Unveiling of Memorial to 1952 Olympian Joe West


Cork County Mayor, Alan Coleman, Peg West and Finbarr O'Brien	Joe West's wife Peg, along with daughters Susan and Paula. the Tailteann shield, along with joe's Rising Sun vest and other memorabilia are on the table.

Photos from the unveiling ceremony

A large attendance was present at today's unveiling of the Joe West memorial, on the Carrigaline By-Pass road, adjacent to the community park. The memorial is an iniative of Carrigaline Tidy Towns committee, who were represented today by Vice-Chairman, Maura Allen and sponsor Barry Collins of Supervalue. Local artist, Peadar Drinan was commissioned to design and craft the memorial.

Finbarr O'Brien, President of Leevale AC, addressed the gathering and outlined Joe's illustrous career. Joe's interest in athletics was inspired by the sight, on Pathe News, of Son and Cabrera winning the 1936 and 1948 Olympic Marathons. However he was also an accomplished hurler, winning a Junior All-Ireland medal in 1947 and also played on the 1948 Senior team that were beaten, in the munster final, by Waterford, who would go on to win the All-Ireland that year.

Finbarr paid tribute to Joe's accomplishment in achieving Olympic status, citing it a "the world sporting 'Band of Honour".

Joe West was born inon Dec 6th 1921 and was reared on the Ballea Road in Carrigaline. A member of the Owneabui Athletic club, Joe, won nearly every race from the half-mile to the marathon, during his initial involvement in the sport in the 'forties. In 1943, he won both the Cork Harrier Championship and the Cork senior Cross-Country Championship, which he retained in 1945, and won again in 1947. He was runner-up on two occassions, and he led his club to team success in 1945 and 1951.

In 1949, he emigrated to Coventry, where he remained until his return to Carrigaline in 1953. While in Coventry he competed with the renowned Coventry Godiva Harriers, and was a successful road runner. He achieved considerable success, medalling both with his club Coventry Godiva, and county,Warwickshire. Another notable Cork connection was his coach at Coventry Godiva, Bill Murphy, from Blackrock. Joe West is listed in Coventry Godiva's Hall of Fame, along with such notables as David Moorecroft and Basil Heatley.

In 1952, Joe was invited, by Billy Morton, to take part in the AAAU marathon, which was designated as the Olympic Trial. Joe didn't hesitate, even though he'd never run further than 15 miles. Despite the presence of favourite John Henning, he won the title, and came in under the 2:40 qualifying standard.

On his return to England he took part in the Polytechnic marathon, run on the Windsor to Chiswick course. He enjoyed his run, and beat John Henning once again, finishing eleventh overall in 2:32. The winner was Jim Peters, in 2:20, with Stan Cox in 2:21.

In Helsinki, Joe was a member of the two man Irish athletics squad, however on arrival in Helsinki, late in the evening, Joe found that the other Irish competitor and the team manager had already returned home to Ireland, leaving Joe with no support and no accomodation. However the Dutch team provided Joe with his accomodation. In the marathon itself, Joe accompanied Emil Zatopek, the eventual winner, for the first half of the race. He gallantly completed the distance in a time of 2:56:22, finishing in 49th place, in a race famously won by Emil Zatopek, who had already taken the gold medals in both the 5000m and 10,000m on the track, and derived great satisfaction in realizing his dream of Olympic competition. Video footage of Joe's Olympic Marathon is available in Carrigaline Public Library.

And so, on a July evening almost 60 years ago, the large attendance at the Mardyke were able to witness one of their own, an Olympian marathoner, come into the Gaelic Grounds as winner of the eight-mile road race. West’s time was 45 minutes and 44 seconds and in second place was Ted Geary from Ballymore with P Reid from Dowdallshill in third.

That Cork City Sports meeting was described as "easily the most successful sports fixture seen in Munster for many a year"

Read Cork City Sport's 2012 programme article on that race

Following his return from England, Joe competed with Rising Sun AC, winning the National 15 Mile title, in Killarney in 1954, retaining it in New Ross in 1955, however, having moved to Hilltown AC in 1956, he was unsuccessful iun his bid to retain it for the third successive time in Arklow.

Before the Killarney race he was approached by one of the Kerry athletes who asked that if Joe was leading coming into the town of Killarney that he would allow the ' local' man to go through the town first. As it so happened, both had shakken off the rest of the field early on and Joe granted the request! However, on entering FitzGerald Stadium for the fiinish, Joe accelerated away from his Kerry 'friend’ and won the gold medal and the quite magnificent bronze 'Tallteann’ shield.
Tailteann Shield

He won the 'marathon' at the City Sports the following year and here again there is another story; the finish was on the track at the 'Dyke, and the athletes, coming from the start at Tivoli, had to run up the Mardyke Walk. Joe passed the entrance, believing it to be further up the 'dyke; he was stopped by a Policeman, Donal O'Neill, who told him of his error and, despite the detour, Joe still went onto victory.

Carrigaline AC now award the Joe West Perpetual Trophy to the winner of their annual 25k Railway Run.