by Brian Hughes
On 14 January 1928 the Central Council of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) held one of its special meetings at Clonliffe Road, near Croke Park in Dublin. In the chair was the ninth president of the association, William Patrick ‘Liam’ Clifford (1876−1949) from Fedamore. Elected in 1926, and the second Limerick native to hold the position, Clifford had a long involvement in the organization of Gaelic games, having served as chair of the Limerick County Board between 1921 and 1939. In 1924, he was elected to the Central Council, the association’s governing body, and was later chair of the Munster Council (1932−6).
By this time, the GAA was just over forty years old, having been founded in Thurles in 1884 for the purpose of organising and promoting traditional Irish games and pastimes, including the ancient game of hurling. This fell within the ‘Gaelic revival’ of the late nineteenth century, a series of related movements drawn from a renewed interest in the Irish language, culture, and traditions. It was also part of a wider pattern of organisation and codification of sports and games in Ireland and Britain – the origins of the modern sporting landscape. The twenty-six county Irish Free State was also only four years old, having come into existence under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1922 – during a short but bitter Civil War.
The Central Council is the governing body of the association, and one of the items on the agenda for the January 1928 meeting was an objection submitted by the secretary of the Galway County Board to the official result of a recent National Hurling League game against Limerick. As well as a typical example of the sort of administrative work carried out by Central Council, the meeting – and this particular issue – is a reminder that this was still a relatively new organisation in a new state and the high levels of organisation and professionalism associated with the modern inter-county games was still some way away.
There were five alleged breaches of the rules highlighted in the complaint, namely that Limerick had been eighteen minutes late taking the field; that Limerick ‘failed to provide proper nets for the game’, and that the nets provided had let the ball through at least twice during the match; that Limerick failed to provide a duplicate team list to the referee prior to the match; and that two Galway goals were disallowed by the referee, one of which had passed through the ineffective net.[1]
The match in question had been played at Markets Field on 4 December 1927 and finished with a ‘hard fought’ one-point victory for Limerick – 3-2 to 2-4 – denying Galway the opportunity to catch Tipperary at the top of the nine-team league over the last round of games. It was noted in the Limerick Leader’s report that the pitch ‘presented the appearance of a ploughed field’ and that Limerick were already missing several players before losing another important player to a facial injury after five minutes.[2] The Cork Examiner’s reporter also noted that the Limerick team was ‘understrength’ and was surprised that the attendance was not bigger, but was more kind in simply pointing to conditions unsuitable for ‘a fast display of hurling’. In scoring a late winning goal, Limerick had carried off a ‘great recovery in face of a somewhat heavy handicap and against a keener and better-trained fifteen’.[3]
At this point, the National Hurling League – now a central part of the GAA calendar, if still of secondary importance to the provincial and All-Ireland Championships – was still an experimental competition. The first iteration had taken place with seven teams across 1925/6 and was not repeated in 1926/7, but an expanded version was run in 1927/8. Teething problems were certainly still evident in this second iteration. Having objected to the Limerick result, Galway travelled to Cork on 18 December knowing that if they won and their objection against Limerick was upheld they would remain in contention to win the competition as a final would be played with Tipperary to determine the winners.[4]
Each team was due to play the others once, but in the end the full programme of fixtures did not go ahead and there were regular logistical issues. On the same day that Limerick played Galway, for instance, the Offaly team failed to make it to Cork ‘owing to a breakdown in their conveyance’ (Tipperary were the only team to have played all eight of their games by this point).[5] Kilkenny, unable to field against Dublin in December 1927 and due to be Limerick’s opponents in their final fixture, later withdrew from the competition having only won one game.[6]
Galway’s objection to the Limerick result was upheld on the complaint that the Limerick team had been late to the field.[7] This was not a unique occurrence, and Kilkenny also forfeited points to Offaly for the same infringement.[8] Galway had, however, lost to Cork in December – before the central council had decided on their appeal – making the additional points secured from Limerick irrelevant. But to further complicate matters, the referee for the Galway v. Cork fixture (Galway TD Stephen Jordan) had reported that the Cork team were late to take the field. At a February meeting of the central council it was decided that Cork had not received adequate notice of the correct start time and were to retain the points.[9]
In the end, then, Tipperary were crowned champions (without the need for a final) on 14 points. Otherwise, it was a confusing league table. After playing Galway, Limerick had won three and drawn one of their six games. Limerick’s final fixture – played just before Christmas 1927 on a ‘frost-bound, snow patched pitch’ in Portlaoise – saw a defeat to Leix (Laois).[10] Having lost the points for the Galway win, Limerick were later awarded two more points following Kilkenny’s withdrawal to finish on seven points.[11]
Even prior to the foundation of the GAA, Limerick had a ‘deep and powerful’ tradition of hurling.[12] The county’s senior hurling team had seen significant success in the late 1910s and early 1920s, winning All-Ireland titles in 1918 and again in 1921 (the former final played in 1919 and the latter in 1923 when they were the first team presented with the Liam McCarthy Cup), and contesting eight consecutive Munster finals between 1917 and 1924. Limerick refused to field for the delayed 1923 All-Ireland Hurling Final, fixed for 29 June 1924, as a protest against the continued internment of anti-Treaty IRA members (the county committee claimed that it was ‘fully committed’ to fielding ‘but the players were influenced, and warned not to travel’).[13] When the final was played in September 1924, Galway won and a (short) period of relative decline followed for the Limerick senior hurling team.
Though out of the running for honours by the time they played Galway in December 1928, the Limerick Leader reporter saw encouraging signs: the team had ‘done very well in the competition, and in almost every game infused new blood into the team and with such success that in the 1928 Championship we can look forward to good results.’[14] The optimism was misplaced, as Limerick lost their first match of the 1928 Munster Senior Hurling Championship (a straight knock-out competition) to eventual All-Ireland champions Cork by two points, before losing to Waterford by six points in their first match in 1929.
Limerick would, though, go on to win five National Hurling League titles in a row from the 1933/34 season. Inspired by the legendary Mick Mackey, Limerick won four Munster Championships and played in four All-Ireland finals in the same period, winning in 1934 and 1936.
While such things might appear unthinkable in the National Hurling League today (with the exception, perhaps, of contentious refereeing decisions), the late throw in and issues with facilities raised after the Limerick v. Galway match in December 1928 were typical of the administrative and organisational challenges still faced by the GAA at inter-county level some forty years after the association was established. The continued success of the National Hurling League was by no means guaranteed in 1927/8 and, indeed, the very future of the association had been in serious doubt only twenty years earlier. In the end, both the competition and the association survived and ultimately thrived.
Dr. Brian Hughes is a lecturer in the Department of History, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick
[1] Minutes of a special meeting of the GAA Central Council, 14 Jan. 1928 (GAA Museum, CC/01/03).
[2] Limerick Leader (LL), 10 Dec. 1927.
[3] Cork Examiner, 5 Dec. 1927.
[4] Tipperary Star, 10 Dec. 1928.
[5] Irish Independent, 5 Dec. 1928.
[6] LL, 5 Dec. 1927; Evening Herald, 10 Dec. 1927; Irish Independent, 17 Feb. 1928.
[7] Minutes of a special meeting of the GAA Central Council, 14 Jan. 1928 (GAA Museum, CC/01/03).
[8] Nationalist and Munster Advertiser, 21 Jan. 1928.
[9] Connaught Tribune, 25 February 1928.
[10] LL, 23 December 1927.
[11] Irish Independent, 17 Feb. 1928.
[12] Paul Rouse, The hurlers: the first All-Ireland Championship and the making of modern hurling (London, 2018), pp 169−70.
[13] Minutes of a special meeting of the GAA Central Council, 28 June 1924 (GAA Museum, CC/01/02).
[14] LL¸ 5 Dec. 1927.