Analysis: The story of the Tailteann Games reveals how Irish identity is made, remade and sometimes forgotten
By Conor Heffernan, Ulster University
Next weekend, the Tailteann Games return, not in a stadium packed with thousands, but in the medieval ruins of Kells Priory in rural Kilkenny. A century after the Free State's attempt to stage an 'Irish Olympics,’ this grassroots revival offers a striking contrast. It is a modest celebration of myth, music and muscle, not designed to impress the world but to reimagine a forgotten past. As Ireland continues to navigate cultural centenaries, the 2025 Tailteann revival prompts reflection on how traditions are remembered, abandoned, and reimagined, and what that tells us about Irish identity.
Tailteann's legacy from myth to modernity
The Tailteann Games trace their legend back over two millennia. According to medieval sources, the original Aonach Tailteann was inaugurated by the god-hero Lugh at Teltown, Co Meath, in honour of his foster-mother, Tailtiu. The fair was said to feature athletic contests, legal assemblies and feasting around Lughnasa, continuing until the Norman invasion disrupted Gaelic custom.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Dr Siobhán Doyle on the Tailteann Games
Whether these games were ever as grand as legend suggests is debated. The earliest accounts were written centuries after the events they describe and are shaped by a desire to glorify Ireland's pre-Christian past. But historical accuracy was never the point. The Games became a powerful cultural myth and a usable past for later generations.
Michael Davitt proposed reviving the Games in the 1880s as a pan-Celtic festival of sport and song. His idea gained momentum in a wider European context where nations were constructing ancient lineages to legitimise modern identities, from the Greek Olympics to German Turnfests. Ireland's Tailteann revival was part of this invented tradition-building.
By 1921, the revolutionary Dáil Éireann approved plans for a modern Tailteann Games. Delayed by the Civil War, the event was launched in August 1924 under Minister for Posts & Telegraphs J.J. Walsh and became the Free State’s largest cultural project. Croke Park hosted athletics, boxing, rowing and more over two weeks of sport, performance and pageantry. GAA staples like hurling and football featured prominently, while 'foreign’ sports like rugby and soccer were excluded in line with nationalist ideals.
From British Pathé, coverage of the 1924 Tailteann Games
The opening ceremony was pure theatre featuring Queen Tailtiu, wolfhounds, spearmen. As President W.T. Cosgrave declared, Ireland was ‘not a colony but the home of a race of a historical lineage unsurpassed elsewhere.’ Around 5,000 athletes participated, including 24 medallists from the Paris Olympics. Newsreels captured competitors from the US, Canada, Australia and more.
While its global impact was modest, the Tailteann Games succeeded on their own terms. As historian Paul Rouse put it, they functioned as a showcase of Irish pride, linking ancient symbolism to modern statehood. Air displays and motorcycle races sat alongside sean-nós and hurling, symbolising a nation that was both rooted and forward-looking.
Why did the Games falter?
Despite its 1924 success, the Games soon faltered. Revived in 1928 and 1932, they struggled to generate the same enthusiasm. By 1932, the Great Depression had hit, Fianna Fáil was in power, and de Valera’s government viewed the Games as a political rival’s pet project. A state review deemed them too expensive to continue.
From British Pathé, coverage of the 1928 Tailteann Games
Contradictions were always present. De Valera’s Sinn Féin opposed the 1924 event, arguing it papered over partition. The GAA’s exclusion of popular sports like soccer reinforced a narrow cultural nationalism. As Cathal Brennan noted, the Games ‘highlighted many of the contradictions and divisions within Irish nationalism.’ Plans for 1936 were quietly dropped. Apart from the Rás Tailteann cycling race and the recently launched Tailteann Cup in Gaelic football, the festival faded from public memory.
Given its historical scale, one might have expected a significant centenary in 2024. Instead, the anniversary passed with little fanfare with few gestures other than a commemorative talk at the National Museum, a commemorative jersey, and a mile race at Croke Park.
The Tailteann Games don't easily fit Ireland’s dominant commemorative frame. They were celebratory rather than revolutionary, state-led rather than insurrectionary and culturally exclusive. Their marginalisation reflects deeper patterns in Irish public memory. Cultural aspiration often yields to political struggle. Events of joy are more easily forgotten than those of sacrifice.
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From RTÉ Archives, Dermot Mullane reports for RTÉ News on how the 50th anniversary of the Tailteann Games was marked in 1974
Why putting the Games on in Kells matters
This week, the Games return, not by state decree, but through local action. The ruins of Kells Priory will host a one-day festival of 'feats of strength, speed and endurance,’ traditional music, storytelling, and shared feasting. The setting, a 12th-century monastery nestled in Kilkenny, is atmospheric, evocative and symbolically rich. Organisers emphasise hands-on participation. Expect ‘wild hurling’ (a chaotic, pre-codified version of the game), stick-fighting (bataireacht) and stone lifting mixed with feasting and music.
Yet what’s being revived is not an unbroken tradition. The link between this festival and the ancient Aonach Tailteann is imaginative, not historical. Like the 1924 Games, this is a creative re-engagement with myth. As Eric Hobsbawm argued, most traditions are invented, assembled from selective histories to meet present needs. The 1924 and 2025 Games are different in scale and intent, but both seek meaning through myth.
When people gather at Kells this weekend, it won't be to recreate an ancient ritual or replay 1924’s grandeur, but to co-create something new out of old stories
The Free State wanted global recognition and nationalist consolidation, while the Kells revival seeks connection to place, community and shared story. Whether this is heritage, history, or performance depends on your perspective. But it’s in these blurry spaces that tradition lives, not as fact, but as felt experience. The story of the Tailteann Games reveals how Irish identity is made, remade and sometimes forgotten.
It shows how a mythic past can serve different purposes be it political spectacle in the 1920s or grassroots revival in the 2020s. It reminds us that public memory is selective. Cultural milestones often lose out to political ones in our commemorative hierarchy. But that doesn’t make them less meaningful. When people gather at Kells this weekend, it won’t be to recreate an ancient ritual or replay 1924’s grandeur. It will be to co-create something out of old stories. That is what makes tradition authentic: not its age, but its ability to speak to the present.
The Tailteann Games take place at Kells Priory, Co Kilkenny on September 20th
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Dr Conor Heffernan is Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Ulster University. He is a former Research Ireland awardee.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
