Ronnie Delany's childhood memories of Meath

A graduation ceremony of one of Dublin's third level colleges is in progress in the Stillorgan Park Hotel in Dublin, and various parents are scattered around the restaurant with their young twenty-something son or daughter who is after finishing college.

Also dining in the restaurant is Ronnie Delany, who to many of these graduating students is a name in the history books. But to their parents, he is a legend, a sporting icon. And one father approaches him for his autograph on the cover of the Dun Laoghaire college programme, the only piece of paper with him. Ronnie graciously signs the programme and wishes the young graduate the best in his future.

Ask anybody old enough to remember where they were on 1st December 1956, and they will tell you what transistor or wireless they were sitting at, and jumping at, when Ronnie Delany won the gold medal in the 1,500 metre finals.

Today, 22nd November, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of those Olympic Games in Melbourne's Cricket Grounds in 1956, in which Australian athlete John Landy delivered the Olympic Oath. He was later to be beaten into third place by Delany in the 1,500 metres final.

The weight of being a living legend, a sporting icon from an era before television and satellite beamed every event into our homes and pubs, rests easily on Ronnie Delany’s shoulders. 'There is a responsibility with the medal,' he says. Looking at the bigger picture, it’s a very special place in the history of the Olympic Games. And as an Olympian, there’s also the self-realisation that along with the gold medal is the responsibility to be courteous to the public, who you are the property of.'

The Olympic dream lives on, he believes, despite the recent controversies surrounding various athletes and competitions. 'There's the idealism of the young African boy who one day knows he could be on the world stage, or the boxer from a small club in an inner-city that knows he can get there.'

The Delany family is an old Meath family which had many athletes in its midst. Ronnie's father, Patrick, was from Batterstown, and it was Ronnie's older brother Joe who first displayed the athletic talents in their branch of the family. Patrick Delany moved from Batterstown, where family members still live at Growtown, to Wicklow, and later to Dublin, where young Ronnie grew up.

But like all young Dubs, he was sent down to his grandmother and aunts and uncles in Meath for the summers, which he spent in Growtown and on his aunt Winnie's farm at Alexanderaide, outside Navan.

His grandfather had died at an early age, and grandmother Mrs Delany, a member of the Kellaghan family, of whom he has fond memories, lived at Growtown, where Ronnie's uncle Tommy ran the farm. His aunt, Molly, was also there.

It was a very busy farm, he recalls, and very exciting for a young lad from Sandymount in Dublin. Travelling at night time in pony and trap to relatives around Dunshaughlin and Drumree, uncle Tommy would fill the younger Delanys with ghost stories, particularly as they passed the Ballinlough workhouse.

Making hay in the summer, the shoeing of horses, feeding the chickens and picking apples in the orchard are happy memories he has of Growtown.

'And shooting,' he says. 'There was always a shotgun about, and liberal access to go out and shoot game, like a pheasant, or the ultimate challenge of trying to get a hare, as they'd be so fast. There was a .22 rifle, we were never allowed touch that,' he laughs. An end was put to his shooting activities when he nearly took the hand of himself in a backfiring accident. 'I was trying to reload on the run,' he says. 'My brother Paddy says I could have killed him!' He was delighted that some of his own children were able to meet his grandmother prior to her passing.

While Growtown was the farm where he learned all these manly activities, he describes his aunt Molly's Alexanderaid farm near Casey's Cross as a very fulfilling and educational experience. 'It was gentle but fulfilling,' he says. He would go to Alexanderaid with his sister, Colette, a favourite of all his aunts, and get up to all sorts of devilment. He has fond memories of Pat Browne, the farm manager there, and learned all about lambing and calving.

'It was a dairy farm and there were big gentle plough horses. One horse knew his own way to Navan. I used hop up on him, bareback, and go into the forge with him. Up through Athlumney village. There was no traffic on the road then. And up to the forge which was under an arch at the top of Trimgate Street. You’d have to duck your head going under the arch.' he recalls.

Pat Browne was an enormous influence on his life, teaching him all about the wonders of nature and wildlife. As at Growtown, there was the haymaking, and the making of cocks and tying hay ropes, the orchard, and with Colette, terrorising the rooster!

Ronnie also remembers playing tennis at Johnstown, where his aunt Rosaleen was married to Kit Steen.

Tennis, rugby and cricket were the schoolboy sports that Ronnie participated with success in Dublin. It was his older brother, Joe, who later emigrated to Canada, who was the athlete. Joe was the outstanding schoolboy athlete of his time in Ireland, winning numerous championships.

Ronnie was 17 when he ran his first championship race in the Leinster Colleges in May 1952. It was to be the start of a remarkable period in which he would come to dominate international athletics. One of his teachers in the Catholic University School, Joe Sweeney, recognised that he had the genes to be an athlete.

For a lad who had never taken it seriously, he duly won the Leinster and Irish School Championships half-mile title in 1952, and again the following year, in unremarkable times. Then, in 1953, he became the first Irish schoolboy ever to break two minutes for the half-mile in a men's half-mile race in College Park. He was displaying that he had the speed as well as the stamina, and decided to take it more seriously. He had developed the Delany 'kick', a decisive move where he would sprint past the leaders at a chosen point from the finish during the last lap.

'The story of that part of my life is that I had to take hard decisions. I became a zealout in relation to training. Luckily I achieved success at the end of it. Because a lot of decisions wouldn't have stood up to analysis. I had a cadetship in the Army, which I left, a big move in the 1950s. I realised you couldn't be an athlete and an officer at the same time. Then, my next decision was to go to the US. When I left for America I didn't know if I'd be coming back.' He had been awarded a scholarship to Villanova University, where he was to come under the wing of coach Jumbo Elliot, and departed these shores in September 1954.

When Roger Bannister became the first man to break the four minute mile in May 1954, Ronnie Delany had never run a mile and never even been out of Ireland. Two years later, he was to become only the seventh runner in the world, and the youngest ever, to break the still-magical four minute barrier, when he ran a time of three minutes 59 seconds in California.

His stint in Villanova saw him compete against the top athletes in the world. Tom Courtney was one of his tougher opponents. His first major defeat was to Norwegian Audun Boysen. He competed against John Landy. And even though there was uncertainty back home in Ireland as to whether he'd travel to Melbourne, he himself knew he would be.

'I had faith that I was going to the Olympics. I never doubted it. I hadn't run well that June in Ireland and it was a media issue, not politically driven, as to whether I'd go or not. There was no athletics rep on the Olympic Council. But instinctively, I knew I was going. Instinct plays a huge part in my life, and I would tell a person not to be afraid and to follow their instinct.' In October, he learned through media reports that he would be going.

Australian local boy and favourite John Landy had a 'Delany kick' of his own in the final of the 1,500 metres and suddenly sprinted going down the backstretch for the last time. Ronnie reacted immediately and slipped into his wake, following him by the other struggling competitors. It was now time for Delany's own kick, and with 150 yards to go he opened up with everything. He approached the tape 10 feet clear of the field.

Ronnie recalls: 'I could hardly believe I had won. My eyes swelled with tears, and I dropped to my knees in a prayer of thanksgiving. John Landy, who finished third, came over to me, helped me up to my feet and warmly congratulated me. The Australian crowd was showing its sportsmanship by generously applauding me. It was the happiest day of my life. I had set out to win the 1,500 metre crown and with the help of Jumbo Elliot, I had achieved my goal. The rest of my athletic career would always be a sort of anticlimax.'

While Ronnie Delany is always remembered for his gold medal, he has much more to his credit, including an unprecedented and unsurpassed 40 straight indoor victories in America from 1956 to 1959 including 33 mile races. He broke the indoor world record for the mile three times, before injury in 1960.

'I was a huge brand name in the US, offered roles in plays on Broadway and a tv series about a young Irishman making it good in the US,' he recalls. 'But I wanted to get home and rejoin my family.'

His degree from Villanova was in economics, and Ronnie returned to Dublin where he became assistant chief executive of B&I Line with responsibility for the marketing and operations of the Irish ferry company for almost 20 years. In 1988 he set up his own marketing and sports consultancy company and is currently doing work for BUPA, as their Ambassador for Older People.

He believes that while athletics has changed in its specifics since the 1950s, with greater funding and training facilities and programmes, the fundamentals haven’t.

'The instrument is the individual. The person has to have the courage to follow their instinct - it comes down to the person on then day in an event.' Derval O'Rourke is a prime example of what he means.

'She has a clear vision of what is required. She is exactly what is needed in a runner. She gets to her heats, gets into the final and then only sees one thing - the tape, and says 'I'm going to be first across that tape. That's what's needed of an Olympic champion.'

Still active in business, Ronnie lives in Carrickmines. He is married with a family of four, and 15 grandchildren, and has been honoured this year with the Freedom of Dublin City and a postage stamp as a tribute. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of his gold medal win, he has published his autobiography, Staying The Distance, with O'Brien Press.

*First published Meath Chronicle, November 2006.