A Seed Is Sown 1884-1900 (1) Before the GAA from the Earliest Times, The

A Seed is Sown 1884-1900 (1) Before the GAA From the earliest times, the people of Ireland, as of other countries throughout the known world, played ball games'. Games played with a ball and stick can be traced back to pre-Christian times in Greece, Egypt and other countries. In Irish legend, there is a reference to a hurling game as early as the second century B.C., while the Brehon laws of the preChristian era contained a number of provisions relating to hurling. In the Tales of the Red Branch, which cover the period around the time of the birth of Christ, one of the best-known stories is that of the young Setanta, who on his way from his home in Cooley in County Louth to the palace of his uncle, King Conor Mac Nessa, at Eamhain Macha in Armagh, practised with a bronze hurley and a silver ball. On arrival at the palace, he joined the one hundred and fifty boys of noble blood who were being trained there and outhurled them all single-handed. He got his name, Cuchulainn, when he killed the great hound of Culann, which guarded the palace, by driving his hurling ball through the hound's open mouth. From the time of Cuchulainn right up to the end of the eighteenth century hurling flourished throughout the country in spite of attempts made through the Statutes of Kilkenny (1367), the Statute of Galway (1527) and the Sunday Observance Act (1695) to suppress it. Particularly in Munster and some counties of Leinster, it remained strong in the first half of the nineteenth century. It went into decline in some areas after the failure of the 1798 Rising and the passing of the Act of Union, and it was dealt a most serious blow by the Great Famine of the 1840's and the emigration which followed it, which, in the words of one writer, "wiped out the hurlers themselves and the very traditions of the game in many a parish where formerly it had flourished".' While football is not nearly as ancient as hurling, nevertheless it is likely that the game in one form or another was played in Ireland since the Middle Ages, and there are many unmistakable references to it since the late 1600's. Monaghan, Armagh and Louth are among the northern counties from which accounts of football matches in the early 1800's have survived. However, the Famine had a devastating effect on every aspect of Irish life, and, as had happened in the case of hurling, all other games played by the Irish suffered serious reverses. The Home Rule MP, A.M. Sullivan, recalling in the late 1870's its impact on the lives of the ordinary people, wrote: "Their ancient sports and pastimes everywhere disappeared and in many parts. have never returned. The outdoor games, the hurling match. are seen no more". The Famine was not the only cause, however, of the decline of Gaelic games in the last century. In his history of the GAA, deBurca refers to the fact that these games "were either directly discouraged or openly prohibited by government officials such as policemen and magistrates, as well as by some of the Catholic clergy and many landlords", the reasons varying from "fear of violence and insobriety to suspicion of games being used as cover for meetings of various nationalist bodies".' The same writer refers to the fact that in many places cricket began to rival native games in popularity and that nearly every town had its cricket club which was patronised by government officials, bank clerks, policemen, and usually supported by the local garrison. Even in some rural areas traditionally associated with hurling cricket had begun to gain support in the late 1870's, and this was one of the factors which appalled Michael Cusack and fired his determination to secure the preservation of the native games and pastimes. (2) Tyrone before the GAA Evidence concerning the existence of the native games in Tyrone before the foundation of the GAA is, unfortunately, extremely limited. Even an Brathair 0 Caithnia's monumental work, "Sceal na hIomana", which traces the history of hurling from the earliest times until 1884 and which is the result of painstaking research into a vast number of recorded sources of information, contains only a few references to the playing of the game in Tyrone. These refer to a survey of the parish of Ardstraw (in the Castlederg area) written by Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald and published in W.S. Mason's "Statistical Account of Ireland" (1816). Fr. Fitzgerald wrote: "The only public sport they had in Ardstraw in 1814 was playing at common, as it is called, but from the time a company of the yeomen was formed, it was seldom practised". He added that "the game of common is played with a little wooden ball, which they strike with sticks that are bent at the head" . According to deBurca, camanacht (or "communing" in English), played in the northern half of Ireland in winter-time with a slender stick and a hard ball, was a form of ground hurling in which the ball was not lifted into the hand.' The existence of 66 common" in this part of Tyrone in 1814 is remarkable, in that Ardstraw was one of only a dozen parishes in Ulster where, according to the survey, hurling was being played. Twenty-five years later, when another survey was carried out, no reference to the game there is found. Despite the absence of written records, there can be little doubt that "common" was a popular game in Tyrone at least during some parts of the 1800's, for it was often referred to by many people who were born around the end of the century and whose parents would have remembered its being played in their youth. 0 Caithnia refers to one old man living in the Gortin area, who in 1950 recalled the tradition of playing "common" in the Greencastle and Carrickmore areas in bygone days. The same man had also heard tales of the game being played on frozen lakes. Another man from Trillick spoke of the making of hurling balls with the centre made from cork which, he said, was bought in Enniskillen.' It is likely however that this last account refers to a later period, possibly the beginning of the present century. In 1949, when an attempt was made by the Coalisland Fianna club on the occasion of the opening of the Cardinal MacRory Memorial Park to collect material relating to clubs in East Tyrone, the following account was written in connection with the Derrylaughan club: "As far back as 100 years ago (the period after the Famine), we find the young men and boys of the district playing a game similar to present-day hurling in the meadows along the Blackwater (a river which bounded the townland of Derrylaughan on one side), which were then common property. All other details of the sport are lost in antiquity except for the oral records of its existence, spoken round the turf fires on winter nights by the old men who had boyhood recollections of having seen it played, and the tales told of it by the older people who have passed within living memory". A man from this area of East Tyrone who died in 1941 recalled games of "Caman" which were played in the townland of Dirnagh in the 1880's. The game consisted mainly of ground striking, and the hurleys used were generally made from the sally bush or a whin root, which was pared down and which was virtually unbreakable.' He recalled in particular two games played between a team from Washingbay and another team consisting of players from Clonoe and Coalisland. One game was played at Washingbay, and the Lough Shore men walked to Dirnagh (the area between Clonoe chapel and Annaghmore crossroads) for the return game. Both games were followed by an evening of dancing and entertainment in the local hall. An old man from Cookstown, who was born in 1867, recalled before his death in 1946 memories of the game of Caman being played in his native area when he was a boy in the 1870's, and he remembered branches being cut from bushes in order to provide sticks for the game.' Evidence about the playing of Caman in the Carrickmore area in the period 1850- 1900 is provided in "The Carrickmore Tradition"." One story recounted there concerns a man who in 1896 suffered recurring pains from an injury inflicted with a Caman when he was a young man (around 1850). Another story tells of a large scar which a man who was born in 1847 carried on his shin as a result of a "clout from a Caman". Other sources tell of crowds present at caman matches in the 1880's and 1890's, while one old man who died at the end of 1983 at the age of ninety-three recalled being present at caman matches when he was only five years old (1895). A report in the "Derry People" of 30th September, 1905, of the annual convention of the St. Patrick's club, Waterside, which was established in the autumn of 1884 and which was the oldest club in Derry, recalled that the team's first match "was played in Lifford holm against a Strabane team," presumably immediately after the date of the club's formation. Further evidence of the existence of the game in parts of Tyrone towards the end of the last century - and almost certainly for a considerable period before then - is found in the "Derry People" of 28th March, 1903, which refers to the setting up of a hurling club in Strabane as follows: "The members of the local (Strabane) caman club, who had not allowed the old and popular game to die away, have been compelled to take up another game - similar in nearly all respects to Caman - namely hurley.

Load more