Madam, – I read Séan Moran’s article in Sports Weekend (August 29th) with interest because my late father, Thomas Edward (Toddy) Pierse, played on the 1918 Wexford team. In fact he played under the assumed name “Pierce Todd” to ensure his father, who was a very strict Victorian type, would not realise he played for Wexford. (This deception was necessary because he feared his father would probably stop paying for his third-level education – my Grandfather always believed “one should study and not play games”. As you know, there was no free education nor dole in 1918). So, to date, my father has the distinction of being on the last Wexford team to win a Senior Football All-Ireland.
Toddy Pierse went on to captain the UCD Gaelic football team for five years while at college. While there, he played for Dublin when they won the 1921 and 1922 titles, right at the time of the Treaty and the beginning of the Troubles. He told me that he would have played for Dublin on “Bloody Sunday” only he was studying for exams. He also told me he would have been standing where Hogan was shot on the day. He ended up with three All-Ireland medals, four Leinster medals and a De Valera medal (for the exhibition match to raise funds for the men interned in the Curragh) before settling down in Wexford town for the next 50 years.
He continued to be a firm lifetime admirer of the Kerry football style of play!
– Yours, etc,