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Ireland’s footballers at the 1924 and 1948 Olympic Games: compromised by the politics of sport

ABSTRACT Wednesday, 28 May 1924 is a seminal date in the history of Irish sport. On this date, the footballers of the Football Association of the Irish Free State became the first representatives of independent Ireland to engage in Olympic competition. The footballers were representing an association that had its jurisdiction limited to the territory of the Irish Free State, at a time when the British Olympic Association were raising questions about the jurisdiction of the Irish Olympic Council which claimed to manage Olympic sport on an all-Ireland basis. Irish footballers competed in the 1948 Games at a time when the International Olympic Council had decided that the jurisdiction of the Irish Olympic Council did not extend to Northern Ireland. The Irish council fiercely resisted this move and this had implications for domestic sport, particularly athletics, and had the potential to prevent the Irish football team’s entry for the London Games.