This weekend’s All Ireland football final between Dublin and Kerry marks the latest renewal of a rivalry that is fair to say has the same status within the lore of Irish sport as ‘El Clasico’ of Real Madrid and Barcelona; the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in baseball (although Yankees/Dodgers was the series of yesteryear), and India playing Pakistan in cricket.
While the Dublin and Kerry clash does not require any of the security measures that surround some of the other major rivalries, especially in soccer, it does carry resonances of a darker time. This year’s final is the 100th anniversary of the famous 1923 final which was not played until 1924 because it had been delayed due to the Civil War.
The GAA had been greatly disrupted by events after 1916. A significant number of those interned and imprisoned after the Rising were GAA members and even county players including Harry Boland of Dublin and Austin Stack of Kerry. The British army and RIC and Dublin Metropolitan Police attempted to prevent hurling and football matches and the growing terror in 1920 meant that the championship had to be suspended. Meanwhile, serving British soldiers played for Irish League soccer clubs like Bohemians. I don’t think they have a shirt or mural commemorating that.
The 1918 final between Wexford, who were in the process of winning their fourth title in a row, and Tipperary was the first to be postponed because of the political situation. The historic election of that year, which led to the establishment of Dáil Éireann, took place at the time when the All Ireland would normally have been coming to decision before Christmas. It was played instead in February 1919. The 1919 final was played on the last Sunday in September but it was impossible to complete the 1920 championship. The final between Tipperary and Dublin could not be held until June 11, 1922. They were the two teams that had been in Croke Park playing a match to raise funds for republican prisoners on Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920.
The delayed 1920 final, which was won by Tipperary, took place just weeks before the outbreak of the Civil War which was to have a further disruptive impact on the GAA. Dublin won the 1921 and 1922 finals, both of which were played in 1923 following the end of the Civil War, and were in pursuit of the three-in-a-row.
The 1923 championship could not be completed in 1923 because a number of counties refused to participate in protest at the continued detention of anti-Treaty prisoners after hostilities came to an end in May 1923. Limerick lost to Galway in the 1923 hurling final which was postponed until September 1924 because Limerick refused to field. The GAA in Munster counties was mainly sympathetic to the republican side and quite a number of former or current county players were IRA prisoners.
The GAA in Dublin, on the other hand, was much more sympathetic at official level to the Treaty side. County football champions O’Tooles were closely tied to the Dublin Brigade of the IRA and some leading members and players had been close to Collins and joined as officers in the Free State Army. A member of O’Tooles local rivals St. Joseph’s, which remains as the only surviving GAA club in the north inner city, Volunteer Edward Dorins of East Wall, was shot dead during the IRA takeover of the Custom House in May 1921.
Some of the O’Tooles were active in Kerry, where the Civil War was particularly vicious, and that undoubtedly added an edge to the dispute over the final. Not all Dublin players were Free Staters. Joe Stynes was an anti-Treaty IRA Volunteer and a former member of O’Tooles. He had left them and joined another club, McCrackens, which was based in Ballsbridge. Stynes was arrested during the Civil War but O’Tooles selected Stynes to play for Dublin. Stynes later emigrated to the United States where he later became a prominent supporter of the Provos through Noraid. One of his grand-nephew’s Brian won an All Ireland with Dublin in 1995. Another, Jim, became a star of Aussie Rules.
Kerry GAA was not universally supportive of the republican side. While that led to some tensions, it is generally acknowledged that the association played a major role in, if not healing the Civil War wounds, at least making it possible for enemies to come to some accommodation. One step towards this took place when a match was arranged between former Kerry republican prisoners and the actual Kerry team.
Despite the ferocity of the Civil War, and the deep hatreds that existed, the victorious side was fairly quick in releasing republican detainees. Most republicans had recognised that they had no hope of winning and that they had only a minority of public support by the time the dump arms order was issued in May 1923. However, it was a significant minority and the new state realised that keeping thousands of prisoners locked up would only exacerbate the animosity felt by that minority and perhaps lead to renewed conflict.
Not all prisoners had been released when the time came to begin the 1924 championship and finish the 1923 series, and it was an issue that looked as though it would threaten to rip the GAA apart. Kerry continued to hold firm and had the support of some Dubs, if not of the Dublin team which continued to prepare for the 1923 final. The Kerryman of July 5 1924 published a letter from the Erskine Childers Sinn Féin cumann in Dublin hailing “the splendid action of the Kerry team in refusing to play the Dublin team until the prisoners were all released.”
By that time the only prisoners who continued to be held were Eamon De Valera and Austin Stack who had captained Kerry to an All Ireland in 1904 against Dublin and who was a TD for Kerry having topped the poll in the 1923 election while a prisoner. The Government was loath to release De Valera and Stack was possibly held alongside him to prove that it was not a personal vendetta against Dev. Both were released from Arbour Hill prison on July 16, effectively bringing an end to the dispute within the GAA over counties refusing to fulfil fixtures.
Kerry reacted immediately and on July 27 a trial match was held at the Sports Field in Tralee, now Austin Stack Park, between a team of footballers who had been in the Curragh internment camp and another team made up of players already on the Kerry team as well as former prisoners from other detention centres. Eight of those selected to play were on the team that took part in the final. The ‘Curragh’ team won by 0 – 4 to 0 – 2.
With Kerry sorting out its selection problems, most people in the county were happy that they would be fielding a better side than the one which had defeated Cavan by a point in the semi-final in April. The Kerryman was looking forward to the final with keen anticipation, declaring it to be “the event of the season.”
Charitably it declared that Dublin were “no fools” and would be fielding their strongest team in order to beat Kerry. The match was seen as a clash between Kerry’s “high fielding and punting combination” against the Dubs’ “short low combination, in which palming of the ball so characteristic of Leinster football in recent years, will predominate.”
The final obstacle to the championship proceeding was overcome at the GAA Congress that was held on August 10. The main issue was now the penalties that had been imposed on Limerick, Kerry and Cork for refusing to fulfil their 1923 fixtures. The counties in question defended their action on the basis that it had been necessary in order to preserve the association from destruction had divided teams contested. The point was also made that neither Dublin nor Galway had sought to be awarded All Ireland titles because of the non-participation of the counties involved in the protest.
The Dublin delegate was John Kirwan who said that while he believed that the GAA had been used for political ends that he was glad to note that the counties concerned had expressed regret for having disrupted games. Former internee John Joe Sheehy was the Kerry delegate, having been selected unanimously by the County Board, an indication of the strength of republicans within the association in Kerry. A motion to withdraw the penalties imposed on the three counties concerned was passed unanimously and the dates were fixed for the hurling final between Limerick and Galway and the much-awaited football showdown.
The scene was now set for the first of the great Dublin/Kerry epics, but it was proceeded by a rather unusual event……