REFERENCE NO. AR/1/55 GAA Oral History Project Interview Report Form Name of Gabriel Mallon Interviewer Date of Interview 12th Feb 2011 Location Joe’s home, near Middletown. Name of Joe Jordan Interviewee (Maiden name / Nickname) Biographical Summary of Interviewee Gender Male Born Year Born: 1945 Home County: Armagh Education Primary: N/A Secondary: Armagh CBS, Greenpark Family Siblings: 1 brother, 1 sister Current Family if Different: Married with children Club(s) Middletown GAA [Armagh] Occupation Inspector with Ulster Bus Parents’ N/A Occupation Religion N/A Political Affiliation / N/A Membership Other Club/Society N/A Membership(s) 1 REFERENCE NO. AR/1/55 Date of Report 26th July 2012 Period Covered 1950s -2011 Counties/Countries Armagh Covered Key Themes Travel, Supporting, Grounds, Facilities, Playing, Training, Covered Managing, Coaching, Refereeing, Officials, Administration, Celebrations, Fundraising, Education, Religion, Media, Emigration, Role of Clergy, Role of Teachers, Role of the Club in the Community, Volunteers, All-Ireland, Club History, County History, Earliest Memories, Family Involvement, Childhood, Impact on Life, Career, Politics, Northern Ireland, The Troubles, Ban on Security Forces, Purchase of Grounds, Relationships, Economy / Economics Interview Summary Joe Jordan is a former chairman of the Middletown GAA club and the Armagh county board. The interview begins with Jordan reflecting on his family background and his experience of growing up in rural Armagh in the 1950 and 60s. Certain memories are recalled in vivid detail and Jordan sketches out the broader changes that were occurring in the 1960s, in particular the arrival of television and the spread of the motor car. Jordan discusses his early introduction to Gaelic games through family, school, local recreational games and the radio commentaries of Michael O’Hehir. Jordan began his working life at 16 and, for a time, the demands of the job precluded a deeper involvement with the GAA. He began playing adult football with Middletown in 1968 and shortly afterwards he took up his first administrative role – as Assistant secretary. A long and distinguished record of service to club and county followed and Jordan discusses the personalities and politics involved in the GAA in Armagh from the 1970s onwards. The various roles and offices he has filled are outlined, with particular emphasis on his tenure as club chairman between 2001 and 2006, a period which coincided with unprecedented success for the county. In addition to the above, Jordan considers the role of various clergymen in the running of the GAA in Middletown and reflects on the history of the local sportsfield, first purchased for the parish in 1913. The interview concludes with Jordan’s reflections on his dealings with Croke Park and leading GAA administrators. 00:00:05 Opens with old family photograph. 00:00:20 Interviewer mentions that interviewee was born in 2 REFERENCE NO. AR/1/55 Killelagh, Co. Armagh. 00:00:28 Born in June 1945. Mentions his father, Tom, being from outside the parish and the second oldest of six children. 00:00:58 Talks about his father’s childhood, place of residence of his later working life – he did a ‘bit of market gardening’. 00:01:28 Talks about his mother, her family background as the second youngest of 9 children. 00:02:04 Discusses his own siblings: mentions that he was the oldest of three children. Refers to his brother Tommy who had recently died. 00:02:28 Growing up in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Mentions that home was situated on the side of the road and that there were a ‘lot of callers’ when people were going for a bus. 00:02:50 Remarks that by the mid 1960s, everybody had cars. 00:03:15 Makes reference to people hunting rabbits and considers the proximity of people to each other in the local rural area. 00:03:30 Recalls a funeral on a ‘very snowy morning’. Describes the morning, the rituals of the rural funeral and seeing ‘men’s breath’ on the air. 00:04:30 Recollections of his first day in school. Mentions Canon Larkin coming to the house on a bicycle and, amid concerns that the local school would close, getting everybody of 4 years old to go to school. 00:04:50 Describes furniture in the school and the tarring of the road which ran past the school for the first time. 00:05:40 Mentions going to next door neighbour’s and feeding calves out of a bucket. Mentions learning to drive a tractor and plough on the farm. 00:06:00 Comments that he still worked on a Saturday on the farm after he started working in Donnelly’s in the early 1960s. 00:06:20 Comments on his old teacher in Menooney, Annie Kat Lavin from Mayo, who retired in 1955. 00:06:45 Comments on doing the 11-plus in 1956 and then passing the ‘13 review’. 3 REFERENCE NO. AR/1/55 00:07:00 First memories of the GAA were the bigger boys in school discussing it. Refers to Joe Sheridan, Jim Sheridan, Pat Brady – all of them were ‘GAA fanatics’. 00:07:18 Mentions that in 1954 the Water Works went passed their house, with Leo McConnell working on it. Recalls him talking about a match between Middletown and Tullysaran. 00:07:50 Mentions Pat Brady calling and bringing him to see Middletown for the first time and knowing three of the players: Sean Barrett, Leo McConnell, Peter Markey. 00:08:20 Talks about the ‘wireless’ on a Sunday. 00:08:30Interviewer mentions that Killelagh is one of three villages in the parish of Tynan, where Middletown was the team. He situates the parish in the west of Co. Armagh. Mentions that a neighbouring parish to that of the interviewee would have been Tullysaran. The parish was also on the border with Monaghan. 00:09:07 Joe mentions that Tullysaran field was 2 miles from his house and closer than Middletown. However, he describes Middletown as the ‘hub’ of GAA in the parish. 00:09:20 Refers to his Uncles Paddy and Ned Loughran playing for Middletown. Paddy was the oldest in the family and Ned would have played just before the outbreak of the Troubles and Civil War – c. 1919-21. He would have continued to play for Middletown into the early 1930s. Remarks that his mother would have talked about Paddy’s playing days. 00:09:55 Mentions that Ned played in the 1930s until going to England in the middle of the decade. Says he got married and returned to play in Clady. 00:10:30 Talks about ‘card parties’ in the 1950s in his Uncle Ned Jordan’s house – refers to them playing cards during Lent and the ‘smart talk’ about the ‘Grab all Association’ and the ‘Gerry Arthur’s association’. Mentions wanting to get into the organisation to see what was really happening. 00:11:20 Discusses influence of Eithne O’Hare as a schoolteacher. Mentions her interest in sport and throwing up a ball and make the boys catch it. She also practiced the solo run and a whole ‘range of stuff’ with the boys. 00:12:05 Going to the Brothers after the 13 Review. Talks about attending trials and being picked for the Corn na nÓg. Recalls playing against Dungannon Academy in October 4 REFERENCE NO. AR/1/55 1958 with Iggy Jones, the Tyrone footballer, as referee. Mentions being switched from corner back to No. 10. 00:13:20 Discusses the opposition played and their meeting with St. Colman’s in the semi-final. 00:13:50 Mentions the help provided in primary school and games played in the ‘flat bottom’ in front of Owensie Mullins home on a Sunday evening. Two teams would be picked – including Protestant boys – and they would play away. 00:14:12 Explains that a ‘bottom’ was a meadow, a flat field. 00:14:20 Refers to no football in Middletown in the 1960s. 00:14:40 Comments on having a wireless at home – using a ‘wet battery’ and a ‘dry battery’ the size of a cement block. Talks of the wet battery being taken away to charge and being returned for the weekend. Comments on the vivid commentaries of Michael O’Hehir making ‘giants’ of men. Refers to him commentating on the Cavan team into the 1950s, the Armagh team of 1953 and Kerry matches. 00:15:53 Discusses a local man called Mick Higgins, who now has a cup named after him. Describes him as an ‘ardent GAA man’ who travelled the country supporting Armagh. Mentions the impression he made on the ‘Harps’ people and his support for Armagh – he was the sort of man ‘who made the GAA what it is today’, helping to build the aura around it. 00:17:25 Comments on the Seán Óg Ó Ceallacháin on the radio on a Sunday night. 00:17:45 Mentions the only outlet he had was his cousin Jim Loughran played for Derrynoose. Mentions getting on the bicycle and getting a lift to play for Derrynoose Minors when they played at home. 00:18:36 Comments that everyone was buying a car and a television between 1964 and 1968 and his workplace, Donnelly’s, was so busy that it was ‘compulsory’ to work every night of the week but Friday. 00:18:58 Refers to luck of his luck in having a job and that others went away to work in England and Dublin, the majority never to return. 00:19:22 Mentions being the fourth member of staff in Donnelly’s when he started in 1961. Says that English and Maths was his downfall in school, so he started working at the age of 16 years.