Eamonn Fitzgerald

Eamonn Fitzgerald was educated locally in County Kerry at Bunaneer National School, and St. Enda’s School in Rathfarnham, Dublin, and obtained a degree in commerce from University College Dublin. He competed in the triple jump at the Olympic Games in 1932, finishing fourth with 49 feet 3 inches (15.01 metres). In the Irish Athletics Championships he won the triple jump in 1930 and 1932-34, and the high jump in 1933, tying with fellow Iveragh Peninsula athlete Con O’Connor.

Fitzgerald helped Kerry win the All-Ireland Gaelic football final against Monaghan in 1930 and Kildare in 1931. He started teaching at St. Enda’s School, Rathfarnham in 1928, where he was a student. St. Enda’s School was an Irish language secondary school established in 1908 by Irish nationalist Pádraig Pearse. Originally Pearse’s school was established in 1908 at Cullenswood House, Ranelagh, before moving to Rathfarnham in 1910. After Pádraig Pearse was executed for his part in the 1916 Easter Rising, and due to increasing financial worries, the school closed in 1935. Today the site is occupied by the Pearse Museum. In 1984 a plaque dedicated to Eamonn Fitzgerald was unveiled in Castlecove, County Kerry, and there is a stained-glass window in his memory in the local church.

Personal Best: TJ – 15.01 (1932).