Athletics NI mourns the loss of Maeve Kyle

The use of the term 'Legend' has become overused in the World of sport but in referring to Maeve in such terms is to grossly underestimate her career as an athlete and her contribution to athletics, and especially women's athletics, both in Northern Ireland and throughout the Island of Ireland. There are few like Maeve who can boast that their Nation produced a stamp bearing their image. 

Born in Kilkenny and educated at Alexandra College in Dublin, Maeve excelled in sport from an early age. Her father was headmaster of the College in Kilkenny and Maeve was regularly found involved in all the sporting events with the boys, including it seems as a talented prop forward until her father put a stop to it.  Hockey was her first love and throughout her career is this sport she amassed 58 Irish Caps. But it was as an athlete that she was to become Nationally and World famous.  Much of this was down to a chance meeting through a hockey match with her soon to be husband Sean, universally recognised as one of the world's leading coaches. Under Sean's guidance Maeve created history by becoming, in 1956, the first female Irish Olympian. She would go on to two further Olympics as well as winning, at the age of 32, the British 440 yards title and five years later taking Bronze in the European indoors. She further defied her age by making the Commonwealth Games final  at the age of 41. Her times of 56.40 outdoors and 54.60 indoors stood as Irish Records for 17 and 21 years respectively. Along the way she picked up no less than 33 Northern Ireland titles, all the more remarkable in that her first was achieved at the age of 26!

If Maeve was determined and successful as an athlete she was equally, if not more so, as an Administrator. It is hard for the present generation to appreciate the environment that female athletes competed in in the latter part of the 20th Century. It was only in the 1950's that the NI Women's Association was formed and Championships began to be held and it was the Kyle's who were primarily responsible for its formation and development. Maeve was often referred to as the 'Kilkenny Kitten' a sobriquet which was only half appropriate. Maeve was no 'kitten' and there were few in the sport who did not experience the sharp tongue of Mrs Kyle. But it was through her effervescent enthusiasm, innovation and doggedness that women's athletics developed. Competitions like the Top Ten, Top Town, indoor Track and Field in gyms and sports halls and of course the Celtic International were all down to her. 

In more recent years Maeve's health deteriorated but she packed more into her 96 years than most.  Hockey great, athletics pioneer, wife, mother, coach, statistician, politician the list was endless. Those who were fortunate enough to visit her home, appropriately called 'Tir na Nog', where she lovingly  tended her beautiful garden in the company of her beloved dogs  will know her as a consummate hostess. The death of Maeve Esther Enid Kyle OBE will be mourned throughout Ireland and the wider athletic world.