Gaelic Games

GAA to mark grave of schoolboy killed on Bloody Sunday in 1920

John William Scott was killed when British army and police opened fire in Croke Park

On November 21st 1920 14 civilians were killed in Croke Park during a GAA match. Photo: Oisin Keniry/Inpho

Ian O'Riordan's face
Ian O'Riordan
Tue Nov 20 2018 - 14:21

The GAA is to formally recognise the grave of Dublin schoolboy John William Scott, one of the 14 victims of the Bloody Sunday massacre at Croke Park, which took place 98 years ago on November 21st, 1920.

Scott was aged 14 when he died of a fatal gunshot wound to the chest while attending the Dublin and Tipperary football match. The game was being played in aid of the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependents Fund, and was violently attacked by a combined Crown Forces of military and police, shooting randomly into the crowd and onto the pitch for 90 seconds, resulting in the deaths of 14 people and the wounding of several others.

From Fitzroy Avenue in the shadow of Croke Park, Scott was one of three schoolboys killed in the tragedy and has, until now, been among eight of the victims to be without formal recognition at their final resting place.

GAA president John Horan will unveil a monument on his grave in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin this Wednesday – the 98th anniversary of this death – as part of the GAA’s Bloody Sunday Graves Project, which has been identifying the graves of those killed.

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The two other schoolboys killed on the day were Jerome O’Leary (10), from Blessington Street, Dublin, and William Robinson (11), from Little Britain Street, Dublin. There are still four remaining victims in unmarked graves, which the GAA intends to also formally recognise between now and the Centenary of Bloody Sunday in November 2020.

Flags at Croke Park will fly at half-mast, and the names of those killed will be displayed on the stadium screens to coincide with when the first shots were fired at the crowd and players on the morning of November 21st. Among the other victims on the day was Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, an Irish Volunteer, the only player killed on the day, the Hogan Stand in Croke Park later renamed in his honour. Bloody Sunday was seen as part of a reprisal for the killing of 15 British Intelligence officers earlier in the day.

The GAA wishes to acknowledge the support of George McCullough and the Glasnevin Trust, and also the journalist Michael Foley, author of The Bloodied Field, for their assistance with the Graves Project.

The John William Scott ceremony will take place at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

In ómós: The Bloody Sunday Dead, killed at Croke Park on November 21st, 1920

Jane Boyle (26), Lennox St, Dublin – (Charge hand to a pork butcher)

James Burke (44), Windy Arbour, Dublin – (Employed by Terenure Laundry)

Daniel Carroll (30), Templederry, Tipperary – (Bar manager)

Michael Feery (40), Gardiner Place, Dublin – (Unemployed)

Mick Hogan (24), Grangemockler, Tipperary – (Farmer & Tipperary footballer)

Tom Hogan (19), Tankardstown, Limerick – (Mechanic)

James Matthews (48), North Cumberland Road, Dublin – (Labourer)

Patrick O’Dowd (57), Buckingham Street, Dublin – (Labourer)

Jerome O’Leary (10), Blessington Street, Dublin – (Schoolboy)

William Robinson (11), Little Britain Street, Dublin – (Schoolboy)

Tom Ryan (27), Glenbrien, Wexford –(Labourer)

John William Scott (14), Fitzroy Avenue, Dublin – (Schoolboy)

James Teehan (26), Tipperary – (Publican)

Joe Traynor (21), Ballymount, Dublin – (Labourer)