Ireland at the Olympics

A team representing Republic of Ireland as an independent state or polity has competed at the Summer Olympic Games since 1924, and at the Winter Olympic Games since 1992. The Olympic Federation of Ireland (OFI) was formed in 1922

Art competitions were held from 1912 to 1948. Irish entries first appeared in 1924, when they won two medals; a third was won in the 1948 competition. Medal Name Games Event Piece SOG (1924) Mixed Painting Natation) SOG (1924) Mixed Literature Ode pour les Jeux de Tailteann (Tailteann Ode, which had won the prize for poetry at the revived Tailteann Games earlier that year) Gogarty was awarded a bronze medal despite two silver medals being awarded in the category. SOG (1948) Paintings Meath Hunt Point to Point Races (a painting in 2012 "believed to be somewhere in the United States")

The OFI sees itself as representing the island rather than the state, and hence uses the name "Ireland".) At the time, Lord Killanin had become OCI President and delegate to the IOC, and was trying to reverse the IOC's policy of referring to the OCI's team by using an appellation of the state rather than the island. While the name "Ireland" had been unproblematic at the 1924 and 1928 Games, after 1930, the IOC sometimes used "Irish Free State". IOC President Henri de Baillet Latour supported the principle of delimitation by political borders. An OCI request to change this to "Ireland" was rejected in 1952, In late 1955 Brundage ruled that "Ireland" would be the official IOC name, and Lewis Luxton of the Organising Committee for the 1956 Melbourne Games said that "Ireland" would be used on scoreboards and programmes. The OCI had argued that this was the name in the state's own Constitution, and that all the OCI's affiliated sports except the Football Association of Ireland were all island bodies. On the first day of athletics, "Ireland" (code "IRE") was used, but from the second day it changed to "Eire"/"EIR".