A nation is in mourning this morning following the death of Ronnie Delany (1935-2026), iconic Olympic hero but also an important player in the world of travel and tourism.
Injury ended his career at the age of 27 with a gold medal at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, a silver at the 1958 European championship and a brief but highly successful few years on the American indoor athletics circuit. Ronnie Delany then became the face of Ireland’s ferry services for several decades.
Ronnie Delany initially worked with Aer Lingus in the United States before returning to Dublin to B+I Line (British and Irish Steam Packet Company) as Assistant Chief Executive where he served for 20 years with responsibility for marketing and operations of the Irish ferry company.
In this role he acted as a prominent figurehead for the company including involvement in promotional activities such as the launch and promotion of the jetfoil service which introduces high speed hydrofoil passenger ferries on Irish Sea routes in the late 1970s and 1980s.
The jetfoil project modernised ferry travel between Ireland and Britain with faster crossings and Delany helped promote it to boost passenger numbers. Sadly it became a victim of the unforgiving Irish Sea and the project was shelved due of the high number of cancellations.
After leaving B+I Line in the 1990s Delany establishes his own successful marketing and sports consultancy business in 1998.
Born in Arklow county Wicklow, Ronnie Delany was a student at Villanova university in Philadelphia at the time of the victory. Silver medalist was Berlin-born Klaus Richtzenhain of the united German team (1934-2025), later East Germany. Bronze medalst was John Landy (1930-2022), Melbourne born pre-race favourite who later became governor of Victoria. Delany’s winning time of 3:41.2 was an Olympic record at the time but would not make the qualification standard for today’s Olympic games.
