Tipperary school celebrating 125th anniversary has a unique Olympic Games connection
Tipperary Museum of Hidden History
An exhibition charting the story of the CBS High School Clonmel is currently running at the Tipperary Museum of Hidden History in Clonmel.
This year the High School is marking the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the school.
The exhibition will remain open until June 7.
The High School community will forever be incredibly proud of the heroics of past pupil Daire Lynch who won an Olympic bronze medal in Paris in 2024.
When Daire stepped forward, with his rowing partner Philip Doyle, to collect his medal in Paris, he wrote another chapter on the amazing association between the High School and Olympic glory that started 120 years earlier.
Anthony Kiely, fondly recalls playing handball against the gable end of the Ritz cinema every day after school in his final High School year of 1958 with friends Brian O’Callaghan, Tommy Norris, and John Widger.
Just four ordinary boys playing a sport they loved and hanging out together after school.
One of them, Anthony Kiely (above), however, was the grandson of Tom Kiely, otherwise known as ‘The Champion Kiely’ who won an Olympic gold ‘All Around’ medal (in what is now the modern-day decathlon), in St Louis in 1904.
Another boy was Brian O’Callaghan, one of four sons of Dr Pat O’Callaghan who won a gold medal in both the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928 and the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932 in the shot putt.
“I don’t think the Brothers knew the connection to my grandfather. None of them ever mentioned it to me,” said Anthony Kiely who lived in Queen Street.
BROTHER BEEHAN
The double Olympic gold medallist Dr. Pat O’Callaghan was a regular visitor to the school during the fifties as he helped Brother Behan prepare teams to take part in events all over the country.
His four sons Terry, Pat, Brian, and Hugh played an active role in all sports during their school years.
In 1952/53 the High School was the best athletics team in Munster and in that same year two of the Doc’s sons Pat and Terry, were All-Ireland colleges shot putt champions.
Two other brothers, the late Brian and Hugh, went on to be All-Ireland champions in the shot putt in later years.
Hugh, who won an athletics scholarship at Villanova University, made his own piece of Olympic history in 1972 when he was the weightlifting coach for the Irish team.
In August 2024 that High School Olympic link was greatly enhanced by Clonmel rower Daire Lynch.
A month later the strong ties between the O’Callaghan family and the school were further strengthened.
A son of Dr Pat O’Callaghan, Terry O’Callaghan (above with Tipperary Museum Manager Marie McMahon), who worked as a medical consultant in America for most of his professional career, made an incredible gesture when he donated a €250,000 bursary to the High School to support young boys to study medicine.