School: Cnoc na Biolaraighe

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1. Athletic Feats

   

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   About 90 years ago there lived in Rathcormac a man named John Murphy who was famous all over the South of Ireland as a long distance runner. He used to compete in all the leading Athletic events in the South of Ireland and was hardly ever beaten. At this particular time there was an officer stationed in Fermoy who was also an Athlete and had won prizes all over England including long distance championships.
   This officer hearing of Murphy asked him to come Fermoy training with. Murphy accepted the invitation and went into Fermoy barracks. The first race they had was a 10 mile race. To the officers surprise he discovered that Murphy was a far superior runner to himself and also that distance seemed no object to Murphy. One night the officer was at his club room in Cork and was discussing Athletics events with some other officers including a General who was on his first visit to Ireland. The officer said he considered that there were better Athletes in Ireland than in England. The General laughed at this as he had a very poor opinion of the Irish. The officer asked him would he care to have a bet say that he knew an Irishman who was willing to race the fastest horse the general could put on the road a distance of 20 miles.
   The general said he was prepared to bet

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. agents (~1)
      1. historical persons (~5,068)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Kitty O Connell

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Condonstown, Co. Cork

   Informant

   Patrick O Connor

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Condonstown, Co. Cork