THE venue for this year’s Connacht final may be novel but it is not unprecedented.
All of 98 years ago the replayed provincial final of 1922 between Galway and Sligo was also contested at Croke Park on the last day of September in 1923.
As was common in those times, the match in question, which was played in late September 1923, related to the previous year’s Championship. In that turbulent era, leading up to and in the years immediately following Independence, Championships were rarely concluded within the years to which they properly belonged.
Objections – and counter-objections – were commonplace then too. Results gained on the field of play were frequently overturned afterwards in the committee room.
Both of these factors were part of the story of the replayed 1922 Connacht final between Galway and Sligo that was contested in Croke Park on the last day of September in 1923.
Sligo had had a close encounter with an objection earlier in that year’s Championship, back in May 1923. They beat Roscommon in the first round but the match was ordered to be replayed, which it was in August.
Sligo beat Roscommon even more emphatically second time around and then got the better of Mayo to qualify for the decider.
Galway, meanwhile, had an easier passage to the final. All that stood in their way were Leitrim and the Tribesmen had three goals to spare over them in their semi-final.
The Connacht final was fixed for Parkmore in Tuam on 2nd September. Sligo won that game, on a scoreline of 3-1 to 1-6, but the report on the game in the Connaught Telegraph hinted strongly that that wouldn’t be the end of the matter. So it proved.
The match report states that a crowd of 2,500 were in attendance at the game, with excursion trains from Sligo and Athenry ferrying large numbers to the venue while “numerous char-à-bancs and motor cars from all parts were full”. The day was “beautifully fine.”
All, however, was not well. The report ominously pronounces that the game “was full of incidents, some unpleasant, and it is said that Galway are appealing.”
As the match report makes clear, one of the grounds for appeal related to two goals scored by Sligo. The first was flagged as a goal by the umpire “but which many spectators believed to be a point.” The second incident revolved around Sligo’s third goal. By now “excitement ran high” and “an ugly incident was seen when a Galway player was struck.” Despite this the play continued and Sligo goaled but this score was also disputed, “it being alleged Colleran was in the parallelogram.”
Sure enough, the result was appealed, with, according to the Connaught Telegraph, six grounds of appeal put forward – Sligo’s failure to submit a list of players five days in advance, no official notice of the match being received, disputed scores, the conduct of players and the “illegality of one member of the Sligo team.”
The report states that at the Connacht Council meeting on 15th September it was determined that both counties were in the wrong and so a replay was ordered.
This was set for Castlerea on 22nd September.
By then, however, matters had become more complicated. Sligo, as Connacht champions, had played and beaten Tipperary in the All-Ireland semi-final the Sunday after they’d got the better of Galway. They, naturally, now wanted to focus their attention on a first ever All-Ireland final appearance, rather than having to re-litigate matters with Galway.
Sligo took their case to the GAA’s Central Council but, according to the Irish Independent of 22nd September, the decision of the Connacht Council was upheld. Sligo would have to replay the game, which was still fixed for the following day in Castlerea.
But the replay didn’t go ahead then. It did, though, the following Sunday. This time the venue was fixed for Croke Park and in the match report carried afterwards by the Western People comes a clear hint as to why it was switched to GAA HQ.
The reason advanced in the match report was that because the tie now guaranteed the winners a place in the All-Ireland final – much to Tipperary’s chagrin, by the way, as they had argued, unsuccessfully, that should Galway prevail they wanted the All-Ireland semi-final replayed – this elevated the contest to more than a common or garden Connacht final.
Castlerea would have been fine for an ordinary provincial decider but this one, decided the Connacht Council, needed to be settled at Croke Park.
It was and Galway came out the victors, by 2-4 to 2-2. And so Sligo lost their chance to compete in an All-Ireland final, a chance that, almost a century on, has yet to come their way again.
It didn’t end happily for Galway either. The following Sunday they went under to Dublin in the All-Ireland final, losing out by 0-6 to 0-4.
Some may see this as a just outcome, others as just yet another Dublin success.
Plus ça change there.
An edited version of this piece appeared in the Connacht final supplement in this week’s Mayo News – here. The photo at the top is of the Dublin team that defeated Galway in the 1922 final. Dublin was represented in the Championship that year by the O’Toole’s club.
As they say, You couldn’t make it up.
What a story, brilliant.
Thanks WJ for that blast from the past.
No shortage of skullduggery inthe old days. Poor Tipperary got a raw deal in 1923.
Hopefully we will have a well refereed incident free game on Sunday
This was, of course, just a warmer-upper by Galway. In 1925 their committee room thievery bagged them their first All-Ireland title … at our expense. That one still rankles.
Willie Joe, this is an excellent piece of work – thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Your report, bringing in pieces from different press sources of the time, is vivid, and events of 1923 have a freshness to them, that we can relate to today – someone “in the parallelogram”, numerous “char-à-bancs and motor cars” being full, and contentious incidents.
It’s wonderful to imagine our counties of almost one hundred years ago (Tipperary, Sligo, Dublin, Galway) as alive, vivid entities in their own right. It’s almost like reading a press report from today talking about issues that are current for them.
Thank you once more for this lovely reconstruction. Looking at the photo above is a joy too.
Great reading WJ, thanks for that.
Team named…. Leeroy selected to start
Not too many surprises in the team. Hopefully Kevin McLoughlin is on the bench.
Eoghan McLaughlin too actually. He’ll be needed in Croke Park.
Galway team named.. Cathal Sweeney starts..
All the other usual suspects are there..
I expect one or two changes, .. Very glad to see Padraig O’Hora there, that’s a potiantal match up with Damien Comer I would imagine, an interesting one… Possibly to start off this line up suggests Mayo playing with a sweeper to start off with Michael Plunket, as he did for the start of the second half of last December All Ireland final.. 4 great runners with the ball to come on should Galway get stretched at any time, in Kevin McLoughlin, James Carr, Eoghan McLoughlin and Fionn McDonagh, with the possibility of a ball winning Full Forward in Darren Coen, as I see it, if this is indeed the starting 15?
I see WJ mentioned 1925 above.
However Galway had form for this much earlier.
Mayo won their first Con Final in 1901 which wasn’t played till Nov1902 – which was the style at the time. They beat Galway [represented by Dunmore with a few addins from other clubs] in Claremorris by 2-4 to 0-3. The matter didn’t end there, the Galway captain JJ Nestor, after whom the Cup is named, lodged an objection. His complaint seems to be that the Mayo team [Charlestown +] was made up of ex-militia men* some of whom weren’t even from the county.
The Connacht Council hear the case in Claremorris and threw it out. The council was chaired by Joe McBride from Wesport – presumably a brother of the 16’ man that drove Yeats mad & later a SF TD. Someone who is familiar with Wesport history of the era could perhaps confirm if it’s the same guy.
No delegate from Galway turned up at the hearing – not the first time (and hopefully not the last) they failed to show up on the big day 😉
Now it must be said that in 1910ish Mayo objected to a result where they lost to Roscommon on the basis, among others, that the ref was a Rossie but that’s an entirely different matter! IIRC WJ or somebody posted the details here last year.
* A reference to the “Crown Forces” I presume – a scurrilous charge to be sure
Love your post, Longball.
Great history and I have often looked up that 1925 fiasco. I regularly remind my Galway work colleagues of the shenanigans and how they won that particular AI.
Sometimes the years that had controversy are far more interesting than the years that had none.
I had heard about those events before but not the part where Sligo had played Tipperary in the semi final and then had to forfeit, Sligo also had 3 players who were not allowed play v Galway, they were students in St Patrick’s College Maynooth at the time.