Past and future in Tipperary's story

On Gaelic Games: In a way it's not surprising that people in Tipperary find difficult projects to occupy their time and take the collective mind off hurling.

For a side that wasn't too far off the pace last year (nearly beating Waterford and giving Cork their closest game in the All-Ireland series) there has been a stoic pessimism about the county all season.

Needless to say, having hosted the weekend's NHL final and viewed the going rate as set by Kilkenny, the hurling confraternity in Tipp is hardly feeling any more upbeat about their place in the scheme of things.

Even the sight of their potential Munster opponents Clare re-enacting the retreat from Gettysburg on Monday evening must have brought with it an uncomfortable reminder that Anthony Daly's team ultimately responded quite well to a similar drubbing last May.

But there have been other things happening in the county that highlight the intricate combination of tradition, history and the contemporary that is the essence of the GAA, now well into its second century.

The county board has announced the appointment of a task force to consider the problems of urbanisation.

Given the county's traditionally rural profile this may seem a bit aspirational but as the announcement points out: "Over one third of the county's population lives in the nine main towns of the Premier county. Concern has also been voiced at the number of clubs servicing the bigger towns and questions have been raised whether all young people are being provided with the opportunity of playing Gaelic games on a regular basis."

These concerns reflect the experience in all urban population centres, as recognised by the GAA's SRC report, where the established club network struggles to cater for booming populations, which reduce the per capita opportunities to play at senior level.

This initiative comes a year after the county board launched a project to address the problem of alcohol abuse. With the help of Health Boards, GPs and trained counsellors, a presentation was devised that involved intercounty players in order to heighten its profile.

But in the welter of modern concerns the past hasn't been forgotten. Séamus J King, the indefatigable hurling and county historian, recently launched volume three of Tipperary's GAA Story, covering 1985-2004. It may seem like an unduly small period of time to justify a whole volume but it's not an unusual time frame. So many histories were encouraged for GAA's centenary year that many books extend up until 1984.

That the 20 years since has brought forth new volumes shouldn't be too surprising, given the rapid change that has taken place within the GAA as a whole since that date. One of the benchmarks of change identified by GAA Director General Liam Mulvihill, when looking back over 25 years in office, was the financial recognition by the Government of the role played by sports associations in general and his own in particular.

"To give one example that people often forget: in 1984 when we were celebrating our centenary the Government gave us £1,000,000 and a lot of people thought it was very generous at the time. When you look at it now it seems rather small for the centenary of an organisation such as the GAA."

Not many counties have been as organised in their attention to history as Tipperary and King's latest book follows on volume two, 1935-'84, which he also wrote and published in 1988. The initial volume covering the first 50 years of the association was written and published by Canon Philip Fogarty in 1960.

Perhaps the fact that Tipperary is so central to the history of the GAA makes the county as mindful as it is of its traditions. Not alone was the association founded in Thurles but the archbishop of the local archdiocese, Dr Croke, became the first patron and one of the most influential of early members and the association's first president Maurice Davin was from Carrick-on-Suir. (In fact, no county has held as many presidential terms as Tipperary).

At the recent annual congress, GAA president Seán Kelly announced in his annual address that plans were in train to rename the Canal End as a memorial to Davin who died in 1927 and after whom the old administrative offices, demolished in 1999, were named - which would give Tipperary a fair hold on the headquarters' architecture.

Already the venue is named in honour of Croke and the western side of the ground is named after Michael Hogan, the Tipperary footballer who was among the murdered on Bloody Sunday.

Within the county, Semple Stadium is the second largest stadium after Croke Park and regarded as the home of hurling.

A sadder reminder of the county's past also emerged in the past couple of days with news that Dinny O'Gorman had passed away at the age of 91. Although he held just one senior All-Ireland medal he was a survivor of and major contributor to a memorable decade for Tipperary.

Having played four years for the county minors, 1929-'32, he won two All-Ireland medals and from corner forward captained the 1932 side that defeated Kilkenny in the final. The other victory came in 1930, a great year for the county as it became the first to win the treble of minor, junior and senior All-Ireland titles.

He went on to nail down his own treble achievement by winning All-Ireland medals at junior level in 1933 and senior four years later in a final to warm the cockles of Tipperary hearts down the decades.

The 1937 All-Ireland was staged in Killarney - the new Cusack Stand overran its completion date of August that year because of a two-month strike - and Tipp drubbed a great but ageing Kilkenny side, 3-11 to 0-3.

Memories of great deeds and those who performed them constitute the great unequivocal tradition of the GAA. Dinny O'Gorman may be at rest but his county continues to cherish the past he helped to shape while rising to the challenges of a demanding future.

The Tipperary GAA Story pp 680, by Séamus J King, is printed by Litho Press, Midleton, Co Cork, and will retail at 20.