Ireland did not compete as an independent delegation at the Olympic Games until 1924. Prior to that, Irish-born athletes competed for other nations such as the United Kingdom (of which Ireland was a part until 1922) or the USA or Canada. I have just written an article for the RTÉ Brainstorm website on five of the Irish-born athletes who competed for other countries. Read it here.
Given that she was the first Irish-born woman to win an Olympic medal, Beatrice Hill-Lowe (1868-1951) is one of the more unusual athletes that I wrote about. Born in Ardee in Co. Louth, she lived in England for a large part of her lifetime but she also spent time in Celbridge, Co. Kildare in the 1920s. If you would like to know more about her, you will find is a good bit of information in her entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography here. There is a short YouTube video here showing women taking shots with their bows and arrows at the 1908 Olympic Games in London and she is among them.
Kennedy 'Ken' McArthur is another interesting Irish-born athlete who competed for another country. He represented South Africa in the Marathon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. It was a grueling race that was run in extremely hot temperatures that caused around half of the competitors to drop out before the finish. This page on the Olympics website lists all of those who entered and those who did not finish the race. There is a short video of McArthur at the Olympic Games in Stockholm here.
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