Matt Roseingrave, a native of Beagh, established world records in Australia in the long jump and the hop, step, and jump. Matt was just on 6ft high, and being of the slight wiry, sinewy type weighed only about 11 stone in condition. Roseingrave was a non-smoker, a tee-totaller and a very quiet man. His career in Ireland was brief, and his activities seem to have been mainly confined to Galway and Connacht, and some incursions into Munster, particularly Clare. The control of sports meetings was not a very exact procedure in his day, and many a contest took place to which neither official status nor press notice was given. However, his most enduring achievements were accomplished in exile, in Australia and New Zealand. The prestige he won for Ireland on Colonial sports fields and the eminence he attained should be remembered. All in all Matt Roseingrave was on the track for some ten years, and during that period he competed in Ireland, the U.S.A., Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to being a great natural jumper he knew all the finer points of the game, excelling especially at what some called “the second jump in the air” when doing a broad jump, or in the final jump of the hop, step, and jump – a “spasmodic wriggle of the hips when at the highest point of the flight through space.”
Affectionately known as “the Boy from Galway” in the Southern Hemisphere, Roseingrave was no specialist in any particular event. On the track, over the hurdles, and in the jumps and weights, he was equally proficient and competed with “impartial zest”. Later biographers of sport referred to him as a “lithe and powerful athlete”, and “an out-and-out champion. His versatility was miraculous”. He was described as a natural athlete, and it was noted he did not work on any particular specialty in training. Various journalists noted that “he was certainly always out of his element in hammer and shot contests, but his knowledge of the game stood to him. In those days a 9ft circle was used, but our hammer throwers were of moderate class then, and all threw from a stand, Scotch style, while Matt took full advantage of the circle.” All reports appear to agree he was “a fine type of sportsman”. Some reporters described him as “a greyhound-like athlete…who jumped with noteworthy grace and cleverness. He was an example of a “thorough sportsman.” Roseingrave was the “beau ideal of an athlete – tall and symmetrical in build – and he knew from A to Z all the fine points of athletics, especially in the jumping, hurdling and field game departments.” Most people who saw him in action will say he was at his best as a jumper in general, and a broad jumper in particular. “To me he appeared to be a top hole jumper, but a veritable king-pin hurdler, and incidentally, I may add he was right in the first class as a wielder of the shot gun. “I must also say that right away through his career here he seldom did much in the way of training – often did no preparation at all.”