Athy's G.F.C.

For over 20 years I have been trying to trace a photograph of the 1923 Athy Senior Football team which was the first local team to contest the Kildare Senior Championship Final.  The late Pat Mulhall drew my attention to the existence of the photograph, a copy of which was believed to have been in the possession of the late Paddy Hayden of Castledermot who had been a member of the team.  The 1923 final was played in Newbridge on 4^th May 1924 and ended in victory for Naas when Athy was trounced by 2-5 to no score.  Eoghan Corry wrote in the Kildare G.A.A. centenary history book of ‘the performance of the Athy Jazz Band who paraded in fancy dress before the match was more memorable than that of the injury hit Athy football team’.

Recently a photograph appeared in the window of Paud and Nora O’Connor’s photographic shop in Offaly Street with the caption, ‘Athy Senior Team – July 1924’.  Obviously given that date, the photograph, while it may include many of the 1923 final team, may not be the photograph, the existence of which was first drawn to my attention 20 or so years ago.

Athy Gaelic Football Club is believed to have been founded following an initial meeting on 1^st September 1887 and a further general meeting on 2^nd October 1887 when local curate Fr. James Carroll was elected first Club President.  The first competitive game involving Athy was played in Mr. Anthony’s field at Rathstewart on 13^th November against a team from Knock, Co. Laois.  The first trophy won by Athy club was the 1907 Junior Championship Final and following its defeat in the 1913 Junior Final which was played in October 1914 the club went into decline.  However, the cause of that decline was not the loss of the Junior Final when victory once again went to Naas but the declaration of war which saw so many young men from Athy enlist to fight overseas.  The difficulties of that time can be understood on noting that an inter county game played in Athy Showgrounds between Kildare and Laois in May 1921 was the first such match in Athy following the start of the 1914-18 War.

The Christian Brothers revived Gaelic football in Athy with the founding of the Young Emmets football team which initially catered for underage footballers but which in time under the stewardship of Seamus Malone, a teacher in the C.B.S., became the town’s football club.  Seamus Malone was an old I.R.A. man who wrote of his exploits in his book, ‘B’fhiú an Braon Fola’, which translates as ‘The drop of blood was worth it’.  An English translation of the book under the title ‘Blood on the Flag’ was published by Tower Books in 1996. 

Malone who died in 1949 aged 68 years was described in an article in the Leinster Leader in 1927 ‘as a person of indominatable will and tireless energy’ who despite the depletion of the Club’s ranks due to emigration never gave up in his promotion of Gaelic games in Athy.  In his last year as Vice President of Athy Gaelic Football Club Seamus Malone had the satisfaction of seeing his much depleted club team reach the senior championship final only to be defeated by Kildare on the score of 2-4 to 1-5.  That final was played on the 16^th of October 1927 and two weeks later one of Athy’s star players, Michael Mahon, emigrated to America.  Seamus Malone was to leave Athy the following year. 

The 1923 team which lost the County Championship Final included Eddie O’Neill, Chris Lawler, Dan Nolan, Jim Clancy, Paddy Hayden, Tom Forrestral, Johnny Kelly, Pat Brogan, John Moore, Tom Germaine, George Dowling, Mick Grant, Mick Mahon, M. Byrne and Tom Moore.

I interviewed Tom Forrestral, the last surviving member of the 1923 County Final team in 1989 when he was 92 years of age.  Tom lived in Castledermot and he remembered the team players, referring to Johnny Kelly as ‘little Johnny Kelly’ and to Tom Germaine as ‘Golly’.  Others mentioned by Tom were ‘Sapper’ O’Neill, ‘Compry’ Nolan, Jim Clancy and John and Tom Moore, both of whom were from Rheban.  John Moore played at centrefield with Jim Clancy and another man on the team with Tom was his friend Paddy Hayden, who was also from Castledermot.  George Dowling, so far as Tom could remember, was from either Cavan or Clare and worked locally as a shop assistant.  Mick Grant, whom I understand was known as ‘Myra’ Grant, would later emigrate to America, as did Eddie ‘Sapper’ O’Neill and Mick Mahon.

The photograph accompanying this article appeared in O’Connor’s shop window recently with many of those photographed identified and with the team named as the ‘Athy Senior Team – July 1924’. The Athy team which played in the County Final just two months before that is known and its composition was in many respects very different to the players identified in this photograph.  It raises the question as to whether the dating of the photograph and the identification of many of the players in the photograph are correct.  Can anyone throw any light on the subject and perhaps even help to find a copy of the team photograph for the defeated 1923 County finalists.

Paud and Nora O’Connor’s shop windows at the top of Offaly Street always draw a lot of attention with an interesting display of old photographs and is well worth a visit.

Athy's G.F.C.

‘They have done us proud’.  The words of an 85 year old, soon after news reached him of the defeat of Athy’s senior team in last week’s Leinster Championship semi final.  The young men who comprise the Gaelic football panel for Athy Gaelic Football Club have indeed brought honour and pride to the South Kildare town.  Their success in the Kildare Senior Championship, the first for Athy in 24 years, brought to mind the glory days of the 1930s and the early 1940s when the Athy club strode like a colossus through the rough and tumble of the short grass county footballing scene. 

The first senior county final contested by the Athy club, was the 1923 final which was played in Newbridge on 4^th May 1924.  The opposing team was from the county town of Naas and the injury hit Athy team failed to score, leaving Naas to run out easy winners.

I had the privilege of interviewing in 1990 the last surviving member of the 1923 Athy team, Castledermot native Tom Forrestal when Tom was 93 years of age.  His team mates on that day included the legendary Eddie ‘Sapper’ O’Neill who later emigrated to New York where he captained the New York team which defeated the 1926 All Ireland champions Kerry in the first ever international Gaelic football match.  The emigration boat also took to America some other members of the Athy team, including Mick ‘Myra’ Grant, Mick Mahon and George Dowling.  Mick Mahon is the only Athy club player ever to win an All Ireland medal which he got as a sub on the 1927 team when Kildare defeated arch rivals Kerry. 

Athy G.F.C. lost two senior football finals in 1927.  The first defeat was inflicted by Caragh, to whom Athy lost by one point in a high scoring game.  This was the 1926 senior final which was played on 27^th March 1927.  Just six months later Athy lost the 1927 final to Kildare town.  Six years would pass before the club which was founded in 1887 would have the opportunity to win its very first senior title. 

That win came in 1933 and was followed a year later by a second senior title.  The Athy team featured such great players as Paul Matthews, Tommy Mulhall and Barney Dunne.  Three years later Athy won the 1937 senior title, with Paul Matthews and Tommy Mulhall again to the fore.  Several newcomers were included on the team, including Tommy Buggy, Jim Birney, the Murray brothers Matt and Lar and the man regarded as the finest footballer ever to have played with Athy, George Comerford.

The success of the 1930s was not quite matched in the following decade when Athy’s only senior final success came in 1942.  The peerless Paul Matthews who had captained the Kildare county team in the 1935 All Ireland was still a playing member of the Athy team which was defeated in the 1941 senior final.  The victors on that occasion were Carbury against whom Athy exacted revenge when winning the following year’s final.  That was the last Athy winning team until 1987, and signalled the final appearance in a county final of long serving players such as Paul Mathews and Barney Dunne. 

The success of this year’s team has given an enormous boost to the South Kildare club and the young stars of the team give hope of further continuing success over the next few years.  The townspeople responded wonderfully to the team’s successful run in the Kildare championship and the subsequent Leinster club championships.  The celebrations in the flag bedecked streets of Athy contrasted with the public’s apparent indifference to the club’s success in the 1930s.  I remember Barney Dunne once telling me of the championship winning teams returning home to Athy, and the absence of any public acknowledgement of their success as county champions.  It was I felt a matter of regret, not just for Barney, but also his team mates who would have wished to share their success with the townspeople whom they represented on the playing fields.

This year’s team can have no such regrets.  Their success has brought glory and honour to Athy and to their club.  In years to come someone else’s pen will no doubt write of the footballing exploits of the men in red who in 2011 blazed a trail of success across Kildare county before venturing further afield into the hitherto unknown realm of Leinster football.

Athy G.F.C.

Eoghan Corry in his centenary history of the GAA in County Kildare stated that “Athy, a town of British Soldiers and public houses was an unlikely venue for a Gaelic revival. It happened in the 1920’s”. The revival Corry referred to was due in large measure to a teacher in the Christian Brothers School, Athy by the name of Seamus Malone. He served as club secretary for Athy GFC for a number of years before leaving for a teaching post in Waterford in or about 1928. The Athy Gaelic Football Club had enjoyed little success in its early years and following a defeat in the Junior Final of 1913 the Club’s fortunes began to wane. Recruitment for regiments fighting in World War I also played a significant part in the demise of Gaelic football in Athy during the War years. Indeed Corry claimed that “Athy provided more British Army recruits, two thousand in all, for the first World War than any other town in the 26 counties.” In that he was incorrect, although Athy’s contribution to the War was proportionately greater than other Irish towns when comparisons are made on a population basis.

Seamus Malone’s importance to Gaelic football in Athy was his part in establishing a minor club known as “The Young Emmets Gaelic Football Club” which catered for under-18 footballers, there being insufficient Senior players left in Athy at that stage. The Young Emmets rented a playing field from the South Kildare Agricultural Society and this was later to be purchased by the local club and developed as Geraldine Park. As the Young Emmet players grew in years the Club assumed senior status and was re-graded as such in 1921.

Over the years the Athy Club known at different times as Geraldine Football Club, The Young Emmets Gaelic Football Club and since December 1945 as Geraldine Hurling and Gaelic Football Club has been served by dedicated administrators. In the early years Seamus Malone and the J.A. Lawlor Town Clerk were to the forefront of the club’s affairs, while Bill Mahon of Sawyerswood served as Club Chairman from 1928 to 1945. Another whose name is synonymous with the GAA in Athy is Fintan Brennan, District Court Clerk and one-time Chairman of the Leinster Council. John W. Kehoe, Publican of Offaly Street, Joe Murphy, Railway company employee of Offaly Street and Andy Smith, Publican of Leinster Street were other long-serving members of the GAA Club in Athy. There are many others who made a major contribution to Gaelic football in the town, many of whom are now dead and in many cases forgotten by the present generation.

A couple of Sundays past the current members of Athy Gaelic Football Club came together to pay a tribute to two members of the Club who between them have 134 years of involvement with Gaelic football in Athy. Both of the men have many things in common. Neither are from the town of Athy or even from the County of Kildare. One is from Baileboro, Co. Cavan, the other from Tullamore near Listowel in Co. Kerry. Both Tim O’Sullivan and Barney Dunne have served the Athy Gaelic Football Club as players, Committee Members and as Club Secretaries in the past.

Tim O’Sullivan first came to Athy in the week before Christmas 1937 to work as a Chemist’s assistant with J.J. Collins in Duke Street. As expected of somebody from the Kingdom he joined Athy Gaelic Football Club and togged out on a few occasions but without much success. Tim played junior football for Athy for several years and was a sub on the senior team when it played the first round of the 1942 championship. Unfortunately when Athy won that championship in a replay against Carbery later in the year Tim was not on the panel. His forte was on the administrative side of club affairs and he served as a committee member for some years from 1945 and in 1953 was appointed Club Secretary. He held that position for the following four years which were lean years for the club both in terms of finance and success on the football field. This was nothing new for the Athy Gaelic Football Club as borne out by a reference in the Club minutes of January 1946 when the then Club Secretary reported that he had managed to buy a football cover and then went on to report to his fellow committee members “that there was every chance of getting a bladder”. Tim was appointed to the Geraldine Park Grounds Committee in or about 1951 and served as Chairman of that Committee from 1961-1963. He is currently the President of Athy Gaelic Football Club and is justifiably proud of the fact that he has attended every Annual General Meeting of Athy Gaelic Football Club since 1938.

Barney Dunne came to Athy from Baileboro in County Cavan in November 1931 to work as a barman in Mrs. Margaret O’Meara’s pub in Leinster Street. Bar Manager there at the time was the earlier-mentioned Andy Smith, another Co. Cavan man who was later to open up his own public house in Leinster Street. As a fit and big young man from the footballing county of Cavan Barney was a great acquisition for the local Club and he was soon togging out for Athy alongside the legendary Paul Matthews, the Ardee County Louth man who came to Athy in 1925.

Barney was a member of the first Athy team to win a senior championship in 1933 when Athy defeated Rathdangan by 2-6 to 1-4. That first success was achieved after Athy’s senior teams had been defeated in three previous county finals, 1923, 1926 and 1927. The 1933 victory was followed by a second championship win the following year to give Barney Dunne his second senior medal. A third championship medal was won by Barney and his team-mates when Athy defeated Sarsfield in the 1937 final played in Naas on 17th July, 1938.

Athy suffered defeat in the 1941 senior championship final against Carbery but by then Barney Dunne was working in Dublin from where he was to return in time to play in the 1942 championship which ended with the Athy Club winning its fourth senior final in nine years. Barney also won two Leinster Leader Cup medals in 1937 and 1942 and played inter-county football for Kildare, winning a Leinster medal in 1935. He was a sub on the all-Ireland losing team of that year when Cavan unexpectedly defeated the hot favourites Kildare.

Barney retired from football in 1945 and was later a committee member of the Club and for a short period its joint Hon. Secretary with the legendary footballer, the later Tommy Mulhall. Barney is one of our last links with Athy’s great footballing years of the 1930’s and holds the unique record of four Senior Championship medals, a record which is unlikely to be bettered.

Congratulations to Tim and Barney on receiving the recent Club Award and to both of them goes our appreciation for years of dedicated service to Gaelic games in Athy.

Athy G.F.C.

Twelve years ago I interviewed Tom Forrestal of Castledermot who at 92 years of age was then the sole surviving member of Athy’s Senior Football team which lost the 1923 County Final to Naas. That final, played in Newbridge on 4th May 1924, was the first contested by an Athy team and resulted in a victory for Naas on the score of 2-5 to 0-0. The scoreline probably justified the report of a local newspaper which noted :- “The performance of the Athy Jazz Band which paraded in fancy dress before the match was more memorable than that of the injury hit Athy football team”.

Tom Forrestal was one of two Castledermot men on that team, the other being Paddy Hayden. Also players with Athy were Rheban brothers Tom and John Moore, while the “townies” included Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill, Chris Lawler, Dan “Comprey” Nolan, Jim Clancy, “Little” Johnny Kelly, Pat Brogan, Tom “Golly” Germaine, George Dowling, Mick Grant, Mick Mahon and Mick Byrne.

The Senior team of 1923 was not the first of Athy’s footballing heroes. That honour went to the Athy Junior Football team which won the 1907 final when it was re-played on 14th February, 1909. The Junior Cup was the first piece of silverware won by the Athy Gaelic Football Club but even in victory the junior players were to be disappointed when told that the County Board finances did not extend to the purchase of medals. That omission was finally corrected in 1927 when the Kildare County Board gave the outstanding medals to the Athy Club. They were later presented to the members of the 1907 final team at a function in the Urban District Council Offices in the local Town Hall. The team captain, John Lawler of St. Martin’s Terrace, was the first to receive his medal and he was then followed by those of his team mates who had survived the Great War, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. Robert McWilliams was not there. He had enlisted in the Leinster Regiment during World War I and was killed in action in France on 9th September, 1916. Jim May had died as a result of a fall from a roof and his eight year old son Tom received his medal. Christy Farrell was also dead, while Mick Gibbons had emigrated to America. Mick “Major” Toomey stepped forward to receive his medal and was visibly affected by the occasion. Everyone in the room that night could not but be moved by the sight of the man who since his days of glory on the football field had lost a leg in a World War I battlefield. Now he walked with the aid of two wooden crutches.

I have attempted for years to positively identify the members of that successful 1907 Athy Junior Team and while I have collected the following names I cannot be confident that the list is accurate. Maybe my readers can help in confirming the composition of Athy’s first successful Gaelic football team from the names which I have noted as Ned Harkins, Jim May, John Lawler, Ned Lawler, Jack Kelly, Michael Malone, Christy Walsh, Dan Harkins, Mick Gibbons, Jim McArdle, Willie Mahon, Mert Hayden, Christy Farrell, Robert McWilliams and Mick Toomey.

Another presentation was made on a Friday night in October 1927 when Athy Gaelic Football Club members gathered to honour a prominent club member who was emigrating to America the following day. Mick Mahon was an outstanding minor footballer who had few equals on the field of play. He progressed to the senior team and played for Athy when it lost the 1923 senior championship final. He also played on the losing Athy team in the 1926 senior final and just a week before he emigrated to America he again featured on the Athy team which lost the 1927 senior final to Kildare town. Mick Mahon later played for New York and with him on that team was another former Athy player Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill. Mahon subsequently returned to Ireland and played for the senior county team, winning a Leinster final medal in 1931. It has been suggested that he was the first Athy club player to win an All-Ireland medal, but I have been unable as yet to confirm that fact.

Emigration took a heavy toll on Athy Gaelic football teams during the 1920’s and apart from Mick Mahon and Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill, other fine players to emigrate included Paddy Farrell, Myra Grant, George Dowling, Tom Blanchfield and Frank Lambe. I recall the late Ned Cranny recounting the “send off” given to Eddie “Sapper” O’Neill and Myra Grant in 1924 as they started the long journey to America. Eddie and Myra were star players for the local club and as they set out from home hundreds of local people turned out to wish them well as they paraded behind the local band which played them to the railway station. Eddie O’Neill would later return to Ireland but Myra Grant I understand lived out the rest of his life in America. Another former club player who never returned to Ireland was Frank Lambe whom I believe emigrated in 1923. Last week his daughter Anna Marie Lynch from New York called on me with her son Sean and daughter Colleen to check on her late father’s family. With her she brought an old silver medal which had been her father’s treasured possession . On the reverse side of the medal was an inscription “Senior Tournament Athy G.F.C. Frank Lambe”. This was a medal won by Frank as a member of Athy senior team in a club tournament held before 1923. It was the oldest local GAA medal I have yet seen and I had the pleasure of showing it at a recent club presentation to the two oldest members of Athy Gaelic Football Club.

More about those two men, one a remarkably successful Club player, the other a Club administrator for over 60 years in next weeks Eye on the Past. Incidentally I would like to hear from anyone who can give me background information on Frank Lambe and his family.