The lawyer who raised Ireland’s flag at the 1906 Games

Over a century before Korean athletes captured worldwide attention by marching under a united flag in Pyeongchang, an Irish athlete — and future lawyer — flew his own flag dripping with political symbolism.

Peter O’Connor was one of three Irishmen entered for the 1906 Intercalated Games in Athens by the Irish Amateur Athletic Association and Gaelic Athletic Association.

The 1906 Games were organised by the International Olympic Committee and considered, at the time, to be official Olympic Games. They were later retroactively downgraded and are no longer considered as such by the IOC and other official bodies.

In a last-minute rule change, the IOC ruled that athletes could only be entered by National Olympic Committees, and the Irish athletes arrived in Athens only to find they were now representing “Great Britain”.

O’Connor, who had set the long jump word record in Dublin in 1901 and kept it for 20 years, competed in a range of track and field sports.

He faced US athlete Myer Prinstein, whose record he had broken five years previously, in the long jump competition, but ultimately came second and won the silver medal, alleging bias on the part of the judge (Matthew Halpin, who was the manager of the American team).

At the subsequent flag-raising ceremony, O’Connor took issue with the use of the Union Flag to represent him and scaled the flagpole in the middle of the field to replace it with a green flag reading “Erin Go Bragh” while other Irish and Irish-American athletes stood guard.

The political stunt made history and marked the first time that an Irish flag had been flown at an international sporting event.

Two days later, O’Connor won the gold medal in the hop, step and jump competition, but he won no more athletic titles after 1906.

“Our firm is built on the achievements of past and present members, none more so than its founding father, Peter O’Connor.”

He returned to Waterford and later entered practice as a solicitor with Peter O’Connor & Son Solicitors, which continues in practice today and recognises Peter O’Connor as its “founding father”.

The firm’s website states: “Our firm is built on the achievements of past and present members, none more so than its founding father, Peter O’Connor. An Olympic champion, world record holder and respected professional, he took over the practice in 1920, and helped it grow to what it is today; a local firm with a global vision.

“It was Peter’s sense of hard work and fair play that drove his sporting life and legal career. It is these same values that set us apart as a legal firm, not only in Waterford but across the region.”