Paul Denis
McWeeney
Male
Ireland
1909-06-29
Dublin, Ireland
1983-03-26
Enniskerry, County Wicklow, Ireland
From The Dictionary of Irish Biography
By Jim Shanahan
Paul Denis McWeeney (1909–83), sportsman and sports journalist, was born 26 September 1909 in Dublin, youngest child among five sons and two daughters of Edmund Joseph McWeeney (qv) of Dublin, professor of pathology and bacteriology/microbiology at the Royal University of Ireland, and Emilie McWeeney (née Brazil) originally of Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire/Dun Leary), Co. Dublin. He was educated at Mount Saint Benedict School in Gorey, Co. Wexford, and Catholic University School, Leeson Street, Dublin.
As he was the youngest in a large and active family, it is no surprise that Paul became involved in a wide variety of sports from a young age; Mitchel Cogley (d. 1991), later sports editor of the Irish Independent, and a neighbour of the family, remembers the McWeeneys playing “a particularly rough form of hockey” on the grass behind Newman House on St Stephen’s Green (Irish Independent, 14 November 1958). The family’s interest in sport was such that an Irish table-tennis association was formed in their house in the 1920s and Paul McWeeney was the first national table tennis champion at the age of fourteen, holding the title for six years.
In a busy and eclectic sporting career McWeeney played rugby at club level and hockey for Monkstown and Three Rock Rovers, as well as interprovincial hockey for Leinster. He also played tennis for the Fitzwilliam club and for Leinster. He was a particularly gifted squash racquets player, being credited as one of the pioneers of the game in Dublin; he won the national title in 1941 and 1942, and was runner-up in 1947. He won nine caps for Ireland at squash in the period 1937-50, and played on the first Irish international side against Scotland in 1937. McWeeney was also a single-figure handicap golfer, and a member of the Grange and Royal Dublin golf clubs.
Despite his own impressive sporting achievements, it is as one of Ireland’s finest sports journalists that he is primarily remembered, particularly for his rugby and golf writing. McWeeney also had a keen interest in and reported widely on tennis, boxing, hockey, and squash. He began his journalistic career in 1929, when he did some freelance sub-editing and reporting for the Irish Independent. He moved as a sports reporter to the Irish Times in January 1931, and in 1943 he became sports editor of the paper, a position he held for over three decades.
Despite his position as sports editor he spent most of his time out of the office and “in the field”, travelling to Europe, Asia, and the US covering major sporting events. He also covered two Olympic games: Rome (1960) and Mexico City (1968). Shortly before his retirement in 1974 he was presented with the medal of the Association Internationale de la Presse for his distinguished contributions to sports journalism. He never really retired from journalism, continuing to contribute to the Irish Times, and was Dublin correspondent for both the London Times and the Guardian. In his later years he was rugby correspondent of the Sunday World.
McWeeney was considered by his colleagues to be a thoroughly professional journalist with a deep knowledge and appreciation of sport and sportspeople. His articles were always carefully put together and were composed in longhand in a sparse, elegant prose, with what his colleague Seamus Kelly (1912–79) described as “something approaching lyricism” (Irish Times, 28 March 1983). As sports editor of the Irish Times he skilfully defended his department from potential budget cutbacks by always suggesting cuts in the coverage of sports in which he knew influential members of the paper's board had a particular interest, and he insisted on adequate coverage of minority sports.
He was also not afraid to spend the paper’s money: early on in his career at the Irish Times he persuaded the then editor Robert M. Smyllie (qv) to send him to Switzerland to cover the final of the Davis Cup tennis competition, and ran up such an expenses bill that he was not sent abroad again until 1950. Despite, or perhaps because of this, he always maintained that he needed generous expenses if he was to represent the paper properly at sports events at home or abroad.
Urbane and dapper in appearance, he was a lover of good food and drink and was a great conversationalist with a fine sense of humour. He had a broad range of interests outside sport, particularly in classical music, and was an accomplished and skilful card player. He married (1944) Eithne Maddock; they had two daughters and one son. After a long illness he died 26 March 1983 at his home at Enniskerry, County Wicklow, and is buried in nearby Kilmacanogue cemetery.
1927 - 1945
0
18
9
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
John Neville W. (Neville) Robb
8-6
3-6
6-3
Round 2
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
George McVeagh
w.o.
Round 3
Benjamin Alan Haughton 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
4-6
7-5
10-8
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
bye
Round 2
K.R. Kerr 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-2
5-7
6-4
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
bye
Round 2
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
J.F. Byrne
6-1
6-3
Round 3
Joseph Dominik (Joe) Hackett 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
5-7
6-4
6-2
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
R.K. Buchanan
6-1
6-3
Round 2
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
K.R. Kerr
6-4
7-5
Round 3
Brian J. Murphy 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-2
6-2
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
G.A. Phelan
6-1
6-4
Round 2
Joe McHale 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-4
1-6
6-1
Round 2
C.H. Hose 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-1
6-3
Round 1
Dennis Coombe 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-4
6-2
Round 1
Paul Denis McWeeney 1 *
bye
Round 2
Brendan Robert Joseph Towers 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
7-5
6-1
7-5
Round 1
Victor Allman-Smith 1 *
Paul Denis McWeeney
6-2
6-0
6-3