Dun Laoghaire yachting historian Vincent Delany will be giving a presentation at Ulster University (Belfast Campus) to the British Society of Sport History on Friday, 22 August.
The topic will be: 'World Dinghy Championships - Ireland's Brilliant Victory.' He will recount how Captain James Warren Payne and his wife Aileen Wynnefredda Furney from Passage West in Co. Cork travelled to Belgium to compete in the first World Dinghy Championship in 1924 on the Antwerp canal, competing in International 12 Foot Dinghies against the best participants from England, France, the Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium.
Captain James Warren Payne and his wife Aileen Wynnefredda Furney from Passage West in Co. Cork
Delany will show that this was the Irish Free State's first international sporting victory, and that it paved the way for dinghy sailing to gain prominence in newspapers, leading to subsequent Irish yachting successes abroad, and culminating in his return to Cork as a local hero.
