Irish Universities Athletics Champions 1873-2020 Updated March 2020
Irish Universities Athletics Champions 1873-2020 Updated March 2020 University athletics have played important roles in the foundation and evolution of track and field in Ireland. The first athletics meeting took place in College Park on Saturday 28 February, 1857, under the auspices of Trinity College Dublin Football (rugby) Club, termed ‘The Dublin University Football Club Foot Races’. This athletics meeting was only preceded by meetings organised by The Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, London in 1842 and at Exeter College, Oxford in 1850. What became known as "The College Races" continued through until 1986, except on eight occasions – 1878 and 1879 when the Board of the College refused permission because of a drunken riot by students in 1877, WWI (1915-1919) and 1921 because a female student spectator had been shot dead by an I.R.A. sniper from Nassau Street during a cricket match. The first All-Ireland Track and Field Championships were held in College Park under the auspices of Irish Champion Athletic Club on 7 July, 1873, with some 8,000 spectators watching 91 entries in the 13 events. Henry Wallace Doveton Dunlop, a Trinity graduate, was the founder of the I.C.A.C. His lasting achievement was the building of Lansdowne Road Rugby Ground, the oldest international rugby ground in the world, as a multi-sport complex for athletics, cricket, rugby, tennis, archery and bowls. College Park and Lansdowne Road would continue to be prime venues for international athletics matches and meetings and Irish championships for over a century. The Queen’s University of Ireland was established formally by Royal Charter on 3 September 1850 as the degree-awarding body for the Queen’s Colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway, which had been established in 1845.
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