Northern Ireland

New books charts history of the GAA in 100 objects

Sam Maguire’s Pocket Watch (1923). Picture: GAA Museum, Croke Park
Sam Maguire’s Pocket Watch (1923). Picture: GAA Museum, Croke Park Sam Maguire’s Pocket Watch (1923). Picture: GAA Museum, Croke Park

FROM Sam Maguire's pocket watch to a golden key from the opening of Croke Park in Dublin, a new book has charted the rich history of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 100 objects.

The first book from cultural historian Siobhán Doyle of the National Museum in Ireland, the collection charts the huge role the GAA has played in Irish society.

With objects collected from every county in Ireland, it presents a chronological history of the GAA that also functions as a social history of those involved in it.

The collection includes medals and jerseys worn in All-Ireland finals that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Other objects which tell have their own stories are a GAA rule book dating back to 1888, GAA themed prison art made in Long Kesh during the 1980s and a camogie dress used by the Antrim team the 1960s.

The Sam Maguire Cup is famously given to the All-Ireland Senior football champions each year, but a pocket watch given to the man himself gives a tangible link with history.

The west Cork native and Irish Republican captained the London Hibernians Gaelic football team to multiple All-Ireland finals at the start of the twentieth century.

Before his death in 1926, friends gave him the gold pocket watch which would have been considered a status symbol at the time.

The inscription reads: "Presented to Sam Maguire by his fellow Gaels in London on his return to Ireland, Jan 1923".

Ms Doyle writes that one object that stopped her in her tracks was a pair of glasses damaged during the events of Bloody Sunday in Croke Park, on November 21, 1920.

Annie Burke from Co Sligo had attended the Dublin versus Tipperary challenge match when members British forces known as the Black and Tans opened fire on spectators causing 14 deaths and injuring many more.

She writes: "Annie herself left Croke Park unscathed, aside from a piece of glass which cut her face.

"The glasses she wore were damaged by a ricocheting piece of grit and she never wore them again."

A History of the GAA in 100 Objects is available now through Merrion Press.