Unleashing 'The Blue Wave' A Strategy for Dublin GAA - Croke Park

UNLEASHING “THE blue wave” A Strategy for Dublin GAA 2011-2017
2. a look back
before we go forward
On 2 December 1885 the Dublin County Committee was established with
John Wyse Power, one of the seven founders of the GAA, as its first
chairperson. The Association thrived in its early years and by 1888 there
were one hundred and fourteen clubs of variable scales in the county. It is
estimated that these clubs catered for some 6,000 footballers and about a
hundred hurlers. The hurling clubs, concentrated in the inner city, were
made up of rural migrants who worked mainly in the retail draperies, the
bakeries, transport services, and public houses. Football dominated rural
County Dublin. But it was the hurlers of Kickhams, the representatives of
the drapery trade, who won the first of Dublin’s six hurling All-Irelands by
defeating the representatives of County Clare at Inchicore on 3 November,
1889. The first of the county’s twenty-three football All-Ireland titles was
secured when Young Irelands, drawn mainly from brewery employees, beat
Clondrohid of Cork on 28 February 1892.
But it was political events beyond the playing fields, which threatened to
destroy the Association in its early years in Dublin. The condemnation of
Charles Stewart Parnell, one of the GAA’s patrons, by the Catholic Church in
1891 because of his relationship with Kitty O’Shea, caused deep and
lasting divisions. Many Dublin clubs failed to survive the ‘Parnell split’ and
their numbers in Dublin declined from an estimated one hundred and
twenty in 1889 to a mere thirty-eight in 1900. But Dublin GAA remained
faithful to Parnell. When the ‘uncrowned king’ died in October 1891
officers of the County Board, led by Thomas Lee, chairman, and including
James Boland (chairman 1892 and father of Harry, chairman 1911-
1918), marched in his funeral cortege at the head of some 2,000
followers with hurleys draped in black. Parnell is commemorated today in
both the County Board’s headquarters and the county’s premier playing
ground in Donnycarney.
But Dublin guided by wise administrators, such as Lorcan O’Toole (O’Toole
Park, appropriately opened by Kevin Boland in 1957 commemorates him)
secretary of the County Board from 1915 to 1940, and benefiting from its
core position at the centre of the rail and road network, overcame the
travails of the 1890s. With willing volunteers and a large playing
population to draw from, the county prospered so much that by 1920 it
had won eleven All-Ireland football titles (half its total to date) and two
hurling All-Irelands (one third of its total). But there were problems such
as the withdrawal of the Kickhams club in 1913 and its formation of a
rival organisation to the GAA. Kickhams, one of Dublin’s most successful
dual clubs withdrew ostensibly over representation at County Board but the
conflict was in reality about the unresolved question of constitutional and
physical force nationalism.
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