Long struggle to establish a firm foothold

In our series of articles from the GAA Museum, the GAA’s role in America and the events that led to the 1947 Polo Grounds Final are analysed

IN HIS book The Clash of the Ash in Foreign Fields, Séamus J King presents evidence for hurling in New York as early as 1763. It is likely that Irishmen, serving in the British Army, brought the game to America at this time; it is just as likely that the game left with the garrison in 1783.

With the advent of the Irish Famine and associated mass emigration from Ireland to America it is not surprising that evidence can again be found for GAA activities in America (New York) in the mid 19th century. However, this time Gaelic games were here to stay, being played by Irish men who had settled in America.

Within America the first real attempt to organise Gaelic games came in 1891, when New York delegates met for the purpose of “devising the best means of presenting to the American public and popularising our national sports and pastimes”. The GAA of America had arrived. All the evidence points to a disjointed American Association that lacked effective leadership and cohesion.

At the 1908 Annual Congress in Dublin two motions were passed – the first called for America to be considered a Province of Ireland for GAA purposes, the second empowered this American Provincial Council to take control of athletics.

The only tangible sign of a relationship between the GAA in Ireland and the GAA in America at the start of the 20th Century was the 1911 “Homecoming Tour”. This tour, undertaken by Irish hurlers living in America, lasted six-weeks (16th July to 20th August) in Ireland with a match played, against Irish opposition, on consecutive Sundays. The tour was a huge success and 25 per cent of the profits (£104) were donated to the Croke Memorial Fund.

The previous year, at the 1910 Annual Convention, two motions were passed disapproving of Irish teams travelling to America calling it ‘inopportune and inadvisable as calculated to encourage emigration’. The financial disaster of the 1888 Invasion Tour still weighed heavily on the minds of the GAA.

It was not until 1926 that the GAA felt confident enough to give the Tipperary hurlers permission to undertake a six-week tour of the United States (at their own expense). As All-Ireland champions, Tipperary drew a large crowd wherever they played and financially the tour was a success. Crucially the trip revived the games amongst the Irish population and led to a fresh wave of enthusiasm.

The GAA in New York set about reorganising itself. A letter from Thomas Delaney, secretary of the New York GAA, to the Central Council in October 1926 describes how the Tipperary tour had rejuvenated interest in Gaelic games.

Delaney explains that New York had taken the initiative and established a National Organisation; their plan was to have one organisation with centres in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Usually only the generation which emigrated that played or supported the games of the ‘old country’. Second or third generation Irish-Americans were far more likely to play baseball, ice-hockey or American Football.

The 1929 Wall Street Crash and subsequent economic depression meant the steady stream of Irish emigrants all but disappeared.

By 1933 the GAA in America realised that for Gaelic games to survive their attention must be turned to the native-born Americans. In April 1933 the Chairman of the Central Council in Dublin commented that “a new feature of activities in America was that they were building up minor teams in addition to the junior and senior teams, so that as emigration declined they would have American boys playing the games”. In July 1933 Pádraig Ó Caoimh, GAA General Secretary, was instructed to choose a suitable design and donate a cup for the American Minor Championships.

However, four years later, in 1937, Father Hamilton, in his report on the 1937 tour of the United States by Mayo, warns “the next few years will be a critical time for the GAA in America. The cessation of immigration from Ireland has cut off the supply of new material from the home source.”

Hopes that the gaps would be filled by the American-born failed to materialise. PJ Grimes, Secretary of the Greater New York GAA, wrote to the Central Council requesting help. He cited that “prior to the depression our average attendance at Gaelic Games was 4000 to 6,000 per Sunday . . . in the year just passed (1936) the patronage dwindled to an appalling figure of 400”. But Central Council rejected the idea of staging the 1938 All-Ireland Football replay in New York.

In 1939 Pádraig McNamee, GAA President, raised the possibility of cancelling or curtailing the now annual tours to America as attendances ‘were dropping by about 5,000 each year’. The outbreak of World War II severely curtailed the activities of the GAA in America and when war ended, the GAA in America was in a critical condition.

At the 1947 Annual Congress in Dublin, Father Hamilton asked for the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Final to be held in New York to help revive the games. This was to have a profound impact on the GAA in America.

See www.gaa.ie/museum for details on a GAA Museum/Irish Times Transition Year Essay Competition