Scots, also, ·have played a l;>ig part inJ~eeping the athletic id.ea1 qf _ the Greeks alive. I il Anglo-Saxon times, prior to the Norman invasio-n, _ every English hamlet had its -village g.reen,- wn_ere~all- types of sport wer~ practised by the peasantry,-and the various games were still in vogue when Edward th·e Confessor ( 1042- ro66) occupied the _throne of England. There were mighty-athletes in the elev~nth and -twelfth centuries accqrding to the words of L'!-~Y Go_diva, .who referreft to her son as 'Herewar~the Wrestler' and 'Hereward the Thrower 0f:."tne Hammer'. lvor Tallebois ,.., also stated _that he ~aw 'a long, lean figure flying through the air seven _ feet aloft, his _heels -Righer tha11:~ his head;:.on th~ far side of a cl-itch~ 19