Peter McDermott’s excellent series continues: If I were to call Frances Mansfield “a grand ould dame” she might give me a clip on the ear and call me an impudent pup . ( No better woman ). But if I were to term her La Grande Dame Irrépressible de Clonliffe Harriers I’m sure she’d realise that I was paying her the homage that is her due. Known to just about everybody in Irish athletics , Frances seems to have been a permanent fixture on the Irish Track and Field scene for the last six (or is it seven ?) decades. And she is still going strong .She appears at every .Dublin Graded Meet and every National League fixture with a great big grin on her face, a friendly greeting for everyone she meets and an encouraging word for her opponents, many of whom weren’t even the proverbial twinkle in their granddaddies’ ’eyes when Frances started in the sport she grew to love. She has been a member of Clonliffe Harriers since 1963-indeed she was a founder member of the Ladies’ Section.. She has been active athlete ( still is ), Club Treasurer, Ladies’ Captain, editor of the Club’s Newsletter and founder of the Club website.
She is one of the true pioneers of women’s sport in Ireland. Born in the North Strand in 1943 at about the same time as Hitler got the bright idea to bomb the place Frances, like most of her generation , was made of hardy stuff and it would take more than a few “ bleedin’ German bombs” to keep this young lady down.
Back in early 1963 , when Frances was only 19, she had a great desire to be a runner . But that was easier said than done in the Ireland of sixty years ago. The very idea of girls running around in skimpy shorts was anathema to the po-faced ruling classes and especially to one John Charles McQuaid , Arch Bishop of Dublin , the man to whom even Presidents and Taoisigh bent the knee . Back then ,young men were encouraged to practise “ Custos Oculorum” ( custody of the eyes ) when meeting comely maidens. But it might be beyond the scope of the poor lads’ willpower to keep their eyes in custody if confronted by a posse of young wans charging down the street in running shorts. Anyway , there were no running clubs for women, so : be a good girl and take up something more refined and lady like , such as tennis – or crochet .
But then she happened to see an ad. in The Evening Press. “Clonliffe Harriers starting Ladies’ Section”. It was being started by one Billy Morton , a man who seemed to take delight in doing things he was told he couldn’t or shouldn’t do. So , Frances hopped up on her bike and headed for Santry. There she met a small group of men and an equally small group of girls , young women who were to become her Sisters in Arms. They learned that the concept of a ladies’ section was first mooted in 1961 at the celebrations for the 75th. Anniversary of the founding of the Club. ( Yes, digest that for a moment : Clonliffe was all male for 75 years ) They decided that in order to put things on a proper footing, they would have a more formal meeting in the comfortable setting of Moran’s Hotel in Talbot Street . And so , on the 5th. of November 1963 they gathered there ( some say in an upper room but let’s not overly dramatise ) and, much to the delight of the aspiring young athletes, it was proposed by Billy Morton, seconded by one Laurence ( Laro ) Byrne and carried unanimously , that Clonliffe Harriers would ,with immediate effect , include a Ladies ‘ Section. ( I’m sure there may be some raised eyebrows now at the fact that it wasn’t called a Women’s Section but, in those more genteel days, it was assumed that all women were ladies –or should be. )
That historic meeting was addressed by Maeve Kyle who had competed in the 1956 and 1960 Olympic Games. Maeve knew all about overcoming discrimination and prejudice. When she competed in those Games , leaving her two young children in the care of her husband Seán , she caused consternation among the mind police and the guardians of respectability who fulminated at her appalling behaviour. The newspapers were flooded with letters describing her as a disgrace and urging her to get back home and look after her husband and children. Maeve just ignored them all and competed with distinction in both Melbourne and Rome. (She had ran the 100 and 200 in those two Olympics – there were no longer events for women as it was thought women would not be able to run any farther- while she competed in the 400 and 800 in Tokyo, reaching the semi-finals in both events ) . Maeve was an inspiration to those young aspiring athletes in Clonliffe as, indeed , she would go on to be for many future generations of young Irishwomen.
And so, the Clonliffe “ Ladies Section” was born. Soon to be dubbed “ Morton’s Marvels” by the newspapers , they continued to encounter obstacles. First came the most basic logistical ones. Their “dressing room” was a shed under the terrace which was used by Blanchardstown F.C. Hardly necessary to say there were no showers or toilets. They boiled kettles of water over the furnace which was located in the Nissen Hut ( the men’s clubhouse ) and wiped off the perspiration with this after their training .There might not have been too much sweat to deal with of course considering the fact that the longest training run in those early days was just one mile . ( And, of course, we must also remember that women in that era did not sweat; in fact they didn’t even perspire : in the delicate , genteel language of the time , they simply “glowed”). Their warm up often consisted of a game of rugby in the Nissen Hut against the lads (Tag rugby I presume ? Oh no – the full blooded, contact type. What ? Ladies section , did I hear you say ? Tut. Tut . Conduct unbecoming and all that…. ) They were introduced to nearly all the events and encouraged to try all of them ( still best practice ) by long serving Captain, Harry Cooney, and Jack Deegan who coached them in shot, discus and javelin ( the latter was made of wood ) . They did some weight training , their weights consisting of hurdle stabilisers. Frances remembers Brendan O’Reilly, the Irish High Jump champion, giving them some tips on that event . Frances also recalls those early training sessions as great fun with huge camaraderie being formed among those pioneering women. And she remembers vividly that sombre Friday in November of 1963 , less than three weeks after the formal foundation of the Ladies ‘ Section, when Harry Cooney cancelled training and asked them all to go home . The dreadful news from Dallas was just filtering through and the Clonliffe members, who had stood at the gate of the Club in June of that year as a guard of honour when President John F. Kennedy visited the land of his ancestors and his motorcade swept down the Swords Road from the Airport , now went home silently as a mark of respect for the assassinated President.
Their first race was a distance of 600 yards straight down Santry Avenue . It was won by Claire Dowling ( later Claire Walsh , who would go on to become one of Ireland’s greatest female athletes) for which she received two silver candlesticks. Anne Killeen was second and became the proud owner of an electric table lamp. Amazingly , this seemingly insignificant event caught the attention of the media which obviously considered it ground breaking and historic :“Morton’s Marvels” screamed the headlines before going on to say that “these young ladies are not content to stay at home knitting. Instead they are determined to walk , bike or bus it to Santry in order to train for Long Jump , Shot and Track Running under the supervision of Clonliffe captain , Harry Cooney.” Incidentally , Anne Killeen’s sister , Deirdre , was a member of the first cohort of bean gardaí to enter duty on December 7th. 1959 and was assigned to Pearse St. Garda Station . ( Incidentally, if you wish to know how a female member of the Force will react if you call her a Bangharda nowadays , just ask Pat Shortt…… ) It wasn’t long however until these young female athletes were introduced to the pleasures of cross country running , with runs or games of Hare and Hounds providing an element of fun into this toughest of sports. This is basically a paper chase game where one player, “ the hare”, leaves a trail of paper for the “hounds” to follow. This ,of course , is where the name “ harriers” comes from : a breed of hounds specifically bred for hunting hares. ( This is why so many running clubs have the word“harriers “ or “ beagles “in their names . This is especially true in the UK : Seb Coe’s Hallamshire Hariers, Bedford Beagles , Brentwood Beagles, Newham and Essex Beagles , etc.,etc. ) The training runs, however, must also have become longer than one mile. The distance had to have been increased fairly quickly as one of their members , Anne O’Brien, went on to become the first Irish woman to break 5 minutes for the mile. She also set a World Record of 62 minutes and 7 seconds for 10 miles in 1968. ( And this ,remember , was the time when the longest track event for women on the Olympic programme was still only 800m. ) Frances , although realising that her talents lay more in the field events, nevertheless was a member of the Clonliffe Ladies ‘ group who, in 1967, ran with Noel Henry all the way from Dublin to Lanesboro ( Co.Longford ) , a distance of 84 miles , to raise funds for the still fledgling Women’s section. She still fondly remembers the marvellous reception they got when they arrived in Lanesboro with crowds lining the street, holding aloft flaming sods of turf on pitchforks. She also recalls herself and other members of the women’s section engaging in pub crawls across the city , all the way from Drumcondra to Harold’s Cross Stadium to raise money to save Santry Stadium when it was deeply in debt. She also organised jumble sales for the same purpose . Indeed , she and her fellow female members were so good at raising funds that some people were unkind enough to suggest that this was the only reason Billy Morton wanted to have women in the Club. It was certainly a fraught time in Clonliffe . Frances can now look back and laugh at some of the dramatic events that occurred back then but which ,at the time, were no laughing matter . She recounts the incident when the City Sheriff called to the home of Harry Cooney, one of the Club’s trustees, in order to re-possess his house as Clonliffe had defaulted on its debt. Harry saw the officials coming , bolted out his back door , sprinted down the back garden , vaulted the fence at the bottom and made his escape along a back alley. As the papers were not served , Harry got a stay of execution and eventually the debt was paid and the long serving Captain held on to his house .
The young women who founded the “ Ladies Section” were nothing if not ambitious and adventurous. They began to seek out opportunities for competition- the life blood of the sport . And ,unsurprisingly, they had to look further afield than the Ireland of the day to find other clubs with women’s sections who would compete against them . Frances remembers competing against Ballyclare from Northern Ireland and Glaslough from the Ulster Sports council. They also took on Bury and Radcliffe from England. Some of these competitions were track and field , others were cross country . In many cases they would wash the mud off their legs in a stream after the race . Hardy women for sure !
When competing in England they would take the mail boat over the night before and , despite the lack of sleep, would compete the next day against their British counterparts. When other Women’s clubs- or rather Women’s sections of previously all male clubs- began to be formed in Ireland , Frances has very happy memories of travelling down the country to a “Sports” (they weren’t called “Meets” in those times ) . The Sports might be held in a farmer’s field ,352 yards long ( five laps to the Mile ) and undulating ( a euphemism for bumpy and lopsided ) They competed in two or three events and then might go to a marquee dance later in the evening where the prizes might be presented . If they headed home earlier they would visit a pub , get some food and drink there and then resume their bus journey with a resounding sing-song. One of the biggest competitions on the athletics calendar back then was the Trinity Sports held every May in the idyllic setting of College Park. Frances still remembers the joy of competing on that manicured grass track ( “ like a billiard table”) and the huge sense of occasion as President DeValera and other dignitaries always attended, while the professors, students and spectators lounged on the grassy banks surrounding the track , relishing their strawberries and cream. Many of the men wore formal morning dress as if they were at Royal Ascot while the ladies wore gorgeous gúnas and hats with more exotic plumage than flamingos . ( Only thing missing was Vangelis’s famous theme music from Chariots of Fire)
And yet , their very existence as a Ladies’ Section remained precarious . They had to undertake various fund raising ventures : jumble sales , flag days , pub crawls and door to door collections. They had no appropriate training gear ; they wore men’s shorts for some time then started to make their own . Then they saw advertisements for specifically women’s shorts in Athletics Weekly and they sent their postal orders away for them .( No Revolut in those days ) These shorts drew another missive from Archbishop’s House to Billy Morton decrying the immodest nature of these skimpy garments. Poor Billy must have got more metaphorical swipes of crosiers than any other man in Ireland . But they just ignored these thunderbolts and soldiered on. Truth be told ,they weren’t treated with the greatest of respect from the Clonliffe men’s section either. For ten years after their foundation they remained as Associate Members only . Under Club rules it required a two thirds majority to confer full membership status on them . They could attend AGMs but were not allowed to vote . Their annual associate membership fee cost ten shillings or half a pound. ( About 60 cent in Euro )It was the younger male members who eventually swung things towards democracy and in 1974 they were eventually made full members of the Club. Years later , Frances herself served as Treasurer and proved to be a very efficient one . “ Sure every woman knows how to manage a household budget” was her modest dismissal of any words of congratulations that came her way . It still hurts her ,however, to recall that the very official who had pleaded with her to become Treasurer ( a task nobody in the Club wanted to do ) was the same man who objected to having her in the photograph of one of the Club’s National Cross Country winning teams ,despite the fact that the other (male ) officials were all allowed to be included in the photo. Old prejudices die hard.
Even though Frances initially wished to be a runner she soon came to realise that her forte would lie in the field events. She discovered that she preferred circuit training to running oriented sessions . Eventually crude weights were made and France used them in the Nissen hut to develop her overall strength . Misogyny was still a constant opponent . She remembers competing in the first BLE National Championships in 1967 and having to contend with some male athletes objecting to competing in the same arena as women . And so, “the ladies” had to compete on a hastily obtained rugby pitch ,on a 300m. circuit. The lanes were marked out with whitewash which almost immediately disappeared when the inevitable first shower came along . It wasn’t just the crosier waving gentlemen who had hang-ups about this strange species known as female ! With greater experience , she became convinced that her true talent lay in the Throws and in 1971 she won the Silver medal in the discus in the National Senior Championships. Incidentally , she is keen to point out that she finished only 8th. in the qualifying rounds ; she believes there is a lesson here for all young athletes: even though you may not have made the Top 3 in the qualifying heats , that does not mean you have no chance of a medal in the Final . It’s a new day , and anything can happen . One of her favourite athletes is Eamonn Coghlan, but Eamonn himself unfortunately learned that lesson the hard way in the final of the Monteal Olympic 1500m., when he was pipped for Bronze by Paul-Heinz Wellmann who had finished only as a “fastest loser “ in the semi-final. Frances also loved the Hammer throw ( one of the events which Ireland has contributed to the Olympic and International Athletics programme ) and many years later ,when she returned to college as a mature student , she had the lovely distinction of competing in this event against her daughter in the Irish Universities’ Track and Field Championships.
She was also a useful long jumper but, unfortunately, she seriously injured the cartilage in her knee while competing in this event and had to have surgery . After that Frances decided to stick with the throws. Incidentally , her favourite pre-competition meal is Weetabix. Nutritionists might not agree but the Golden Rule is : Whatever works for you is the key !
Now hale and hearty at 80 years of age , she is still full of the joys of life . She enjoys Line Dancing , listening to Joe Dolan and playing the bodhrán . Blessed with good health, Frances competes at every Graded Meet and always has a word of encouragement to her younger competitors . She says she “just loves the Graded Meets” and regards them as “the life blood of the Sport”. With that infectious grin and laugh of hers , she can still hold her own in the slaggin’stakes too ! She has been married to Pat for fifty two years and has five children . Her favourite athletes are Eamonn Coghlan and Mary Peters ( Olympic Gold medallist in the Pentathlon in Munich in 1972 ) . She recommends Diane Modahl’s biography “ Going the Distance “ to see how some athletes have to overcome so many obstacles in their journey to the top.. She is full of ideas as to how the sport of athletics can be made more exciting and more attractive to young people. For instance , she would give free seats to all children at National Championships and International meets . Frances, indeed, has always been an original thinker . With the help of her husband Pat, she set up the Clonliffe website over thirty years ago – the first athletic club to have a website. And before that , she edited and produced the Club Newsletter. She has always been extremely willing to help others . When the idea of the first Women’s Mini-Marathon was mooted, Frances wrote to the Evening Press saying that if any women would like to attempt this new venture, she was prepared to meet them at Williams ‘ Supermarket in Tallaght and take them for a run as well as giving them advice on training. She was amazed at the huge number of women who turned up. Some of them did so in spite of opposition from their husbands. One particular troglodyte locked the door and insisted that his wife should remain at home to cook his dinner or get ready his tea . So what did she do ? Climbed out the window of course and joined Frances and her band of merry women on their run. This was the start of the Meet and Train groups and these groups were later recognised as being hugely instrumental in the amazing success and growth in numbers of the Event. Some women were very unsure of being able to finish the distance so Frances , as resourceful as ever , suggested that , as they were all mothers , they should run to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital Foundation . Giving them such a noble incentive proved decisive, and they all completed the 10Km. course . She served both Dublin and National B.l.O.E ( the under-age wing of the National association ), for many years , being Secretary for the Dublin branch and Registrar for the National body . She organised discos for the youngsters in the old Nissen Hut ( the Clonliffe dressing rooms pre-1976) to raise funds for B.L.O.E. She has given her life in the service of athletics , both as an athlete and as an organiser.
Frances is very optimistic about the future of the Club and of the Sport in general. She took great delight in seeing the excellent performance of the Clonliffe Under 20 Women’s team in the recent European Clubs’ Championships where they finished fifth. She applauds the fact that they have so many opportunities now compared to what girls in her youth had- and there isn’t a trace of envy in her voice when she speaks about them. I mention to her a book I read recently entitled Good For a Girl ( by Lauren Fleshman, sub-titled “ My Life Running in a Man’s World” and winner of the William Hill Sport Book of the Year 2023) and Frances simply says “ Yes , that sums up the general condescending attitude when I started . I often heard men say ‘ Well, it’s not bad – for a girl’ ” .When asked about the recent amazing performances of some elite female runners ( a 2:09 marathon and a 13:54 5K. ) she is totally free of cynicism or even scepticism. She points to the superior tracks and the “super” shoes. (“We had to wear men’s shoes at the start” ) She cites superior coaching methodologies and the input of sport science and sport psychology as well as the growing emphasis on strength and conditioning . She also considers superior nutrition as a major factor in the massively improved performances : “Youngsters now are taller and stronger than we were “ . She wistfully remembers that she grew up in the austere post World War 2 era, recalling the ration cards which were still in use and were necessary to obtain even staple food items. “ Two ounces of butter , four ounces of bacon, eight ounces of sugar and two ounces of tea were the weekly rations”. Not exactly an athlete’s diet. But Frances is an inveterate Glass Half Full person and looks to the future generation with great optimism in a country where “ the future is forbidden to no- one “
Frances is one of those strong, positive , cheerful people who brightens the life of everyone she meets. The most down to earth , practical person who takes no BS from anybody but who is always prepared to help and encourage everyone . She epitomises everything that is best about the athletics fraternity in this country and she truly merits the title of Clonliffe All-Time Great .