Fascinating talk given on historic Offaly GAA win
A FASCINATING and absorbing historical talk was given on one of Offaly GAA's iconic wins in Birr on Saturday evening.
A huge crowd listened to Offaly GAA officer Brendan Minnock deliver an exceptionally well researched background and outline of Offaly's win in the All-Ireland Junior Hurling Championship in 1923.
The final was only played in October 1924 because of the fallout from the Civil War and Saturday's talk co-incided with the centenary of Offaly's dramatic 3-4 to 3-2 win over Cork.
Shamrocks club man Minnock went in deep to unearth the full story behind Offaly's win, even travelling to New York to meet with family members of players who emigrated and placing Offaly flags on their graves.
His passion for the project was obvious in the way he told the story to a captivated audience – one that included family members of most of the panel and they were presented with a framed picture and a booklet outlining the full story.
Offaly GAA chairman Michael Duignan thanked Minnock for his work and noted that he had learned a lot of stuff that he never knew.
While Offaly had to wait until 1980 to make their breakthrough in the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, they were very close in the 1920s when they lost some provincial finals and had a very good team. Many of the juniors also played in Leinster senior finals in the decade but emigration of some outstanding hurlers ensured that Offaly's dreams were stillborn at that time and had to wait for over half a century.
The 1920s was a turbulent time as Ireland gained independence and the Civil War left a residue of bitterness that has only fully ebbed away in the last couple of decades.
The Civil War was the reason the final was not played until 1924. Cork refused to play as their chairman Sean McCarthy was in jail and it all led to a fierce row in the Offaly GAA County Board. It was initially reported that the Offaly management and team had taken a walkover but the Offaly County Board, or at least some of them, reacted violently to this.
The chairman Lar Molloy, father of future Offaly hurling folk hero Lar Molloy was not one bit impressed. He censured management for their part and most memorably said they had “to save the reputation of the county and preserve the honour of the team”. At a very divisive meeting, a resolution was eventually passed stating that Offaly would refuse to take a walkover and would play Cork whenever a fixture was feasible.
Civil War politics certainly created strife in Offaly GAA in that era. Future Offaly and Leinster GAA chairman Sean Robbins – the man whom the cup for the Senior Hurling Championship is named after – was in jail in 1923 as was another board officer, Lar Langton. The County Board had passed a 1923 resolution calling for the release of all republican prisoners.
The 1922 Offaly GAA Convention took three attempts to complete with Leinster Council getting involved and the secretary, M. Kelly unable to present a balance sheet as he had been “on the run”.
The 1924 Convention was another messy and complicated affair. Lar Molloy and Sean Robbins were nominated for the chair but Robbins didn't run and there was a row over Molloy's candidature as his nomination papers hadn't been signed in Irish. Leinster Council chairman Bob O'Keeffe had to come in to chair the Convention and Molloy eventually returned for another year.
It is impossible to know the undercurrents now and what was at play but there was obvious tension between Lar Molloy and the secretary Stephen Cloonan, Tullamore. It is very possible that both men were on opposite sides of the Civil War divide at the time and Cloonan made some revealing statements. He said that a second Convention was not in Offaly's interest at that time, there is “more at the back of it than appears to this Council” and that “it was more a political matter than anything else that was responsible for the trouble”.
The 1923 junior campaign was also fraught with difficulty with Dublin objecting to a defeat by Offaly, accusing them of playing Bill Cordial under a false name. A Dublin player claimed he had spent seven months with Cordial in the Curragh prison camp. At a Leinster Council meeting, the person identified by Dublin as Cordial said he had given a false name when arrested and his name was Jim Conlon. Offaly won the objection, defeated Laois in the Leinster final and Galway in the semi-final.
The final was played in Croke Park and there was little of the fanfare that greets All-Ireland wins now. Some of the team enjoyed a silent film in Dublin after the match while there was no spectators to greet them when they returned by train to Offaly with players hopping on bicycles and going their separate ways.
Brendan Minnock came up with some real gold for the talk. One highlight was an 1981 RTE interview with Bill Cordial, from Kinnitty and a member of Offaly's first great hurling family. Another was a clip of team captain Jack Holligan, another Kinnitty man, playing hurling in New York after emigrating.