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OBJECTS DEFINE OUR our nation’s history. That is the essential concept behind National Treasures.
Over four roadshows my fellow curators and I were confronted with hundreds of items, each a cherished and significant part of the lives of the people who turned up to share them.
From these we were asked to select a sample which we felt best reflected the social, cultural, design and sporting history of this island over the past century – a daunting task. The fruits of this endeavour will be aired in RTÉ One’s four-part National Treasures series beginning this evening.
Sporting history
Given my academic interest in Ireland’s sporting history, I was asked to concentrate on items which would reveal to the viewer the rich tapestry of the nation’s sporting heritage. Sport offers a wonderful window into Irish society and the complexities, nuances and contradictions of Irish life are continuously revealed through our sporting history.
Moreover, Irish sport has continually demonstrated our nation’s capacity to unite behind certain events and certain individuals.
Sonia O’Sullivan is undoubtedly one of those individuals. A personal highlight of the project, which viewers will see in the first episode, was getting to select O’Sullivan’s running gear from the Barcelona Olympics and discussing her illustrious career with her father John.
Such a talent
Sonia was not just Ireland’s most renowned female athlete; she was one of the greatest sports stars Ireland has ever seen. It is amazing now to think that this small country, with a relatively unremarkable pedigree in international athletics, produced such a talent.
Sonia dominated world middle-distance running in the mid-1990s. Having first shot to prominence with a fourth-place finish in the 1,500 meters in Barcelona, she went on to win gold in the 1995 World Championships, gold in three European Championships and gold twice in the 1998 World Cross Country Championships. In 1994 she smashed the 2000 meters world record by three seconds, a time not subsequently bested until February 2017.
Yet more than her talents and her unprecedented successes on the world stage, it was the high-profile setbacks experienced in the Atlanta Olympics that helped endear her to the Irish public.
A stomach illness ensured that despite being the odds-on favourite for the 5,000 metres, she failed to finish the final. It struck me as I listened to John talk with such pride about his daughter how we, as a nation, were also so emotionally invested in her. We shared her pain and agony on that humid summer night in Georgia and, like her father, we revelled as she returned to the world stage resolved to erase that failure.
Athletic redemption
Her athletic redemption culminated on September 25 2000. In the final of the Sydney Olympics 5000 meters, Ireland came to a standstill as we collectively roared on our unassuming hero from Cobh.
I can only imagine the emotions John felt as his daughter hunted down Romania’s Gabriela Szabo in a captivating sprint finish. Szabo did just enough to hold on to gold, but O’Sullivan’s silver was the first Olympic medal won by an Irish woman in athletics. It was also the country’s first track and field Olympic medal since John Treacy’s silver in 1984.
Throughout a glittering career, Sonia filled us with excitement and nerves. A proven winner who nevertheless suffered huge disappointment, Sonia was almost the perfect Irish hero: courageous, determined, yet fragile and all too human.
The items John so graciously filmed with us showcase one of the most astounding talents to emerge from an Irish athletics tradition that stretches all the way back to the eighteenth century. Yet on a more personal level, they demonstrate the quiet but immense pride of a father in his daughter’s achievements.
It is that link between the personal and the greater historical context that is at the heart of the National Treasures project.
Dr Richard McElligott is a lecturer in modern Irish history in University College Dublin and a curator on RTE’s National Treasures, a four-part series starting this Sunday on RTÉ One at 6.30pm.
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Straight outta Carlow.
Gwan the boyz yup yup
Embarrassing…
@TamuMassif2019: cad go díreach a bhfuil náireach fúthu ?
@Daragh Ó Murchú: I never put much effort into Irish at school…
@Daragh Ó Murchú: Them denying their own culture and trying to act if they belong to another culture and to another race, why making eejits of themselves.
@TamuMassif2019: you haven’t got a clue. I’d say Irish wasn’t the only part of your education you neglected.
@TamuMassif2019: Would you say the same of a rock band? Rock music is from the south of the US originally. Should we stop that, and only play trad so?
Lowest common denominator trash for the most brainless in society.
@Disco Pants: ooooooh look at me I use big words to seem smarter than anyone else
@Disco Pants: moron
@Disco Pants: idiot
@Conor Daly: who bees you dog? Gnome sayin
@Disco Pants: i bet you would be great crack on a night out
@Disco Pants: put down what you don’t understand is smart thinking
@T Jay O’Mea: putting
@Disco Pants: bellend
@Disco Pants: Hey mate you havnt got a clue what’s up
@Disco Pants: brainless? Most of these lads are above average intelligence. They have to be to write songs and have the intelligence and confidence to come up with lyrics on the spot
@Disco Pants: thanks for your insight. Lowest common denominator trolling
Anyone else remember Scary Éire?
@Cheeky Bums: Yeah, last I heard he got whacked in Compton, drive by shooting. Rip Scary
@Cheeky Bums: They played the sugar club on Paddy’s weekend, wasn’t there but it was a great gig so I’ve been told.
@Cheeky Bums: Yeah, Saw them live back in the day.. great band.
Mago x mathman have some really good stuff that deserves more air play
Load of me b. O. X s
I said a hip hop …… stall it down the shop ….
“entrenched racism”? How about a fact check on that claim.
It’s quite astonishing that an article about Irish rap has no mention of Scary Eire
Just need to avoid the trap that happens with any Dublin scene where a group of artists get good, then disappear up their own posteriors
Kneecap’s album gets played a lot in our car. Check them out on YouTube/Spotify if you haven’t already.
The comments here are hilarious
Is seems like most Irish hip hop that makes social media graduated out of gonzaga college
Straight outta Carlow
@Keith Dunne: or Straight outta Carlaa
I really don’t the Kneecap boys would call themselves northern Irish and what’s with the ‘his real name is an Irish name’ comment? What’s that supposed to mean? Belfast is cheap compared to Dublin but you would be hard pushed to get a room in a shared house for less than £250 a month. For a flat, you’ll be talking £500 a month unless it’s in the absolute worst areas
@De20: We are taking Irish hip hop and somehow you manage to make it about property prices….shame on you.
Fair play lads all the best no mention of Rob Kelly from Wexford who really blazed a trail for the hip hop community
Rap/ hip hop just never sounds good done by Europeans it just comes across as lame and fake .
diddi diddle dillidy dillidy dillidy dee
These boys are very talented not mainstream which is great….we are sick of PC bullshit we’re know
what’s going down
5th element on youtube. Class lads!
Calling all da scraggy b I tches from accross the land. Jump up on me 1997 Civic and we’ll show those nerds.
have your say