THE GAA yesterday returned to its roots in Co Tipperary exactly 125 years to the day since the organisation was founded.
A day of ceremony and pageantry in Thurles recalled the events of November 1st, 1884, when seven men, led by Clare-born Michael Cusack, met in the billiards room of the Commercial and Family Hotel, Lizzie J Hayes proprietress, and founded the Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes.
Proceedings began with a special Mass at the Cathedral of the Assumption which celebrated the close links between the country’s leading sporting organisation and the Catholic Church. Past presidents of the GAA brought symbols to the altar including a hurley used in the first All-Ireland final, the association’s rule book, football’s Sam Maguire cup and a replica of hurling’s Liam McCarthy trophy – the original is “on tour” in London.
GAA patron and Archbishop of Cashel Emly Dermot Clifford held aloft his crozier and told the congregation “it has an All-Ireland medal embedded in it”. During the homily he recalled that the great Cork hurler Christy Ring had once come directly to the cathedral after a Munster final in Semple Stadium “and knelt at Benediction”.
The archbishop praised the “host of humble volunteers” who had worked for the GAA.
Noel McGrath, already at 18 a Tipperary hurling sensation, delivered a Communion Reflection and read the Hurler’s Prayer which concluded with the words: “And when the final whistle for me has blown/ And I stand at last before God’s judgment throne/ May the great referee when he calls my name/ Say, you hurled like a man, you played the game; Amen.”
Although Seán Kelly, Fine Gael MEP for Ireland South, was present in his capacity as a former GAA president, the only TD visible was local Independent Michael Lowry, who described himself “a fair to middling” hurler in his day.
Afterwards a procession led by the Artane Band and a colour party carrying flags of all 32 counties marched through the town to Liberty Square.
Pat Walsh, a descendant of Maurice Davin, a founding member and the GAA’s first president, read the famous letter written by Archbishop Thomas Croke in December 1884 when he accepted an invitation to become the organisation’s first patron.
The document, which has become known as the GAA Charter, warned Irish people that traditional pastimes such as hurling, football and “hand-grips” were in danger of becoming “entirely forgotten” and were being ridiculed by “degenerate dandies” who preferred “such foreign and fantastic field sports as lawn tennis, polo, cricket and the like” which were “not racy of the soil, but rather alien”.
Croke appealed to the people to reject “England’s stuff and broadcloths, her master habits and such other effeminate follies as she may recommend”. His successor, resplendent in purple biretta, smiled approvingly.
Current GAA president Christy Cooney laid a laurel wreath at the foot of the monument to Croke and said: “Ireland would be a much lesser place without the influence of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael.” Earlier, he had visited the village of Grangemockler and unveiled a plaque in memory of Michael Hogan, a footballer on the Tipperary team and one of the 14 people shot dead by British soldiers in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday in November 1920.
The highlight of the afternoon was the Munster club hurling semi final at Semple Stadium between Newtownshandrum and Thurles Sarsfields. The Cork champions won by a single point, 0-19 to 1-15.