offalyhistoryblog

In the history of the GAA, Inter Provincial competitions have had three distinct phases. The first was known as the Railway Shield and began in 1905 when the Great South and Western Railway Company provided two shields for the winners of the competition. A rather strange rule included in the competition was that the first team to win the shield in two consecutive years, or three times in total, would be deemed the outright holder of the trophy. Not surprisingly, the football version only lasted three years in total as Munster won the 1906 and 1907 deciders after Leinster had captured the inaugural title in 1905. The hurling title lasted a little longer and resulted in a play-off to decide the outright winners in 1908 which Leinster won.

            Over the four years of the hurling competition, the Leinster sides selected only used players from Kilkenny, Wexford, Laois and Dublin, with no Offaly player featuring in any of the games played. The games were on the whole well received and caught the public’s imagination. The 1906 semi-final between Munster and Leinster was abandoned before the allotted time due to the failing light which by all accounts was caused by the many frequent pitch invasions by the passionate supporters present. After Munster’s win over Leinster in 1908, both provinces were tied on two victories each and the general hurling public demanded without much delay that a play-off take place to decide the outright holder. The game took place in Kilkenny four months out from the original final on July 19^th. Over 15,000 spectators turned up with many availing of the special trains that ran for these occasions, while bands from Wexford, Waterford and Tipperary travelled to mark the event. The match itself was even stopped on a few occasions to enable the rule book to be consulted before the team officials on both sides were willing to accept the referee’s decisions. After a brilliant game, Leinster came out on top by three points and this ended the GAA’s first dip into an Inter-Provincial competition.

            After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 and the setting up of the Irish Free State, the new Irish government decided to sponsor a festival of sport known as the Tailteann Games. First held in 1924, the event featured a varied range of sports and pastimes from athletics to poetry, drama, prose, short stories, cycling, golf, tennis, clay pigeon shooting, chess, swimming, motor cycle, speed boat and aeroplane races. The government allocated £10,000 to convert Croke Park into a suitable venue to host the main events which  included Inter Provincial Hurling and football contests. Andy Cordial, Stephen Cloonan and Willie Ryan from Offaly all lined out in Leinster’s semi-final hurling win over Connacht.  In the final win by 7-2 to 5-1 over Munster, Cloonan and Cordial played, the latter accounting for a remarkable tally of 4-1 for Leinster. One match that stood out during the 1924 event was an Ireland-America Hurling International played at Croke Park on August 10th. No Offaly player made the Irish lineout, but it is no surprise that the American team featured five from the county, as many of the best hurlers  of this era and later from the successful All-Ireland Junior hurling winning team had emigrated to New York, particularly after their win in October 1924 against Cork. Many of the players on that side had strong Republican sympathies and found employment opportunities difficult to obtain back home at the end of the Civil War. Therefore Offaly’s loss was very much New York and America’s gain. The American side which lost to Ireland on a scoreline of 4-6 to 3-2  included Offaly players Mike Cavanagh, Mike Flanagan, Paddy Cox, John Reddan and PJ Grimes, who also managed the side.

            When the sides met again in 1928, five Offaly players featured with America, Jack Halligan, Jack Horan, Andy Cordial and William Ryan played in their defeat by 5-8 to 2-3 to Ireland, while Jack Cordial was a substitute on the side. Incidentally, no Inter-Provincial game formed part of the 1928 series or the last series held in 1932. That final year again saw four Offaly players lining out with America, Jack Halligan, William Fox, Jack Horan and Brendan Dooley. The ending of the Tailteann Games thus ended the second phase of Inter Provincial and International competitions.

            The third promotion of Inter-Provincial games commenced with the Railways Cups which lasted from 1927 to 2014 in hurling, while the years 1990, 2010 and 2011 saw no competition. Like their football counterparts, these games were very popular with the public especially in the decades up to the 1970s. The following list is a compilation of Offaly players who featured on the various successful Leinster sides since 1927. Where the letter (s) in brackets follows a player’s name, this indicates that the player in question was a substitute for that year’s final, even though some of those players may have lined out in the semi-final of the competition.

In 2015, a Leinster panel that was picked for the series included James Dempsey, Brian Carroll and Shane Dooley, but due to inclement weather on the weekend of the 5^th and 6^th of December, the semi-finals had to be cancelled and the ties were never rescheduled. As a result, Dan Currams is the last Offaly hurler to line out on a winning Leinster side in 2014 while Joe Bergin also came on as a substitute in Leinster’s win over Connacht. That year also had another Offaly connection in that Joe Dooley was the manager of the side. In total, 39 hurlers from Offaly have won Railway Cup medals which is 4 less than the successful number in football. Both Rory Hannity and Joe Begin have won a memorable five medals, with Hanniffy’s achievement all the more noteworthy since he lined out in his five wins. Three players are tied on four wins, Paddy Molloy, Padraig Horan, and Brian Carroll. Jim Troy had two winners medals and when one considers that Troy has also won All-Ireland medals in 1981, 1985 and 1994, it is astonishing that he never managed to be selected for an All-star ward during his career. The only Offaly player who managed to captain Leinster to Provincial success is Aidan Fogarty, which he accomplished in 1988, while Jody Flaherty (1940), John Dowling (1961), Mick Spain (1971) and Gerry Kirwan (1978), each had the honour of acting as referees for the finals in the years indicated. In total, Leinster won 28 hurling titles, Munster 46 titles, and Connacht 11 titles before the series folded in 2014.

            Much of the research for this blog was kindly taken with permission from Dermot Kavanagh’s book, The Story of Interprovincial Hurling. Dermot also published a similar book on the history of the Railway Cup football competition. Both books use beautifully presented and retail at €20 each which includes P+P. Dermot can be contacted on (085) 1043761 or at dermotkavanagh@yahoo.com for anyone who may wish to purchase his books.

If I have omitted any winning player from the list compiled, please feel free to contact me on (086) 3376115 so that the records can be put in order.

Supported by the Department of Culture Communications and Sport as part of the Commemorations Series.