Martin Sheridan: Ireland’s Greatest Olympic Champion

With the 2012 Olympic Games in London, it is appropriate to remember a great Irish-American athlete, Martin Sheridan (1881-1918), who won three of his Olympic medals at the first games in that city in 1908. While all his achievements were as a member of American teams, he also deserves to be remembered in sporting history as Ireland's greatest ever Olympic champion. During his illustrious career, he excelled as a discus thrower, in the high and long jumps, in the shot put and pole vault. He won nine Olympic medals, five gold, three silver and one bronze (a figure that include two gold and three silver medals won at the Intercalated Games in 1906). Following his untimely death in March 1918, an obituary in the New York Times stated: "Sheridan was one of the greatest figures that ever represented this country in international sport as well as being one of the most popular who ever attained championship honour."

The modern Olympic Games were inaugurated in Athens in 1896 on the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937), a French scholar who was inspired by the excavation of the site of the ancient Olympic Games at Olympia in Southern Greece, where they were held from about 776 to 394 BC. They have been held every four years since except during the first and second world wars in 1916, 1940 and 1944. Between the start of the modern Olympics and 1922, Irish athletes represented the United Kingdom, of which all Ireland was then a part, or the United States or Canada after emigration there, or else participated as solo entrants like the country's first champion, John Pius Boland, who won two Olympic gold medals for tennis in 1896. During that period, some Irish athletes did not like participating as members of UK teams because they wanted to express their own identity. After 1922, the Irish Free State participated as a country for the first time in the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. Since then and prior to London 2012, Irish athletes won 23 medals, including twelve in boxing.

Background

Martin Joseph (J.) Sheridan was born on March 28, 1881, in Bohola, County Mayo, the son of Martin (senior) and his wife, Jane, née Durkan from Swinford. The family were strong nationalists and a grand-uncle, Patrick J. Sheridan, was a leading Fenian in Connacht and a key organiser of the land agitation. Martin attended the local primary school at Carrowgowan. A strong fit young man, he was able to easily win any local athletic event, or test of strength, with his own age group. He participated in various athletic events around County Mayo as well as playing Gaelic football and handball. His brother, Richard, was also a good athlete who won many events around the county before emigrating to New York, where he joined the police force. Richard wrote regular letters to his parents giving glowing accounts of life in America. Martin became attracted to possible opportunities in New York and decided to emigrate. He bid farewell to his parents and four other siblings, Andy, Joe, Catherine and Mary Ann before departing for America in 1898. (Joe Sheridan inherited the family farm and later married Catherine (Kitty) Collins from Clonakilty, County Cork, a sister of Michael.) Martin went to his brother in New York and after various jobs secured a post with the police department in New York City and was promoted to a first grade detective. He never married.

Olympic Champion

In New York, Martin J. Sheridan devoted his spare time to athletics with great dedication and soon earned a big reputation for himself in the Irish-American Athletic Club at Celtic Park on Long Island. At 6'3'' and 194 lbs, he quickly became the best all-round athlete in the club. After winning the discuss event in the American athletic championship in June 1904 with effortless ease at 119'1.5'' and the shot put at 40'9.5'', he was chosen to represent the United States of America in both events at the 1904 Olympic Games in St Louis. After a great contest, Sheridan won the gold medal in the discus, defeating Ralph Rose (USA) in a throw-off after a tie on September 1, with a new world record at 127'10.25''. Later that year, Sheridan won the Canadian discus championship, came second in the shot put and high jump, and turned in good performances in several other events. In 1905, he won the American All-Round Championship, athletic contests in ten different track and field events.

Athens 1906

To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the successful inaugural modern games in 1896 and disappointed with standards in the 1900 and 1904 games, the Greek Government decided to organise an Intercalated (interposed as an extra) Olympics in 1906 in Athens. Martin J. Sheridan was selected as a member of the American team. The discus, the highlight of that Olympiad, was the traditional Grecian sport, going back to the days of ancient Greece. The Greeks regarded their national champion, Davidecas, as unbeatable, but Martin Sheridan had other ideas. He astonished the attendance in the athletic stadium of historic Athens with his brilliance in winning the discus throw and establishing another world record. The crowd rose to acclaim the magnificent achievement of the discus thrower from the USA. The following day, Martin Sheridan won his second gold medal with the sixteen pound shot put. Later in the games, he won three silver medals for the standing long-jump, the stone throw, and the standing high jump. It is said that a leg injury prevented him winning the pentathlon, athletic contests in five different events. Nevertheless, winning two gold and three silver medals in one Olympiad was an incredible achievement. In the 1906 games, Martin Sheridan scored more points than all the athletes from the British Empire. He arrived back in New York to a hero's welcome and was acclaimed by the sports writers of the day as "the greatest track and field athlete of all time." King Giorgios of Greece was so impressed by Martin Sheridan that he had Myron's famous sculpture of Discobolus (a celebrated discus-thrower in ancient Greece) erected in his honour outside the stadium in Athens. The king also presented him with a vaulting pole. Martin Sheridan won the American and Canadian discus championships in 1906 and retained them in 1907.

London 1908

As captain of the American team at the 1908 Olympic Games in London, Martin J.Sheridan won a gold medal in the discus free-style at 134'2'' and another in the discus Greek style (where the discus was thrown from a standing position) as well as a bronze medal for the standing high jump. It was another sensational achievement. (Irish-born athletes won eight gold, seventeen silver and eight bronze medals at the 1908 games.) After winning three medals at the 1908 London Olympics, Martin Sheridan returned to his native Bohola, and received a tumultuous welcome. After giving exhibitions in Dundalk, Dungarvan and Ballina, he returned to New York and later that year retained the American and Canadian discus titles. In addition to his Olympics medals, Martin J. Sheridan won twelve American titles and over thirty Canadian, metropolitan and regional championships. He won three American All-Round Championships in 1905, 1907 and 1909, with new world records on each occasion.

Death

After contacting pleuro-pneumonia, Martin Sheridan died one day before his thirty-seventh birthday on March 27, 1918, at St Vincent's Hospital in New York City, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery in the borough of Queens. A Celtic cross was unveiled over his grave on March 8, 1921. Part of the inscription reads: "devoted to the institutions of his country and to the ideals and aspirations of his race."

"Martin J. Sheridan,

An intrepid American,

an ardent lover of his Motherland,

a peerless athlete,

Mourned by a multitude of loving friends."

To perpetuate his memory, the New York Police Department established the Martin J. Sheridan Award for Valour in 1922, to be awarded each year for bravery above and beyond the call of duty (it was last presented in 1975). A memorial to Martin J. Sheridan was unveiled in Bohola on May 22, 1966, by Gene Tunney, Junior, a son of the Irish-American world heavyweight boxing champion, and Bohola-born human rights lawyer, Paul O'Dwyer. The memorial consisted of a bronze bust of the athlete by New York artist Paul Fjelde, mounted on a pedestal of Irish limestone, the work of Cork sculptor Séamus Murphy. In July 2012, this memorial was removed and the bust erected on a marble pedestal outside the local Martin J. Sheridan Community Centre, which was named in his honour by the local community on November12, 1994. A documentary entitled No Earthly King about Ireland's early Olympians especially Martin Sheridan, produced by Ciarán O'Hara, was broadcast for the first time by Setanta on July 22, 2012. On December 2, 1988, the name of Martin J. Sheridan was inducted into the USA National Track and Field Hall of Fame in Indianapolis, the first Irish person in history to be included in this prestigious institute. The achievements of Martin J. Sheridan deserve to be remembered in any pantheon of Olympic greats.

Bernard O'Hara's latest book entitled Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish can be obtained as an eBook from the Apple iBookstore (for reading on iPad and iPhone), from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (Kindle & Kindle Fire) and from Barnesandnoble.com (Nook tablet and eReader)..

Just look for Killasser: Heritage of a Mayo Parish by Bernard O’Hara.