Silvermines' Nancy Ryan remembers family GAA milestones as she gets ready to celebrate 100 years

Nancy Ryan (nee Gleeson) from the Silvermines will celebrate her 100th birthday on Sunday, April 28, 2024.

Nancy comes from a family with a huge GAA tradition. Her father, the late Martin Gleeson who played hurling with Silvermines and Tipperary in 1885 and 1886, almost 140 years ago.

He played on the Silvermines team against Nenagh Mitchells in the very first hurling game in Tipperary played under the new rules of the GAA. That game was on March 25th 1885 and was played in front of supporters estimated to be in excess of 2,000.

Canon Fogarty, in his book, Tipperary’s GAA Story, wrote “The battle was grim and the Mitchells were sore and sorry and sorry at the finish. Glory went to the Mines.”

Martin Gleeson was a member of the North Tipperary hurling team which played a team from South Galway in the Phoenix Park on Tuesday, February 16, 1886 in what is recognised as the first inter-county hurling game played under the auspices of the GAA.

A Silver Cup was presented to the winning team, North Tipperary. This is the oldest trophy to have been presented to a winning team for a GAA Competition. Given on loan to the Lar na Páirce Museum in Thurles. It is now on loan to the GAA Museum in Croke Park.

Tipperary scored the only goal recorded in that inter-county game. The report in the Nenagh Guardian February 17, 1886, is quite clear that the goal was scored by Martin Gleeson.

The Silver Cup, won by North Tipperary in February, 1886, was immediately put up for competition and was open to all teams in Ireland. The North Tipperary Club retained the trophy. A hurling contest was then organised among the clubs of North Tipperary with the Silver cup as the prize.

The final was played on St Patrick’s Day 1887 and here Silvermines defeated Holycross on a scoreline of 1-5 to Nil. Martin Gleeson was a playing member of the victorious Silvermines team who brought the trophy to Silvermines.