President of the International Olympic Committee congress. Athens was approved to host the 1896 Olympic Games, being the original home of the Olympics, and Vikelas was duly chosen as the first President of the IOC. Pierre, Baron de Coubertin, took over the IOC presidency when Demetrius Vikelas stepped down after the Olympics in his own country. Despite its initial success, the Olympic Movement faced hard times, as the 1900 Games (in de Coubertin's own Paris) and 1904 Games were both upstaged by World's Fairs—Exposition Universelle in 1900 and Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904—and received little attention. The 1906 Intercalated Games revived the momentum, and the Olympic
Secretary-General to the President June 1945, had a more fraught relationship with McDunphy and frequently baulked at following McDunphy's rules. McDunphy had a long-term impact on the presidency. His 1945 book "The President of Ireland: His Powers, Functions & Duties" was seen as the bible of the office by those seeking to restrict the post and its occupant. His restrictions, which were viewed as correct (or, if not correct, useful in enabling them to control and restrict presidents) by later civil servants, led President Erskine Childers to accuse one later Secretary to the President of having "the ghost of McDunphy behind you." Mary Robinson