The Football Association of the Irish Free State or FAIFS (now the
Football Association of Ireland or FAI) sent a team of amateur players to the
Olympic tournament, which was a
single-elimination tournament. The Irish Olympic Council shunned the FAIFS as the Council saw itself as an all-Ireland body and the FAIFS was "
partitionist" by restricting itself to the Free State. The FAIFS had to liaise directly with
FIFA regarding its entry, rather than going through the Council. Contemporary records, such as the FAIFS annual report, regarded these three internationals as full internationals, despite featuring amateur teams. After the 1960s these games were reclassified as amateur internationals. However, in June 1999
FIFA declared that early Olympic internationals could be considered as full internationals. That would make them the first games of what is now the
Republic of Ireland team. Of the 22 entrants, 12 teams played in the first round. The 6 winners then joined another 10 teams, including Ireland, in the second round. On May 28 at the
Stade Olympique, Ireland beat
Bulgaria 1-0 with
Paddy Duncan scoring the only goal. As a result of this win they qualified for the quarter-finals. On June 2 they played the
Netherlands at the
Stade de Paris in
Saint-Ouen but lost 2-1 after extra-time. However, the following day, before returning home, the team played one more game, beating
Estonia, 3-1 in a friendly at the Stade Olympique. ; Round 1: Bye ; Round 2 ; Quarterfinals ;Final rank: 5th place Players reserves: •
John Lea (
Shelbourne) •
Frank Heaney (
St James's Gate) •
Robert Cowzer (
Shelbourne) •
Ernie Crawford (
Bohemians) • Thomas Aungier (
St James's Gate) • J. Healy
*Note: Murphy, Thomas, Robinson and Dowdall only played in friendly against Estonia. ==Tennis==