Long history of disputes over implementation of parish rule in Offaly GAA

OFFALY GAA's parish rule is based on the borders of its Catholic parishes and was first put into law in 1909.

The Catholic parish boundaries are stipulated in the Offaly GAA regulation dealing with the parish rule and this is important as it clearly defines the catchment area of each club or parish – most parishes have more than one club and in many of these, a player can play for any club within that parish but once he plays initially, he is tied to that club and can only switch if transferred.

The parish rule is outlined in both an Offaly GAA regulation and byelaw. The byelaw outlines a player's permanent residence and requires that they must have lived here for at least 16 weeks to get a transfer. It also deals with attachment to their first club.

The regulation deals with a club's catchment area, states that this shall be within a parish and the county boundary and that this is based on the boundary of Roman Catholic parishes. It also outlines exceptions to this where players are allowed play with independent teams if there is no underage amalgamation in their parish or can play with a football or hurling club in a different parish if that sport is not catered for in their own. There are several examples of both of these in Offaly.

There are a couple of parishes where borders have been drawn up between clubs within them – these were usually drawn up in cases where there was friction over the movement of players.

There is a border between St Brigid's and Rhode GAA Club in that parish and also between Crinkle, and Carrig-Riverstown, and Birr in St Brendan's parish. There was a long running border dispute between Crinkle and Birr and this was only resolved in the 2000s with an agreement after several failed mediation processes and visits to the Disputes Resolution Authority. Disagreements between Crinkle and Birr have re-emerged in recent times.

There was a border between Killurin and Killeigh GAA Clubs in Killeigh parish but they amalgamated as Clodiagh Gaels in 2015. There have been localised agreements occasionally between clubs in the one parish up and down the years – always to solve disputes over players.

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After the parish rule was instigated in 1909, it was tested to the full by clubs. Some clubs tried to expand their area by claiming that it applied to the much bigger Protestant parishes. Geashill had been a dominant force in Offaly senior football just prior to 1909, winning the championship in 1902 and four in a row from 1904 to 1907. They picked players from a vast area and it is significant that the parish rule spelt the end of their heyday – they were beaten in finals in 1908 and 1911.

They initially tried to claim players from the wider Protestant parish which would have enabled them to pick players from Walsh Island but these failed, as did other similar cases.

It is worth noting that one club in Offaly has very recently attempted to breach the spirit and ethos of the parish rule by claiming that it applied to Protestant parishes and draw in players from well outside their area. They didn't play them after they were told that Catholic parishes was stipulated in rule but the attempt was made.

Drumcullen GAA offered to cede young children to Kinnitty – Toni Ryan

There has been a long history of cases where players have played in clubs outside their parishes but these have generally been in cross county parishes – there are a handful of these in Offaly and in some cases, there have been extended periods where a club was not in existence on the Offaly side of the border. This has happened with Tubber, which is in Rosemount parish – for years, players from Tubber had permission to play with Ballycumber in Offaly which is in a different parish while several players from the area played with Rosemount in Westmeath and this prompted the reformation of Tubber GAA Club in the 1970s.

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Clonmore Harps is another example. They are located in Ballinbrackey parish, which is mainly in Meath and when Clonmore Harps was out of existence, players from here have often played with Rhode. They were reformed in 1989 and there has been a fractious relationship with Ballinabrackey GAA Club since then with Leinster Council asked to intervene several times over players from the Clonmore area playing illegally in Meath.

There are famous examples on the Tipperary border. Moneygall is primarily in Offaly but was ceded to Tipperary in 1912 and this has remained a sore point for generations of Offaly GAA people. On the other side of the coin, Carrig-Riverstown is in Tipperary but play in Offaly – they are in Birr parish and contrary to popular myth, they were not swopped with Moneygall and were ceded to Offaly by Tipperary in 1914, though they applied unsuccessfully to return to Tipperary in the 1960s. Their application was actually turned down by Tipperary as the Offaly County Board made it known in no uncertain terms that they would agree to it but only on condition that any part of Offaly playing in another county would be returned to them – and while they were not named at that time, this very pointedly referred to Moneygall.

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There have been other interesting cases on county boundaries. Ballyskenach played in Tipperary for years in the 1940s and '50s but returned to Offaly in 1961 after a North Tipperary board ruling that only one hurling and football club be affiliated in a parish and this would have result in their players playing with Roscrea – Ballyskenach and Killavilla are now amalgamated as the one club, and both are in Roscrea parish.

Shinrone is also a parish split across the county divide with them playing in Offaly and Knockshegowna in Tipperary.

Interestingly, Lorrha applied to switch into Offaly in the 1920s while most extraordinarily there was some sort of a move by Coolderry to get into Tipperary in the same year, 1925, but neither came to anything.

One of Offaly's most cherished football clubs, Gracefield almost ended up in Laois in the 1950s. Gracefield is on the Offaly side of Portarlington, where the River Barrow divides Offaly and Laois. They are in Portarlington parish and in 1952, there were two clubs in existence on the Offaly side of the border, Gracefield and Treascon. Gracefield supported the bid to move to Laois in '52 and Laois officers attended an Offaly County Board meeting, asking them to cede the Offaly part of Portarlington to Laois for GAA purposes. The Laois chairman L Brady felt it would be a “very fine thing for Gracefield and Portarlington to be made one unit”. Unsurprisingly, the Offaly County Board took a different view. Not only did they immediately reject the proposal but they asked Leinster Council to investigate players from the Offaly side of the border playing illegally in Laois.

Now the county boundaries are sacrosanct, written in stone and the loss of Moneygall hardened the stance of generations of Offaly GAA officials any time there were attempts to get them to cede territory – and there were a few of those, including at Horseleap and Ballinahown along the Westmeath border.

The border areas along county lines has been the main can of worms and in general, parish boundaries have been the lines for GAA clubs in Offaly – there were plenty of years when the parish rule was voted on at Conventions but it has been a staple of the way Offaly runs it GAA affairs since the 1960s.

There is one notable exception where a club picks from two parishes. Erin Rovers GAA Club was reformed in 1940 with the pick of players from Pullough and townslands which is in Ballinahown parish and Turraun, which is in Ferbane parish. A yearly application had to be made for decades with players from Turraun routinely given permission to play with Erin Rovers. Ferbane agreed to this and it was passed as a matter of form but has not had to be put forward as a motion in recent decades – incidentally, Erin Rovers' most famous footballer, Sean Cooney comes from the Turraun townsland.

The recent cases involving players from Drumcullen parish being suspended for playing illegally with Kinnitty have brought the whole parish rule to the forefront again. They are from the Knockbarron and Droughtville townlands and there has been a long history of confrontation in these areas, particularly Knockbarron.

There were two particularly famous cases involving Kinnitty, Drumcullen and the parish rule. In 1967, Drumcullen objected to a senior hurling defeat by their neigbours, claiming that a Kinnitty player Pat Spain was residing in Droughtville in Drumcullen parish and this was contrary to the parish rule. Drumcullen's J. Dooley said at the time that they would have made no objection only for the fact that they “had trouble with Kinnitty over the Knockbarron question”. He said they wouldn't have objected if Kinnitty had “lived up to their responsibilities as regards that”. Chairman Fr Edmund Vaughan stated that Spain had a shop in Kinnitty and after selling this, had to look for a house. Delegates were told that Spain had a house at Castletown in Kinnitty and the objection was lost.

One of Kinnitty's most famous sons, PJ Grimes is from the Knockbarron townsland. Grimes emigrated to New York in 1911, becoming hugely successful, setting up a travel agent and buying the Irish Echo newspaper in 1955. He fought in the first world war, was a leading figure in New York GAA, serving as president and was a star player for Offaly hurling teams, winning 13 New York SHC medals with them during a golden era for them. He died in 1978 at 88 years of age and warranted an obituary in the New York Times.

There was another big stand off between Drumcullen and Kinnitty in 1924 when Drumcullen objected to a defeat in the South Offaly Senior Hurling Championship. This one was a test case for Protestant parishes and the result was an interesting one. Drumcullen argued that Har Armstrong was illegal to play with Kinnitty as he was living in Osierbrook, Clareen. Armstrong was a rare case of a Church of Ireland member playing in those days, though there was a long tradition of this in Kinnitty. Kinnitty responded that he lived in the Kinnitty parish of the Protestant church. The South Offaly sub committee rejected the appeal but the full County Board ruled in Drumcullen's favour. Kinnitty appealed to Leinster Council where they produced letters from two Church of Ireland clergy, Rev. M Hitchcock (Kinnitty) and Rev. M. Burrows (Clareen). The Kinnitty rector referred to the GAA's claim to be “non secretarian” while the Leinster Council ruled in their favour with former chairman PD Breen claiming that the rule breached “the true spirit of the association”. The Offaly GAA chairman at that time was a Drumcullen man, Lar Molloy, father of one of Offaly's most famous hurlers, Paddy Molloy. Kinnitty had objected to him chairing the objection but Molloy refused to vacate the chair, stating that they could appeal if they were not happy with the outcome.

Some time after this, the Parish Rule was tightened up in Offaly, though there were regular proposals at Convention to do away with it.

There were a couple of interesting sequels to the Har Armstrong case. Armstrong and M. Corrigan, W. Cordial and J. Halligan had transfer requests from Kinnitty to Birr refused in 1929.

Kinnitty have also made much in the current climate of the fact that the famous Dooley brothers lived in Kinnitty parish but played all their hurling with Seir Kieran. In Kevin O'Brien's excellent recent book about Joe, Billy and Johnny Dooley, the Dooley Family Memoir, Joe Dooley brought up fond memories of working on the Armstrong family farm as a young lad. Har Armstrong was then an old man and Joe told a lovely story of how they were always well looked after while working as young lads on the Armstrong farm – both with payment and the “delicious dinner” Mrs Armstrong cooked.