A Noble honour - Dublin marathon runners receive medal with typo at finish line

This year's Dublin Marathon saw nearly 23,000 entrants run the 42.2km distance from Fitzwilliam St Upper to Merrion Square.

Upon finishing the mammoth run, participants were quick to discover something was amiss with the medal, emblazoned with an image and quote from the great Irish writer and poet William Butler Yeats.

The quote on the back of the medal reads "One of Ireland's most literary sons and its foremost poet, this commemorates his 1923 Noble Prize win", instead of Nobel Prize winner.

It’s a nice medal of WB Yeats for the Dublin City Marathon yesterday.
Shame about the typo ‍♀️
cc .@jenrunswithdogs https://t.co/smKLTBV8fA

— Cristin Larkin (@SheilaPortobelo) October 30, 2023

The quote on the front "There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met", is often said to be one of Yeats' great quotes, but there was no hard evidence or proof that this was said by him, according to Susan O'Keefe, Director of the Yeats Society.

Event organisers of the marathon said they "noted that while this quote is widely attributed to Yeats it has ever definitively been proven to be his quote", but the quote "reflects the values of the Dublin marathon" commonly known as "the friendly marathon".

Regarding the unfortunate misspelling of the word Nobel, organisers responded to several posts on social media to say that they pride themselves on their "high event standards", but they "have fallen below those standards in the medal design for 2023".

We pride ourselves on our high event standards. We have fallen below those standards in the medal design for 2023. We missed the typo on the proofing. We will putting in place a more robust sign-off process for 2024. We are also looking into a new approach to our medal design.

— Irish Life Dublin Marathon (@dublinmarathon) October 30, 2023