A point or not new footage sheds light on infamous 1937 decision

Paul Fitzpatrick

It was one of the most contentious decisions in an All-Ireland final in the first half of the last century - and now GAA fans can finally make their own minds up on whether or not Cavan should have won a third All-Ireland in 1937 against Kerry.

A three-minute long cinema reel clip was unearthed in the British Pathé archive and released online in recent days and the footage sheds some light on the infamous decision to disallow a late “point” by legendary Breffni forward Paddy Boylan.

“The play swings across the field like a pendulum, and both sides score points in turn,” notes the stuffy-sounding commentator.

“But in the 21st minute, Cavan break away to score their first glorious goal, and Croke Park goes crazy.”

It was a dramatic day in Croke Park.

Canon Michael Hamilton from Clare - the man who would later prompt the authorities to stage the 1947 final, in which Cavan would beat Kerry, in the Polo Grounds, New York - acted as stand-in commtator on the day after famous journalist PD Mehigan, better-known by his pen-names Carbery and Pato, fell ill.

The match ended in a draw but the fledgling commentator announced that Cavan won by a point, prompting bonfires in Breffni, as thousands awaited the return of the champions.

They were to be disappointed later that night when the first supporters began to arrive home from Dublin, bemused at the reception and explaining that the match had ended in a draw.

The turnstiles had been broken, the story goes, and up to 10,000 extra supporters, late because of a delay on the train, had gate-crashed the party. They sat everywhere, including on top of the scoreboard, with the result that no scores were recorded on it.

Cavan thought they had raised a white flag in the final minute but ref Martin Hennessy disallowed the score for a throw by Paddy Boylan, prompting bitter conspiracy theories that the association, then in the process of a costly refurbishment of the Cusack Stand (as can be seen in the video), had ‘fixed’ the draw with the referee.

However, the video shows that Boylan’s “point” probably was thrown and Hennessy made the right call.

Incidentally, there was a sad denouement to the tale. After Jim Smith, an almost mythical figure in Cavan, went off injured in the replay, 72-year-old Patrick McConnon, listening in Cootehill, dropped to the floor, dead. His last words were, the Anglo-Celt reported, “that finishes Cavan”.

It did, on that occasion, with the Kingdom winning by six points but the Breffni men would bounce back to reach finals in 1943 and 1945 before adding their third title two years later and two more by 1952.