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

UNLEASHING “THE BLUE WAVE”
The Garda
team, which
represented
Dublin in the
All-Ireland of
1927, is
generally
recognised
as one of the
greatest
hurling sides
of all time.
Kickhams returned in 1919 to a much-changed Dublin, physically and
politically shattered by the events of Easter Week 1916 in which as many as
three hundred Dublin GAA members participated. Further away from their
native city young Dublin men, again players and followers of the GAA, fell
on the battlefields of the Great War. But the County Board managed to keep
the games going through the War of Independence and the Civil War, albeit
with championships running well beyond their calendar years.
Looking back the years it seems that the summer of 1921, between the
Truce and the yet to be signed Treaty, was a golden period for the GAA in
Dublin. The young revolutionaries, Michael Collins, Harry Boland, Eamon de
Valera, Dan Breen and Seán McKeon, often in military uniform, were feted
in Croke Park. Collins photographed, addressing the Dublin and Kilkenny
hurling teams, on the role of the GAA in the revolution, prior to a Leinster
hurling final is a compelling image. In other photographs from the period
one can see Harry Boland, hurler and former chairman of the County Board,
exchanging banter, as former players do, with his old team mates. Within a
year both Collins and Boland were dead, victims of the Civil War.
Three Sundays between 1918 and 1924 carry great symbolism for the GAA
in Dublin. In defiance of a government ban on the gathering of people to
participate in Gaelic games the GAA designated Sunday, 4 August 1918 as
Gaelic Sunday. ‘In one never to be forgotten tournament’, remembered
Tommy Moore, ‘we crossed our hurleys with the lion’s claw and emerged
victorious’. Sunday, 21 November 1920 is forever recalled as ‘Bloody
Sunday’ for the deaths of players and supporters gathered in Croke Park for
a football challenge match between Dublin and Tipperary. Those killed were
representative of the people who played and followed the game in the city.
They were the city boys from the precincts of Croke Park; the young men up
from the country working in city pubs; the young girl who accompanied her
fiancée to the game; and the older men from the outlying suburban clubs.
Sunday, 28 September 1924, marks the beginning of modern times for the
GAA. It was on that day that Dublin played and beat Kerry in the delayed
1923 All-Ireland final. The Civil War had divided but not fatally damaged
the Association in Dublin. Teams took the sides of their captains or other
key men, but on that Sunday the game persevered and helped heal the
wounds.
In the later 1920s the games became one of the building blocks of the new
state. Both the new police force, An Garda Síochána, and Army Metro
recruited the best players from all over Ireland to form teams in Dublin. The
Garda hurling team won six county senior hurling championships between
1925 and 1931; Army Metro won three between 1933 and 1938.
Eventually under pressure from the established clubs, these almost
professional outfits were disbanded, but not before they provided the
backbone of the Dublin teams that won the county’s last hurling All-Irelands
in 1927 and 1938. The Garda team, which represented Dublin in the All-
Ireland of 1927, is generally recognised as one of the greatest hurling sides
of all time.
The most contentious issue and one that had a long-term impact on the
GAA in Dublin was the Declaration Rule passed at the Annual Congress of
the GAA in 1925. Under its provisions players born outside of Dublin but
resident in the city could play in domestic competition in Dublin and,
subject to ‘declaring’ their intentions by Easter Sunday of the calendar year,
could transfer allegiance to the county of their birth for the All-Ireland
championships. The rule was introduced to counter the success of
institutional teams such as the Garda and Army, whom some feared were
depleting rural counties of their talent to the advantage of Dublin. The
Declaration Rule created a disconnection between club and county and
meant that Dublin were unable to select a team from all the players
participating in its championships. It is no surprise that in the period
between 1925 and the 1950s, the heyday of the Rule, Dublin had a poor
record in the All-Ireland championships – three football and two hurling
wins between 1925 and 1973 – in contrast to the years preceding its
introduction.
By the year of its golden jubilee in 1934 the GAA was a settled body with a
prominent place in Irish cultural life. All of the national newspapers carried
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