GAA medal shines at Whyte's

A rare GAA medal awarded to a Meath footballer following the 1895 All-Ireland Final made €9,500 at Whyte's sale of History, Literature and Collectibleslast weekend. Meath lost the game in controversial circumstances – by just one point – to Tipperary.

The medal, engraved with the words “Virtual Championship of Ireland 1895” was bought by a Dublin collector who outbid a public collection and paid considerably more than the estimate of €5,000-€7,000.

The sale went well, according to Whyte’s, grossing just over €300,000, with nearly 70 per cent of the lots sold. An Office of Public Works (OPW) file relating to the visit to Ireland by Queen Victoria in 1900 – and two other lots from the same vendor – were withdrawn from the auction at the request of the state agency, which is investigating how the files had ended up in private hands.

A copy of Robert Emmet’s 1803 Proclamation sold for €25,000 to an Irish private collection; an IRA Thompson machine gun sold for €7,200 to a Dublin collector who intends to lend it to a museum; and four stones from the Giant’s Causeway, which had been adorning a Co Donegal garden, fetched €2,000.

But the unexpected highlight of the sale was a rare type of Viking Dublin silver penny, showing King Sitric wearing a helmet, which made €12,000, well over the estimate of €3,500-€4,500.)

Auctioneer Ian Whyte said it is “believed to be the only example in private hands and last sold for €2,500 at Whyte’s 15 years ago, proving that rare Irish coins are a good investment”.

- MP