Question

the tradition of protest and controversy in modern Olympics goes back to the year 1908 when Irish athletes boycotted the games? true or false?

Answer 1

The answer is true :)

Answer 2

This is true.

Many Irish athletes did not want to participate under the flag of the United Kingdom but wanted to be independent as Ireland. This is why the name of the participating country was changed into Great Britain/Ireland, with a few sports being completely of Irish participants who even won medals for their country.