The Older Irish Olympic Games

Not far from Donaghmore, outside Navan, is Donaghpatrick.  The oldest churches in Ireland were called Domhnach (Donagh for short, meaning ‘Sunday or Lord’s Place’) and usually associated with St Patrick.

Since Donaghmore mean ‘Big Donagh’ and Donaghpatrick’  means ‘Patrick’s Donagh’ does this mean he founded them both, just a few miles from each other?

It was worth going to find out as I discovered more than I expected.

The first surprise was that Donaghpatrick, though near Navan, is in an Irish-speaking Gaeltacht area and the signs are in Irish. 

A Church of Ireland,  built (1896) onto an earlier tower house, stands on a gentle rise above the Blackwater but the only hints of a long history are an ancient gallen stone and font.

Then I noticed the sign for nearby Teltown (Tailtin)– the historic site of the Tailteann Games. Legend says that around 1600 BC the three-day games began as a funeral tribute to Tailte, the wife of a slain Fir Bolg King and held annually as the Aonach Tailteann. The event took place during the last fortnight of July and culminated with the celebration of Lughnasadh. The practice died out after the Norman invasion.

The games included the long jump, high jump, running, hurling, spear throwing, boxing,  sword-fighting, archery, wrestling, swimming, and chariot and horse racing. There were also competitions in strategy, singing, dancing and story-telling, along with crafts competitions for goldsmiths, jewellers, weavers and armourers.

Among the social events was the mass ‘Teltown Marriages’ where couples met for the first time and given a year and a day to stay together or divorce.

The Táilteann Games were revived 1924-1936 following the Irish Civil war to showcase a confident and independent Ireland. The opening ceremony was held in Croke Park in front of 20,000 spectators but afterwards faded in competition with the modern Olympic Games. However the ‘Tailteann Cup’ re-emerged as part of the GAA football schedule.

Is there a Patrick connection? Did he deliberately build a church near the historic site to forge a link? At any rate Donaghpatrick looks to me more like a Patrick foundation than the better-developed nearby Donaghmore.

Today there is little trace of the historic great games at Teltown but I did get a distant views of Rathdhu which was one of its centres.

In this Olympic year, remember we were the first!