Secretary with flair for organisation

125 YEARS OF GAA ADMINISTRATION:In our series of articles from the GAA Museum, we look at the career and legacy of Cork's Pádraig Ó Caoimh from 1929-1964

AFTER THE death of Luke O’Toole, in 1929, the GAA found itself looking for a new secretary for the first time in almost 30 years. In 1901, O’Toole was elected on a simple show of hands; a testament as to how far the association had progressed under him can be seen in the selection process used to find his successor.

The Central Council decided applicants must have been members of the association for at least five years, must be under 40 and would face an examination consisting of Irish (oral and written), English, arithmetic and book-keeping. The chosen candidate would act as both secretary of the GAA and manager of Croke Park; be paid a salary of £300 (rising in annual increments of £10 to a maximum of £400), and be provided with a free house and electric light.

There were 11 applications for the post, of which nine attended the August 1929 examinations. After the examinations two rounds of votes were taken; on the final vote Patrick O’Keefe (Pádraig Ó Caoimh) defeated F Burke by 11 votes to 10 to become the new secretary of the GAA.

Ó Caoimh was born in Roscommon but moved to Cork at a young age. Educated by the Christian Brothers, he trained as a secondary school teacher at St Mary’s College, London, returning to teach at Presentation College, Cork. In 1916, he joined the Irish Volunteers; three years later he gave up teaching to become an officer with the Cork IRA.

His organisational talents were immediately visible to his superiors and in 1920 he was appointed manger of the employment bureau, established by the First Dáil. This was to be a short-lived appointment: he was captured by the British and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was, however, released in 1922. In 1929, he resigned as manager of a Munster tobacco company when he was appointed as the secretary of the GAA.

Within three years his renowned organisational skills were put to the test. In 1932, Croke Park staged both the Tailteann Games and the Eucharistic Congress. The religious event in particular required a great deal of organisation, with Ó Caoimh overseeing up to 2,000 stewards.

By far the most controversial episode in Ó Caoimh’s 35-year career was the removal of Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland, as a patron of the association in 1938. Hyde broke the GAA’s ban on “foreign games” by attending an international soccer match in Dublin.

One of Ó Caoimh’s key achievements was the staging of the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Final in the Polo Grounds, New York. One has to remember that in 1947 Europe, and America, were still recovering from the second World War, air travel was relatively novel and communications were still primitive. In the space of five months, Ó Caoimh oversaw the transfer of the All-Ireland Final to America and its radio broadcast back to Ireland.

While the Polo Grounds final achieved its ultimate aim of rejuvenating the association in America, Ó Caoimh, for the rest of his tenure, had to spend a disproportionate amount of time organising the GAA in the US.

The post-1947 relationship between the GAA in Ireland and the GAA in New York was, at times, fragile. A number of experiments were tried, such as the St Brendan Cup competition, the inclusion of New York in the National League Finals and the initiation of a World Championship Series. Yet there was constant disharmony either within the American GAA itself or between Ireland and America. Ó Caoimh patiently and diplomatically sought, and tested, solutions that would placate both parties.

One lasting legacy of the Ó Caoimh era is the drive he initiated to have a GAA-owned pitch in every parish. In 1957, a parks committee (Coiste na bPáirc) was formed to advise on a unified plan for the development of grounds. From this committee came the “Grounds Plan” which saw grounds being purchased and refurbished, with grants from the Central Council.

In paying tribute to O’Caoimh after his death Alf Ó Muiri, GAA president, said “in 1929 there were 1,500 clubs, in 1963 there were more than 3,000 . . . the number of grounds owned in 1929 must have been very few, there are now close on 400 grounds owned and properly vested in the association”.

Throughout the last years of his tenure, Ó Caoimh was in poor health. He had undergone four major operations between 1944 and 1963. Central Council acted to reduce his workload and employed new staff, including his successor-to-be Seán Ó Síocháin.

Ó Caoimh passed away in May 1964 after almost 35 years as secretary of the GAA.

The Irish Times, on May 16th, 1964, published a glowing appreciation of Ó Caoimh. It stated that "under his administrative genius the GAA became by far the strongest sports organisation in the country and reputedly the biggest amateur association of its kind in the world. During his term of office, its membership grew to the huge proportions of today, including powerful branches in the United States, Britain, Australia and Africa; imposing stadia, of which Croke Park was his special care. Without his ability to co-ordinate plan and inspire, only a fraction of this extraordinary progress could have been achieved."

Even the controversy about Hyde was reported on in a positive light. In 1938, The Irish Timeshad called the episode the "most utterly childish form of humbug", but in 1964 it wrote: "Ó Caoimh has always remained above and beyond the acrimony that has surrounded the 'ban' for 80 years . . . had he lived to work and wield his influence for a few more years, it is conceivable that the rigours of that rule would have been substantially relaxed."

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