Cork Hibernians with Sam Maguire

By Niamh Archibald

 

It is no secret that budding Gaelic stars around the country have stood in front of a bathroom mirror on more than one occasion and imagined that they are lifting that all important All-Ireland trophy.

 For decades many of Ireland’s elite players have been lucky enough to do it for real in a triumphant moment achieved through months of blood, sweat and quite possibly the odd tear. 

Coveted trophies at various tiers of Gaelic games have been named after leading figures who contributed to Ireland’s national identity.  Yet do we know who these namesakes are? 

All of these cups and trophies have a story behind their titles.

When we think of Gaelic football we think of the Sam Maguire Cup awarded to the winning team of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. 

This prize was named after a Protestant man born in the townland of Mallabraca, near the town of Dunmanway, West Cork in 1879.  In his adult years he moved to London to work for the British Civil Service. Living in a largely Irish populated area of the city he soon joined his local G.A.A team, the London Hibernians. 

As a player he competed in a number of All-Ireland finals. At this time the All-Ireland final was contested by the clubs who won their county championships and the London champions got a bye into the finals.

There is some debate as to which finals he actually played in but GAA record his involvement as 1900, 1901 and 1903.

In 1907 Sam moved to the administration of the London G.A.A and became chairman of the London County Board, eventually becoming a trustee of Croke Park. 

Sam Maguire died of tuberculosis on 6^th February 1927 at the age of 48 in his hometown of Mallabraca. 

Shortly after his death a group of his friends raised money for a commemoration of his name which was a cup to be presented to the G.A.A. This was the Sam Maguire Cup first won by Kildare in 1928 and is now the most coveted prize for county Gaelic football teams.

While the Sam Maguire is the top of the football prizes, the top hurling prize presented to the winners of the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship is named after a man called Liam McCarthy. 

Born in London in 1853, Liam grew up loving sports and took naturally to the Irish national games within his small Irish community.  Earning his living as a blacksmith’s hammerman, Liam readily promoted Irish sporting and social activities within his area and was very much involved in establishing the G.A.A in Britain. 

Remaining a prominent figure within the G.A.A for years after, he soon became the Vice President of the Gaelic League and President of the Irish Athletics Association.  The Liam McCarthy Cup came to be when he purchased a silver cup based on the design of an ancient Gaelic Meither –an Irish loving cup. 

He offered this to the Central Council of the G.A.A at Croke Park which was gratefully accepted and awarded annually as the Liam McCarthy Cup, first awarded in 1921 to Limerick.

The Sam Maguire and Liam McCarthy Cups are widely recognised even outside the GAA fold yet, there are histories behind many of cups and trophies presented in Gaelic games. 

The Andy Merrigan Cup for example, which is presented to the winners of the All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship, was named after a Castletown and Wexford footballer. 

Unfortunately Andy Merrigan died as a result of a farm accident at the height of his playing career.  The cup was first presented as a commemoration to the player in 1974. 

The name given to the cup presented to the winners of the All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship is the Tommy Moore Cup. 

He was chairman of the Dublin based Faughs Hurling Club for forty years between from 1929-1969. 

Tommy gave his all to the team and even allowed his pub in Cathedral Street, Dublin to be a meeting place for the club when they had no where else to go. He became a recipient of the Hall of Fame Award and will continuously be remembered, as hurling clubs across the country compete to win the Tommy Moore Cup.

The premier trophies in ladies football and camogie are named after men.

The Brendan Martin Cup is the award given to the winning county in the All-Ireland Ladies Senior Football Championship. 

Brendan Martin, from Tullamore, County Offaly first organised ladies football games in the early 1970s and went on to become one of the first treasurers of the Ladies Gaelic Football Association. 

The prize awarded to the winners of the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship is the O Duffy Cup. 

Sean O Duffy was a member and administrator of the Kilmacud Crokes Club in Dublin who in 1932 presented the cup to the sport governing body, Cumann Camogaiochta na nGael.

Some of the major Ulster prizes also hold the name of a famous G.A.A figure, particularly in football.  The Seamus McFerran Cup for example, presented to the winners of the Ulster Senior Club Football Championship, is named after the former G.A.A President. 

Born in Belfast, he was the founder of the Geraldines hurling and football club and was the Chairman of the Antrim County Committee in 1944 and a member of the Casement Park Fund Committee from 1944-1953.  This busy man also managed to tour the United States as a singer on more than one occasion. 

Another prominent Ulster Football competition is the McKenna Cup played between counties and universities in Ulster and named after Bishop Patrick McKenna the Catholic Bishop of Clogher. 

Ordained on 1894, he was appointed Bishop in 1909 and donated the cup to the Ulster Council in 1924 when he was one of a very small number willing to be associated with the G.A.A in a time when Ireland was emerging from a war. The first winners of the cup were Monaghan.

Gaelic Games remain a cornerstone of Irish life because of the dedication shown by countless people over generations. Some of these people have been lucky enough to be immortalised through their association with cups and trophies all over the country.