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THE KERRY McKEON BLOG ...ISSUE 58

THE G.A.A. AND THE STRUGGLE FOR IRISH FREEDOM

Now that the year 2016 is here and we celebrate the centenary of the 1916  Easter Rising which led to our independence from Britain, maybe we should take a look at the relationship between the G.A.A. and the fight for our Irish identity and national freedom. There can be no doubt about such an unbreakable link becoming established from that historic day of the GAA formation in Hayes Hotel in Thurles in 1884. Virtually every county in Ireland has examples of their clubs being named after freedom fighters of one generation or another. James Stephens, Ballina Stephenites, Padraig Pearses, Na Piarsigh too, The Fenians, Parnells, Kerins O Rahilly’s, John Mitchell’s, Davitt’s, Austin Stack’s,  and Michael Glavey’s  are just a number of cases in point. Football grounds too like Pearse Park in Longford, Casement Park in Belfast,  Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada in Leitrim and our own Markievicz Park in Sligo continued to be named after patriots.
The connections grew in the years around the Easter Rising escalating to the point where Kerry couldn’t play in the 1917 All Ireland  final because a number of their team were in jail including the captain Dick Fitzgerald. The Crown forces increased their hostility towards the G.A.A. in subsequent years culminating in an attack on Croke Park during a football game between Dublin and Tipperary on November 21st 1920 resulting in fourteen civilian deaths including tragically the Tipperary football captain Michael Hogan, shot dead on the hallowed turf of Croke Park while playing for his county. The Hogan Stand built in 1924 is of course named after him. However the civil war which followed proved extremely difficult to handle for the G.A.A. as players from all  counties took sides, some of course more active than others. The Munster and All Ireland championship of 1924 was a prime example of this as top Kerry players of the day Con Brosnan and John Joe Sheehy were bitterly opposed to each other in the civil war. However although not speaking to each other, both answered the call of their county to play right through the championship  campaign together, surely a tribute to the magnetism of the GAA. Brosnan, a captain in the Irish Free State army, even regularly engineered safe passages to training and matches  for his “on the run”  adversary Sheehy who would quickly disappear again after matches. Both featured in Kerry’s All Ireland victory of 1931. It was the same all over Ireland. Neighbour fought neighbour and brother fought brother. Indeed it is an everlasting tribute to the G.A.A. itself that it had the resilience, the patience, the healing powers and the balance of wisdom to see it safely through those difficult years when such bitter hostilities could easily have ensured it folded completely.
The respect for freedom fighters in the early years of the G.A.A. was highly significant too in our own county of Sligo. Local G.A.A. clubs were formed on a regular basis with almost all of them having a patriotic link to their club title. In 1885 Collooney Fontenoy’s, Sligo Emmets, Ballyrush O Mahony’s and Ballisodare Invincibles started the trend . They were quickly followed by Riverstown Faugh’s, Bunninadden Emmets, Curry Liberators, Sooey Wolfe Tone’s, Dromore West O’Connells, Dromard Dr Tanners, Moylough Liberators, Enniscrone Owen Roe’s, Gurteen Volunteers, Killadoon Sarsfields, Culfadda O’Brien’s, Killavill John Dillon’s, Achonry Red Hugh’s, Keash Emmet’s, Strandhill Young Irelanders and Ballinafad Young Parnellite’s.  The trend did ease off as we entered the twentieth century, however a few more did surface like Doocastle Defenders, Emlanaughton Brian Boru’s, Mullinabreena Davitt’s and Tubbercurry Sinn Fein. 

Lean  na  Clairsigh
Bye for now
P J  McKeon  for  Kerry  McKeon  R.I.P.