Nenagh honours Bob Tisdall who won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games.
Robert Morton Newburgh (Bob) Tisdall was born in 1907 in Sri Lanka (at that time called Ceylon) where his father who was from Bantry had a tea plantation. His mother hailed from Nenagh County Tipperary.
From the age of five he was raised in Nenagh and then Dromineer, County Tipperary. Known for his speed on the rugby pitch at home, he joined the athletics club while a student at Cambridge University, where he excelled at the long jump, shot put and hurdles.
Bob Tisdall also competed in Irish athletics championships and qualified for the 1932 Olympic Games which were held in Los Angeles.
He won the gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles, defeating Glen Hardin and Morgan Taylor of the United States and Lord Burghley of Britain. Unfortunately having knocked down the final hurdle, the rule at that time declared him ineligible for the world record.
He also competed in the decathlon, finishing in eighth position and setting a new Olympic best for the 400 metres.
On returning to Ireland he was given a hero's welcome, but the economic climate forced him to look for work in England before emigrating to South Africa. Eventually Bob Tisdall settled in Tanzania where he managed a coffee farm. In the 1960s Bob Tisdall and his family returned to Ireland where they lived on the Beara peninsula, before relocating permanently to Queensland, Australia.
Bob Tisdall was honoured in a civic reception in Nenagh by the Urban District Council, where he was presented with a scroll.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 16 February 1979. The reporter is Jackie Hayden.
