New book an invaluable chronicle of Gaelic games

Cavanman's Diary

In the introduction to their new book, Chasing Sam Maguire: The All-Ireland Football Championship 1928-1977, authors Colm Keys and Dermot Reilly open with a tale which will resonate with football followers in Cavan.

“As All-Ireland football final stories go, there is scarcely a more compelling one than that of the Maguire brothers, rivals in the 1952 decider between Cavan and Meath,” they write.

“The family originally lived in Cornafean in Cavan but sometime in the years before 1952 they moved across the Meath border to just outside Oldcastle.

“Older siblings Des and Liam switched clubs, but not counties. The younger brother, Brendan, by then a student in Gormanston College on the other side of Meath, and still eligible for minor, opted to declare for his county of residence, however, putting the trio on a most unlikely collision course.

“So they went their separate ways that weekend, drawing the family in different directions and provoking different emotions.”

The Maguires’ tale is unique and compelling yet it is not alone in that regard in this tremendous work. The authors have painstakingly charted 50 All-Ireland championships, describing the action and context of the early rounds and focusing heavily on the finals.

Listing the correct details for All-Ireland finals – including what clubs the players were registered with – was no easy feat. Gaelic games records are notoriously patchy and Keys and Reilly have addressed this authoritatively, based on detailed research, trawling of the newspaper archives and contacting some esteemed ‘keepers of the records’ in various counties.

The result is a superb addition to the GAA canon which has been very warmly received.

Despite the ‘Cavan’ name, Dermot Reilly is a Carbury, Co Kildare man, a retired partner with PwC. Keys will be familiar to all Breffni Gaels.

A member of the Simonstown club in Navan, he is a regular visitor to Kingspan Breffni in his role as GAA correspondent with the Irish Independent. Colm also comes from good Cavan stock.

His father, Brendan, was a native of Cootehill and played football and hurling with the local Celtics club. His uncles Tony, who still lives in the town, and Gerry represented the county at all levels in football, winning Ulster medals and county championships while Gerry also played in the All-Ireland final in 1952, the same year that the Maguires were the talk of Ireland and when football was in its pomp in Cavan.

The concept began with some conversations among the pair; “it was never the intention to write a book” Colm recalled this week.

Nailing down the details was a mammoth undertaking which required cross-checking across numerous sources. Sometimes, the Irish Independent or the Cork Examiner would differ with the local newspapers in regard to what a player scored or what his club was; on other occasions, all of the national press would have printed an erroneous detail and the local paper was the more reliable source.

“Some of the national papers wouldn’t have been as reliable as some of the local papers,” Colm said, citing the Anglo-Celt (forgive us for bragging), the Meath Chronicle and the Drogheda Independent as particularly exhaustive in their coverage back in the middle of the last century.

Decoding these puzzles was a big part of the challenge; in several cases, there were local GAA historians on the ground whose records were the most reliable (George Cartwright was the ‘point man’ in Cavan and comes in for considerable praise from the authors).

This is much more than ‘just’ a book of records. The authors have skilfully weaved the evolving story of sport and society together with the first truly complete list of All-Ireland final statistics from this period, starting with 1928, the year in which Reilly’s own Kildare landed the All-Ireland SFC crown.

Each section contains a ‘Final Miscellany’ which is where the text really springs off the page. The miscellanies are crammed with fascinating nuggets.

For example, in 1928, the following is relayed:

“While Kildare lined out with the same fifteen as in the 1927 final, this was only brought about through a last-minute intervention by Cavan officials. Suffering from broken ribs after a cycling accident, Joe Curtis was due to be replaced by Rathangan’s Peter Pringle. The arrival of a Breffni contingent into the Kildare dressing-room, armed with photographic evidence showing that Pringle had played illegally in a Laois club game, prompted his demotion.

“Curtis was duly strapped up for action, given a swig of whiskey to numb the pain, and proceeded to make a major contribution as the Lilywhites retained their title.”

Also noted about 1928 is that star Kildare forward Paul Doyle had lined out for Cavan in the 1923 All-Ireland semi-final. The authors’ in-depth knowledge and love of the game comes through in these gems, many of which were hitherto hidden and could have been lost to future generations were they not documented as has now been done.

Their eye for detail is also most impressive. In the Miscellany section on the 1945 final (Cavan v Cork), it is mentioned that on the eve of the final, the Irish Press profiled the 30 players lining out in the game. Of the 30, 26 were under six feet in height.

Four years later, when Meath won, it is recorded that Aer Lingus took the winning panel for a flight over their own county, with the Chronicle opining that it was “an innovation, and it is likely to become an annual practice”.

That year’s final line-outs illustrates the difficulty in listing the clubs of the players (in some counties, such as Offaly and Galway, players could field with separate junior and senior clubs in the same season). At midfield, for example, was Victor Sherlock who played for Kingscourt, Gypsum Rovers and Scotstown.

In 1969, it is noted (from the Irish Press): “The participation of Mick O’Shea and Nicholas Clavin in the football final, as well as the earlier appearance of Kilkenny curate Tommy Murphy in the hurling final and the permission granted to Down’s Fr Jackie Fitzsimmons to play in the Ulster Championship, underlines the growing desire of the Church authorities to involve clergy more and more in the everyday activities of the laity.”

“A footnote,” the authors record, “advised that all students in Maynooth and All-Hallows had been granted permission to attend the game.”

Truly, it was a different era and the changing trends in society and in Gaelic games are reflected on the pages of this brilliant book. Running to 464 pages and presented in hardback, the book is published by O’Brien Press and retails in all good book shops and online.

In the foreword, GAA President Larry McCarthy thanks Reilly and Keys “for preserving this important chronicle of our history and heritage”, which about sums it up.

This is a book which can be read in a couple of sittings or dipped in and out of and will be an invaluable reference for generations to come.

Main pic: The Cavan team which won the 1948 All-Ireland SFC title. Back (from left): Tony Tighe, Brian O’Reilly, Victor Sherlock, Des Benson, T.P. O’Reilly, Peter Donohoe, John Joe Cassidy, Mick Higgins and Patsy Lynch (chairman); front, P.J. Duke, Willie Doonan, Edwin Carolan, John Joe O’Reilly (captain), Simon Deignan, Phil ‘Gunner’ Brady, Paddy Smith and Joe Stafford.