Would a GAA Team By Any Other Name Play Just as Well?
Introduction
In great Irish mythology Cúchulainn reached for his trusty sword An Cruaidín Catutchenn to slay the foes of Ulster and any oncoming hordes or challengers that were unlucky enough to cross his path. Striking them down and decimating them quicker than a skip full of furniture on the Shankill in late June. Now in the present times of the great internet cycle, that some poor future historian will have to comb through, I reach for the trusty spreadsheet to tackle my difficulties. The challenge in question, which may not live up to one of the seven feats of Hercules but still that won’t stop me from writing a long winded article about it, started with a connection that bounced around the back of my mind for upwards of 15 years before seeing the light of day. Just as that thought could taste the fresh moist air and feel the wind brush up against its cheek, I quickly grabbed it by the leg and dragged it down to live permanently interned in my notes app on my phone.
Reading “A History of the Irish Working Class” the chapter “Marx, Engels, and the Fenians” grasped my attention more than others. While Ellis described the relentless dedication of these bold Fenian men their names kept ringing in my head like my regular snoozed 8am alarm. Admittedly not with tears streaming down my face and a sudden urge to buy a pike but because all too often the names were appended to (or fully) the names of GAA clubs. They conjured memories of the non-standard radio of an old mitsubishi (valued below the price of the radio itself), dusty seats, slight motion sickness, and the lilting west country accents drifting out of the speakers to round up the week’s scores for the football. Ballina Stephenites, Castlebar Mitchell’s, Davitt’s, a few of the titles that unfortunately I had first learned from football and not having their full honours and deeds elaborated for another 15 years.
So recently I wondered which heroes of old Ireland are represented across the country and in what volumes. I took my love of numbers, order, and pure Irish revolutionary nationalism and like a redbull driven Frankenstein (surname of the scientist) stitched it into an unholy love child of a spreadsheet and article that would surely have been declared public enemy number one and unjustly persecuted for causing panic and terror in the surrounding villagers.
What is in a name? A rose if you called it by the most disgusting vile sounding string of guttural sounds you can think possibly imagine, would smell the same. Would a GAA team with a different name be as successful? Even if the players aren’t aware of the feats of bravery and strength their namesakes might have achieved, do they still perform as well? Impossible to tell but if you’re playing Longford Slashers GAA for the first time you will certainly have some doubt in your mind.
It should be noted that there’s some indeterminate margin of error with the following data because there’s no central location to find these monikers, let alone full team names. Some dedications had to be peeled off of wikipedia pages or worse still tiny little pixelated jpegs of the clubs logo that even Galileo would declare beyond his abilities to focus to a clear image. Even worse still some horrible lazy counties, may their county board members have their mouse hands shrivelled up, *cough* Galway *cough* don’t even have a consolidated list of clubs in their own county available! Never mind the defunct or amalgamated clubs that I’m not prepared to scroll through decades of newspaper clippings and local gossip on how many buns Mary baked for the parish bakesale to squeeze an extra 2 club names out of. If somebody is willing to give me a nice juicy stipend to write a sourced, accurate, academic paper on this then I will humbly accept depending of course on when I feel the weight of that first envelope.
History of the GAA
Back in the 1800s sports were the exclusive realm of the middle and upper classes. If you're battling poverty, unemployment, oppression, and possible emigration then you don't have time to care what the hell a wicket or run means.
Michael Cusack, a nationalist school teacher, saw that there was space for cultural revitalisation reigniting traditional sports and pastimes. While hurling was still roughly played in Ireland it was lacking any form or structure. This was only amplified in Cusack’s mind when he tried to organise a match between his established Dublin Metropolitan Hurling Club and Killiomor (a club that still exists to this day). The match frequently had to be stopped due to the two teams playing by different rules. In 1884 taking a pen in hand he wrote an article for the United Ireland and The Irishman newspapers about the need for an overarching organisation capable of standardising the rules of Irish sports, being the focal point of communities and parishes, making stacks on the backs of amateur players, being the life-blood of every Irish Da, and printing obscene amounts of money.
On the 1st November 1884 Cusack convened the first meeting of the “Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes”. Maurice Davin was elected President, Cusack, Wyse-Power and McKay were elected Secretaries and it was agreed that Archbishop Croke, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt would be asked to become Patrons.
It goes without saying that you’re not a proper republican movement if you haven’t had at least 1 split. If you’re as good as the “Republican Congress” you’ll even split at your first meeting. Taking themselves seriously, in 1887 the GAA split into two factions with one that supported the Irish Republican Brotherhood and one that backed the Irish Parliamentary Party. Archbishop Croke, possibly saving the game in January 1888 and cementing its strength was able to get the now two groups to reform under the one GAA umbrella.
Following the 1916 Rising, where many members took part, GAA activities severely declined with key organisers either in the ground or in Frongoch internment camp. Shortly after that the GAA agreed to send a delegation to a Dublin Corporation conference for the purpose of forming a Political Prisoners Amnesty Association. The once small time cultural hurling club had become a powerful tool for the promotion of Gaelach rights and the struggle for a liberated Ireland. Politics had clearly been seen to be intertwined within the organisation and it's no wonder so many clubs took up revolutionary mantles covering their areas.
In 1918 the British Government declared that no hurling or football games would be allowed unless a permit was obtained directly from Dublin Castle. Calling a meeting in July 1918, the GAA unanimously agreed that no such permit be applied for under any conditions and that any person applying for a permit, or any player playing in a match in which a permit had been obtained, would be automatically suspended from the GAA. With further defiance the Council organised a series of matches throughout the country for Sunday August 4 1918. Matches were openly played throughout the country with an estimated 54,000 members taking part. This became known as Gaelic Sunday.
Unfortunately this is where the organisation starts to take a downward trajectory. A combination of the Civil War, a Free State government, and general watering down of Irish politics contributed to the de-politicalisation of the game. During the 1981 hungerstrikes the GAA decided to remove itself entirely from supporting the prisoners and discussing politics. Thoroughly defanged the GAA detached itself from its revolutionary roots and became another streamlined tool of the capitalists.
Mythology
Did Cúchulainn exist? It doesn’t really matter. The idea of Cúchulainn and what he represents is worth more than some bones lying in the ground. Generations of Irish people have sat at home or in dark prison cells with the image of Cúchulainn in mind. The unrelenting force able to obliterate any object thought unmoveable. The hero of Ulster, able to take on entire armies and (almost) win (if not for some sneaky underhanded tactics). Surprisingly only 9 clubs in Ireland are named after him, that’s in total with clubs also called Setanta, his birth name. Most of these 9 are clustered around Ulster which makes sense. You would look a bit of a Tadhg an dá thaobh (turncoat) if you name your Connacht GAA team after the legendary warrior who faced your ancestors down.
3 clubs took the name Na Fianna hoping to conjure Fionn Mac Cumhaill’s strength and do us all a favour and toss Dublin out into open waters where they can’t harm anybody else.
1 Antrim club is using Oisín with 3 other clubs across the country using Tír na nÓg.
They may have been invented thousands of years ago by some tired grandparents that just wanted their rabid grandchildren to go to sleep but these stories form a base of Gaelach culture that promoted an independent Ireland free from colonialism, an Ireland that looked after the sick and infirm, that idolised bravery and merit, spoke of female leaders, and never ever gave up in the face of adversity.
United Irishmen
In terms of 1798 rebellion participants, Robert Emmet appears as one of the most common club names across Ireland with 19 clubs. Emmet 5 years later would lead probably the most hopeless of Irish rebellions yet nevertheless his determination and love for his native land kept his cause an inspiration still to this day. Wolfe Tone, the father of Irish Republicanism who aimed to unite “Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter” has a decent, yet for his standing relatively low, 9. Henry Joy McCracken has 1, and Michael Dwyer who escaped in 1798, looked to take part in Emmet's rebellion in 1803 then was captured and exiled, also has 1 named after him.
While Ireland had a parliament in Dublin, it was but the illusion of democracy. It was a parliament only for the landed aristocracy where workers and peasants would be lucky to even receive crumbs from the upper classes’ banquet table. Sectarian inequality was rife in Ireland and the parliament did little if anything to combat it. The bourgeois participants of the government were troubled with London’s continued interference, removing Ireland’s control of their own economic affairs. England would routinely apply tariffs on Irish goods to crush exports that would threaten any profit margins in Britain.
The United Irishmen brought all people of Ireland together in armed rebellion at the injustices of British rule. It is only fitting that their memories are remembered still in GAA team names. Their memory belongs to the community and the nation and we lose some part of ourselves if we lose them from the collective consciousness.
Paddy Cullivan described it well when he said:
“In the 1980s Edward Fitzgerald’s Frascati House was pulverized to make way for a shopping centre. The homes of United Irishmen Napper Tandy and Oliver Bond were obliterated for road-widening. Moore Hall is a burnt-out ruin. The Emmet family plot lies under a shoddy block of apartments on Aungier St. This greasy-till mentality that knows the value of nothing has got to be stopped – we have lost too much of our history already.
What right has anyone to sell our heritage? It belongs to all the people of Ireland, north and south - Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter.”
Young Irelanders
The Young Irelanders, or more frequently known by the Gaeilge “Éire Óg”, had a combined total of 18. Mitchel, who was later to work with the Fenian movement, had 9 clubs owing their name to him and his legacy. Some of the big names such as Thomas Davis, John Dillon, and William Smith O’Brien all have 1 GAA club named after them. Irish Socialist leader Fintan Lawlor has 0 clubs bearing his name in Ireland but, like Connolly, there are some beyond the waves. Unfortunately O’Connell who denounced the actions of the Young Irelanders to offer physical resistance, the actions of the working class, the Irish language, and was generally the embodiment of Henry Joy’s memento “The rich will always betray the poor”, has 4 clubs with his name. It’s bad enough that the main street in Dublin is “O’Connell street”, after his abandonment of the Irish working people in order to bring more power into the hands of the capitalist class.
The Young Irelanders represented armed rebellion but also a major mass movement against Home Rule and the right of the Irish people to their own governing. They relit a flame that had smouldered since Emmet’s speech at the dock but in Thomas Davis’ own song “A Nation Once Again” they had brought hope back to a population facing famine, some of the hardest years of British occupation, and the deliberate extermination of their way of life;
“And from that time through wildest woe
that hope has shone a far light”.
Of course I am going to take this opportunity to trash O’Connell as well. The “Great Liberator” as mentioned already and quite more descriptively detailed in Connolly’s “Labour in Irish History” (where Connolly speaks of the years of O’Connell as “a chapter of horrors”), and Berresford Ellis’ “A History of the Irish Working Class”, was a liberator for only capitalist interests.
In contrast to all Irish liberation movements who favoured a Gaelach Ireland that promoted Irish as the primary language of an Irish nation, O’Connell (who was a native Irish speaker) scorned our native tongue. He often spoke of "the superior utility of the English tongue, as the medium of all modern communication" and indeed he proved this in his actions, choosing to speak it even when politically disadvantageous to him and the people. When holding repeal assemblies in Irish speaking areas he still chose to use English as the language of operation and communication. Again O’Connell’s words portrayed that he wanted the emancipation of Catholics while his actions at every point demonstrates his hatred for any real change of the status quo. Nowhere is this more clear than when being a trainee barrister he joined the Lawyers Artillery Corps and helped to hunt down United Irishmen in 1798 and even went house to house hunting for Robert Emmet in 1803.
O’Connellism did not prevail and armed liberation was once again taken up in Ireland through multiple groups year after year. The Irish people did not lie down.
Fenians
Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa the old Fenian, whose death became the catalyst for the 1916 Rising, has 6 clubs with his name in Ireland. The great Land League campaigner Michael Davitt totalled 5 clubs, followed shortly by Charles Kickham with 4. Kickham is often remembered as a poet who showed at his time the support for armed rebellion, a factor that has many times been removed for polished away from the history of Ireland and republicanism.
“The tribune’s tongue and poet’s pen
May sow the seed in slavish men,
But 'tis the soldier’s sword alone
Can reap the harvest when 'tis grown.”
With smaller numbers Parnell has 3 clubs bearing his name, James Stephens one of the founders of the IRB has 2, and John O’Leary the longtime president of the IRB has 1 club with his name, residing in County Derry. There is also a club in Kilkenny that couldn’t make up their minds of which gem of republicanism to pick and named the club just “Fenians”.
There Fenians pushed and helped continue the Irish cultural revival. They were a major inspiration for the men and women who would again pick up arms in 1916 and help rebuild Irish culture as part of Athbheochan na hÉireann / The Revival of Ireland, including the founding of numerous GAA teams.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Fenian Brotherhood of America were simultaneously formed in 1858. Looking backwards as a cultural movement the name ‘Fenian’ was taken from the ancient Irish band of warriors from mythology Na Fianna. The term ‘Fenian’ later became used as a blanket term for the movement.
The Fenians led an armed uprising in 1867 with short lived successes in England on Chester Castle, Cahersiveen barracks in Kerry, various towns in County Dublin as well as more isolated events around the country (also later an invasion of Canada that started well until the United States government began clamping down on their activities). The uprising wasn’t able to mobilise the whole populace or damage the well trained, supplied, and drilled British army but their fight continued the unbroken chain of Irish history and laid the seeds in the minds of many for what their future may entail.
At the start of the 1900s a former Fenian prisoner called ‘Tom Clarke’ revived the Irish Republican Brotherhood with the aim of another Rising against British rule and unsure of what faith may lay in store.
1916 Easter Rising
When it comes to the time of the Irish Volunteers and the 1916 rising Pearse absolutely dominates. With 16 clubs named after him. Seán Mac Diarmada gets 2, poor Casement gets 1, and Connolly has 0 in Ireland. If you look around the globe however Connolly starts to rack up the numbers, especially in America where he spent much time organising the trade union movement. Uí Rathaille/O'Rahily who got a Viking's death in battle rather than seeing the firing squad receives better respect with 7 clubs in his honour while the ruinous and greedy capitalists tear down his house in the middle of the night. Those developers never amounting to the fraction of bravery and heroism he had in his pinkie finger.
Ballybay in Monaghan interesting enough is “Pearses” without the apostrophe as they named it after Pádraig and Willie Pearse who many forget was also executed for his part in the Rising.
This is the point where the naming of clubs after martyrs grinds to a halt. Not through lack of new martyrs being made however. The only ones named after Republicans who were executed or died in battle after this period are Kevin Barry (in 1920), Liam Mellows (in 1922), and Seán South the latest (in 1957). Dungiven Hurling Club is named after Kevin Lynch the hunger striker who was murdered by the actions of the British government in 1981.
Seán Mac Cumhaill, former IRA chief of staff, passed away suddenly in 1949. Erin’s Hope GAA in Ballybofey/Stranorlar, Co. Donegal was renamed Seán Mac Cumhaills in his honour.
The 1916 Rising didn’t happen without reason. The British had done an incredible job in pacifying or replacing huge swaths of the Irish population with “West Britons” who were loyal to their decaying and twisted empire.
As Pádraig Pearse writes in ‘The Murder Machine’ “A French writer has paid the English a very well-deserved compliment. He says that they never commit a useless crime. When they hire a man to assassinate an Irish patriot, when they blow a Sepoy from the mouth of a cannon, when they produce a famine in one of their dependencies, they have always an ulterior motive”.
However in the words of Bobby Sands “They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken”. Resistance continued throughout the British occupation and still does to this day. There was a lot of backlash at the time of the Rising against these men who chose to pick up arms for their liberation. The papers painted them as pure evil, looking only to cause mayhem, without any virtue. After their executions public opinion swayed. Irish people who would have before shirked at armed resistance saw the British government for the savage beast it was going back to feast on a new litter each season again and again. The leaders of 16 became heroes, their photos up on walls in every home across from the likes of Tone, Emmet, Davitt, and Parnell. The cause they died for continued to inspire their comrades and further generations and it was no surprise that community activists would look to these martyrs to honour in their club names.
Saints
While saints and religious names weren’t the focus of this article it was hard to avoid them. No surprise with Ireland being the Island of saints, and scholars. It's a reflection of Catholic Ireland at the time when most clubs were being formed that you can’t drive 20 minutes in any direction in Ireland without bumping into a St. Michael’s, St. Mary’s, St. Finbar’s, etc. There’s only so much one-upping you can include in a club name, Antrim smuggly took this to heart and just decided to name a club “All Saints” and leave the matter at that. Although I doubt they were thinking about Saint Denis, patron saint of headaches, or Saint Casimir of Poland when they penned it.
St. Patrick was the dominating figure in this section with 31 clubs in Ireland with his name plastered onto them. I’m sure it leads to some confusion for keen followers of Tyrone football where 5 teams decided to use it as a title or nickname. This would be understandable if the clubs were set up 1700 years ago but in that timespan we have had more than our share of martyrs to pick from a hat instead. St. Patrick gets a sneaky little bump with 19 other teams using Shamrocks, which has forever been tied to his image since he came to this island to preach to a nation of people who were overflowing with Gods to already pray to. St. Mary’s wasn’t too far behind with 23 and St. Brigid’s with 12.
St. Oliver Plunkett was canonised in 1975 so scrapes into this category but for generations of Irish people he was a symbol of armed rebellion. Of catholic emancipation and the undying hope of seeing an Ireland free. 6 clubs bear the name Oliver Plunkett’s and 1 just Plunketts which may have been in honour of Joseph Mary Plunkett or possibly Roy Plunkett inventor of Teflon without whom we never would have had non-stick frying pans. I guess we’ll never know for certain unless somebody sends me that stipend.
Modern religious figures such as Archbishop Croke and Archbishop MacHale also made infrequent occurrences.
Miscellaneous
While Ireland’s bravest children and legends adorn the titles of many clubs I have to make a special mention for my personal favourite that fully embraces the Gaelach spirit in body and form. While not known for being a hurling stronghold, Mayo is home to the great mythological Battle of Maigh Tuireadh and also consequently the hurling team Moytura (the anglicised name unfortunately but ‘you can’t win them all’ (this also being Mayo GAA’s motto of course)). Long before Brian Boru or Oliver Plunkett we had our songs and stories, heroes of renown. These mythological cycles gave inspiration to many generations particularly around the revitalisation of Irish culture. Gaels around the end of the 19th century took the name of one of the 4 treasures of the Tuatha Dé Danann, An Claidheamh Soluis, for Conradh na Gaeilge’s newspaper. For a movement that was looking increasingly towards armed resistance against British rule, what better allusion than to the famous hero’s sword that could fell any attacker in one swoop.
It has been clear to me while compiling the figures and this article the importance of GAA clubs around the country for keeping their legends and heroes alive. Especially in local areas I have great admiration for clubs who choose not to jump on the Gaels (42), St. Patrick’s (31), or Pearses (16) bandwagons and honour their local people with the club’s unique name.
One club in Galway Tommy Larkin’s GAC with levels of efficiency the envy of top assembly line managers named the club after two local people both called “Tom Larkin”. Young Tom Larkin was 23 years old when he was murdered in 1887. Tom punched an RIC constable who was manhandling a young girl in the midst of the already cruel eviction from their home. Tom, for rebelling against unjust laws and enforcers, was tossed in gaol where he was to die another victim of the British empire’s greedy hand. 4 years later Tom Larkin was born, became a priest and embraced every aspect of the Gael. Father Tom went on to great acclaim as a manager and cemented his legacy in Galway and his local area.
While we all know statistics to be the comedian among the sciences, a rare non-numerical chuckle was had at Redmonds GAA in Cork. In stark contrast to the character of the other GAA team names the club came about from an interesting event in parochial history, according to the Irish Times “The club was formed in 1892 when players, nicknamed `the 12 apostles`, left St Finbarr's GAA club due to the split between pro- and anti-Parnellites. The new team was named after the leader of the pro-Parnell faction of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond”. It’s a slice of antiquity to see the team survive to the modern day, especially with the léasadh teanga given to him and his policies by the main characters of Republicanism during his time and after. Those giants who certainly outnumber his high score of 1 with ease. We have already seen that Davitts is flexing on him with his 5 and Liam Mellows, one of Ireland’s unfortunately lesser sung heroes, has 2 clubs named in his honour in his beloved Galway and Wexford, dropping from the top rope with the elbow onto the quislings.
The repetitive act of copying information into a spreadsheet over and over brings about a transcendental mental state that’ll get you closer to Nirvana than the Dalai Lama has ever been. This aided in me being caught by surprise when the lack of mental acuity and the lingering hallmarks of a hangover sent a wallop into my stomach as if St. Patrick himself had pulled some Martian Manhunter manoeuvre and swung his shillelagh about my ribs from inside, all when I perceived the name of a Kerry club to be “Churchills”. What in the name of the Bengal Famine and blight upon Irish sovereignty I thought to myself before realising it was the placename and anglicisation of Cnoc na hEaglaise, literally Hill of the Church and not some self-hating Gaels who get a kick out of drawing ire from their neighbours.
That’s enough numbers for me I thought, as I climbed into bed and hallucinated Pat Spillane forcing me at gunpoint to invent new club names but solely through the medium of the popular game show Countdown. “Give me a consonant please, Pat” I mumble as I wearily drift off to sleep.
Appendix
Name Count
Gaels 42
St Patricks 31
St Marys 23
Emmets 19
Shamrocks 19
Éire Óg / Young Irelanders 18
Pearses 16
Sarsfields 15
St Brigids 12
Eoin Rua O’Neill 10
Harps 10
Cúchulainns 9
Mitchells 9
Wolfe Tones 9
O’Rahillys / Uí Rathghaille 7
St Oliver Plunketts 7
O’Donovan Rossas 6
Davitts 5
Kickhams 4
O’Connells 4
Na Fianna 3
Parnells 3
Tír na nÓg 3
Grattans 2
Liam Mellows 2
Seán Mac Diarmada 2
Seán Traceys 2
Stephens 2
Casements 1
Dillons 1
Henry Joys 1
Dwyers 1
Fenians 1
Kevin Barrys 1
O’Learys 1
Oisíns 1
Raparees 1
Redmonds 1
Seán Mac Cumhaill 1
Seán South 1
Smith O’Brien 1
Thomas Davis 1
Wild Geese 1