On 30 April 1906, the Intermediate Games in Athens became the site for one of the earliest political demonstrations in modern Olympic history. During the course of the triple jump Olympic medal ceremony, Peter O'Connor, a native of Waterford, Ireland, sensationally climbed the flag pole to remove the Union Jack that was cast overhead in recognition of his first place finish. (1) While his fellow countryman Cornelius "Con" Leahy stood guard below, an impassioned O'Connor unfurled a large green Irish flag embroidered with the words Erin Go Bragh (Ireland Forever), the popular maxim of the Irish Home Rule movement, and remained aloft for some considerable time waving it vigorously. As an unwilling member of the Great Britain Olympic team, O'Connor's actions represented an act of political defiance, a nationalistic demonstration aimed at drawing the world's attention towards Ireland's claims for political emancipation from Britain. The Gaelic-American enthusiastically intoned, "The thousands of spectators from all parts of the world know now, if they did not know it before, that Britain's blood stained banner is not respected or recognized by the Irish people." (2) Irish claims for political autonomy from Britain raise much broader questions surrounding the exact identity and make-up of Great Britain during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The idea of "Britain" can be tenuously traced all the way back to Roman occupation during antiquity (AD 43-410). Over the course of the next millennium, turmoil, distrust, and forced occupation would gradually give way to more peaceful co-existence and interaction between the disparate cultural and ethnic groups that originally inhabited the British Isles. King Henry VIII's annexation of Wales with England in 1536 and the ascent of King James VI to the thrones of both England and Scotland in 1603 represented the first palpable steps towards the realization of a unitary British state. In the aftermath of a bloody Civil War, King James VII's passing of the Act of Union in 1707, joining the kingdoms of