This post is part 2 of 3 in the series of My Story.
Here’s a fact about me…I am an Olympic junkie and love the everything about the games. Remember the London Olympics in 2012?! Ireland had Katie Taylor that year and with the games so close I was hooked more than ever.
Sitting at home watching the 2012 Olympics there was an RTE commentator discussing the overall total of Olympic medals Ireland had ever received. I couldn’t resist bragging to ThisIrishDad that Mom’s great uncle, Con won at least one of those Olympic medals.
He doubted me and so began my search to prove it.
Through the power of Google I had answers within minutes. Not only did Con Leahy in fact win olympic medals, he had his own Wikipedia page! Con had won silver and gold olympic medals in the 1906 olympics which are unfortunately not recognized by the IOC.
photo credit: Wikipedia
Con was both an impressive athlete, and a true Irishman.
He protested the listing of Irish athletes as members of team Great Britain during the 1906 Olympics. During a medal ceremony, Con supported an Irish teammate who climbed the flag pole to take down the British Flag and replace it with the Irish one flag.
Sadly, in 2012 I discovered that I had missed the 2006 commemoration ceremony of a monument to Con in Limerick.
While I relished in the bragging rights of an Olympian in the family to ThisIrishDad, the truth is, Con Leahy was only mom’s great uncle through marriage.
But finding information on Con proved to be the first breadcrumbs to finding my own Corkonian roots.
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