Fifty years ago this month Dick Hodgins was the last Cork man to win the Irish Marathon Championship

Although five Cork women – Kathleen Looney (1987), Brid Murphy (1992, 1993 and 1996), Valerie Vaughan (2004), Lizzie Lee (2018) and Aoife Cooke (2019) – have won the Irish marathon championship, it’s hard to believe that no male athlete from the county has won this coveted title for half a century.

The nearest to claiming gold in recent years has been Ryan Creech of Leevale who has finished runner-up in both 2023 and 2024. 

But it was another from that famous Cork club, Dick Hodgins, who was the last to claim victory exactly 50 years ago, in May of 1975.

For Hodgins, who sadly ed away in March 2016, it was the culmination of a long career which saw him excel and win national titles at all distances from 1500m to the marathon.

When his competitive days were over, he would also make a major contribution to the sport at local level. 

He served the Leevale club with distinction both in a coaching capacity and treasurer along with acting as Chairman of the Cork City Sports for almost two decades and Meet Director up to the time of his death.

On that warm Sunday of May 18, 1975, a small but elite group of 47 of the country’s best marathon men assembled on Galway’s Wood Quay for the out and back challenge that would decide the destination of that year’s championship.

The line-up featured the defending champion Danny McDaid — who had taken gold ahead of Hodgins a year before — along with three-time champion Mick Molloy and two more former winners in Fr Paddy Coyle and Jim McNamara.

For Galway fans, Oughterard man Molloy was the local favourite. There was no doubting the 1968 Olympian’s pedigree as six months before he had set a world best of 2:44:47 for 30 miles on the track at Walton in England.

McNamara and Coyle, along with Joe Scanlon, were the early pacemakers closely followed by McDaid and Hodgins. Coming up to eight miles, McNamara started to open a gap and at the turn, reached in 68:10, he was 24 seconds clear. 

He would hold on to his advantage until near the 20 mile mark when Hodgins began to make his presence felt and took the lead.

He was ed by Scanlon shortly after, but the warm conditions were now taking their toll and the Galway man soon threw in the towel. 

Molloy had now started his run for home and was gaining ground on the leader but Hodgins held on for victory in a personal best of 2:19:46 with the gallant Molloy taking runner-up spot in 2:20:29. 

McNamara — who would qualify for the Montréal Olympic marathon 12 months later — had to settle for third in 2:21:45.

Dick Hodgins’ early success came at the middle distances where he was a regular competitor in the popular open sports at everything from 440 yards handicaps up to the three miles, as he recalled in an interview in 2012.

“Originally, I was a miler, but I used to still do a good bit of distance work in the winter. In 1966, I won the 1500m National Championship at the Cork City Sports and then the one mile at the Irish championships.” 

The year of 1968 brought another championship, this time over 10 miles on the old track at Santry where his time of 48:49.8 for the 40 laps was the second fastest ever by an Irishman.

But all those years of dedication finally came to fruition with that memorable victory on the hot roads of Galway where the win was made all the more sweeter as his Leevale club took the team award.

With all three scoring runners finishing in the top six, Hodgins was backed up by Mike Murphy, Cork-born but then living in Manchester, who was fifth in 2:24:33 and one place further back came Jerry Murphy from Douglas who sealed the win with a personal best time of 2:24:46.