Ronnie Delany: Irish Olympian grateful for ‘God-given talent’

Ronnie Delany of Ireland winning the 1500 metres in the Melbourne Olympics 1956

Since I was 13 Ronnie Delany has been a hero of mine. I posted about him in July 2012 under the heading Olympic Gold medallist: 'I had to say "thank you" to God for the gift I was given'. The Irish Catholic carries a story by Mags Gargan an dated 24 October 2013 under a very similar headline: Irish Olympian grateful for ‘God-given talent’

There you'll find what is an iconic photo for those of us who are Irish and remember Delany's win in Melbourne on 1 December 1956: his kneeling immediately afterwards to thank God. Some on the spot thought he had collapsed. He hadn't. In my previous post I quoted what he said in a radio interview some years ago in Ireland: I had to say 'thank you' to God for the gift I was given'. That's where the headline in The Irish Catholic comes from.

Down the years Ronnie Delany has spoken of the gift that God gave him and of his gratitude to God for it. To recognise a special gift from God and to develop and use that gift is real humility. Mags Gargan is reporting on a talk that he gave recently at a conference on Ethics and Sport organised by the Department of Religions and Theology in Trinity College Dublin.

Here is part of the article:

"I have a great sense of faith. I didn’t pray so much to win, I did say ‘God give me the ability to run to the best of my ability’. I knew if He gave me that gift I would win, so it was a bit of a cheeky way to go about it,” he said.

“No apology. I prayed before 120,000 people, before the world, because I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for the gift. Thank you too for the ability to explore my talent because if I hadn’t that, if I hadn’t taken key decisions in my life, if I hadn’t listened to my coach, if I hadn’t done the work he asked me to do, history would not have been written in terms of my participation in the Olympics.”

The 78-year-old veteran also talked about the importance of respect in sport, saying it was one of the great lessons he learned. “Respect for the colours you wear, respect for your club, you county, your country, your province. Respect is an enormous attribute for the younger athlete I think. Now arrogance prevents that respect coming through.

“Often times they don’t have respect, they disrespect, their values are different,” he said.

Ronnie Delany speaks of another aspect of humility: listening to others who can help us develop whatever talents God has given us and doing what is necessary to develop them. His coach in Villanova University, Philadelphia, run by the Augustinians, where he had an athletic scholarship, was 'Jumbo' Elliott. Elliott never won an Olympic medal but without him Delany would never have won one either.

Delany also spoke eloquently about respect. At the end of the video above, where veteran Irish sports commentator Jimmy Magee looks back on what was a moment of glory for everyone in Ireland, we see genuine respect: the winner thanking God for his victory and then John Landy of Australia who came third and other runners warmly congratulating him.

Ronnie Delany showed that respect in an interview with Kerry O'Brien in Sydney on the occasion of the 2000 Olympics there when he spoke so warmly about John Landy as a friend and rival:

KERRY O'BRIEN: Racing against a local hero?

RON DELANEY: Yes, hero and friend, because John, I'd raced him in America the previous summer, I'd raced him in Compton, raced him in Fresno, and he beat me handsomely both times, so I had a certain fear in my heart.

The rumour was that he was slightly injured and he's an enormous gentleman, enormous sportsman, so he was my friend as well as my adversary on that day.

And I had the good fortune to beat him.

John, of course, got third and I think he hates being reminded of that because he's done so many other marvellous things.

He was probably the greatest miler in the world at that time.

John Landy showed his sportsmanship and respect for rivals in an extraordinary way in 1956. From Wikipedia: Landy is remembered for his performance in the 1500 metres final at the 1956 Australian National Championships prior to the Melbourne Olympic Games [photo above]. In the race, Landy stopped and doubled back to check on fellow runner Ron Clarke after another runner clipped Clarke's heel, causing him to fall early in the third lap of the race. Clarke, the then-junior 1500 metre world champion, who had been leading the race, got back to his feet and started running again; Landy followed. Incredibly, in the final two laps Landy made up a large deficit to win the race, something considered one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history. Said the National Centre for History and Education in Australia, "It was a spontaneous gesture of sportsmanship and it has never been forgotten." A bronze sculpture of the moment when Landy helps Clarke to his feet is situated on the north west corner of Punt Road and Swan Street, Melbourne.

In August Pope Francis met the members of the Argentinian and Italian national football teams before they played against each other. He called on players to “live your sport as a gift from God, an opportunity not only to improve your talents, but also a responsibility”. And he returned to the idea that athletes should act as role models, encouraging them to set an example of loyalty, respect, and selflessness. “I have confidence,” he said, “in all the good you can do, especially among young people.”

Maybe Pope Francis had read or listened to interviews with Ronnie Delany! I don't think that the Irishman ever set out deliberately to be a role model. But by the way he lives his faith and with his deep sense of gratitude to God he is one even to young Irish people born long after he won his Olympic gold medal.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Delany in November 2011 at the annual dinner of the O'Connell Schools' Past Pupils Union. He is a man who still lives joyfully and still with that great sense of gratitude to God.

Stamp issued in Ireland on the 50th anniversary of Delany's win

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'He fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks.' Sunday Reflections, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C

Peasant Girls with Brushwood, c.1852, Jean-François Millet [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                  

Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 17:11-19 (Revised StandardVersion – Catholic Edition) 

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well."

[Responsorial Psalm, New American Bible Lectionary]

Bear with me if I've told this story before but the incident in question had a profound impact on me. It happened on the morning of Holy Thursday 1990 at Holy Family Retreat House, Cebu City, which is run by the Redemptorists. I had gone up there after breakfast to do some business and as I was going in was approached by a woman asking for some help. I made some excuse as I entered.

When I was inside I could see the woman through the glass doors sitting on the step, her daughter, aged 13 or 14, beside here and resting her head on her mother's shoulder. I could see that, like the two peasant girls in Millet's painting, they were heavily burdened - but with tiredness and hunger.

My business didn't detain me and when I was going out the two stood up. I gave the mother enough to buy breakfast. The daughter looked at me with the most beautiful smile I've ever seen and said, 'Salamat sa Ginoo - Thanks to the Lord!'

What struck me profoundly was that this young girl wasn't thanking me. She was thanking the Lord, and inviting me to do the same, because he had responded to her prayer and that of her mother, Give us this day our daily bread.

Elisha Refusing the Gifts of Naaman, Pieter de Grebber [Wikipedia]

In the First Reading, which is always related to the Gospel, Elisha reacts very strongly to Naaman's gratitude after he was cured of leprosy: Then he (Naaman) returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant." But he said, "As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will receive none." And he urged him to take it, but he refused (2 Kings 5: 15-16, RSVCE). 

Naaman was grateful to God for his cure but wanted to reward Elisha. In de Grebber's painting we see Elisha turning away from Naaman almost in horror. Perhaps he overreacted but he had a profound sense of the fact that it wasn't he who had healed the Syrian general but God whose servant and instrument he was. Elisha wanted only God to be praised and thanked.

And indeed it was a young girl, probably around the same age as the one I met in Cebu City, who had directed Naaman to the Lord through his servant Elisha. In verses preceding those read today we read: Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel" (2 Kings 5:1-5 RSVCE).

The young girl in Cebu expressed her gratitude for what I had given her mother by praising God directly and by inviting me to join her in her prayer of praise and thanksgiving. In doing so she gave me a far greater gift than any that Naaman could have offered Elisha, a profound awareness that everything we have is a gift from God.

I had never met the girl and her mother before nor have I seen them since. The girl would now be around 36 or 37. Please say a prayer for her and her mother and for their family.

Death: a time for gratitude

Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, with the round tower over the grave of Daniel O'Connell



There is a beautiful letter in today's Irish Independent expressing the writer's gratitude to those who had helped his mother in her latter days. He mentions, among others, bus drivers. I have seen many acts of kindness by drivers and passengers over the years on buses here in Dublin and similar acts of kindness in all sorts of ordinary situations. 'Whoever has eyes to see . . .'

I buried my mother in Dublin last week. Her quality of life became poor over her last two years as she battled against the effects of earlier smoking on her eyesight, heart and lungs.

But the people of Dublin were there to help. Bus drivers left their buses and walked her across to her little apartment; some even helped her up the steps and into her little 'home'.

Three complete strangers, her "three angels", did her shopping, washing and ironing and took her to get her silver hair done every week.

Staff in her local pharmacy in Rathfarnham village let her rest in the shop and often took her across to the bus stop or arranged a lift home.

We had a lovely last day. She went to sleep happy that night and did not wake up.

Thank you so much to the many random strangers who did so much for my mother at her time of need.

Frank Devine
Kenilworth, England

Dublin buses