Ceremony marks anniversary of GAA founder John Wyse Power
Uachtarán CLG Jarlath Burns and Ard Stiúrthóir Tom Ryan pictured with relatives of GAA founder, John Wyse Power, at his graveside in Glasnevin Cemetery.
By Cian Murphy
A ceremony has taken place to mark the centenary of the death of one of the GAA’s founders, John Wyse Power, who died on this day in 1926.
Uachtarán CLG Jarlath Burns and Ard Stiúrthóir Tom Ryan joined a group of 20 grand nieces and nephews from his extended family at Dublin’s Glasnevin cemetery where wreaths were laid and tributes paid to a man who, along with Michael Cusack and John McKay, was installed as the first secretaries of the GAA at the formation meeting in Hayes’ Hotel in Thurles on 1 November, 1884.
Born in Waterford and educated locally and later at Blackrock College, John Wyse Power was a prominent figure in nationalist circles and a respected journalist.
An activist who was a supporter of the Land League, the Gaelic League, and a member of the Young Ireland Society, Crown Forces had him under surveillance and referred to him as a member of the IRB Supreme Council during the 1890s.
He accepted the Cusack invitation and attended the meeting in Thurles to form the GAA while he was editor of the Leinster Leader newspaper. He was GAA secretary between 1884 and 1887, during which time he was also involved in the establishment of the Dubin GAA county committee. Dublin GAA were represented at the ceremony by their CEO, Finbarr O’Mahony.
John Wyse Power was one of the founding members of the GAA.
Uachtarán CLG Jarlath Burns said: “At a time of a great awakening in Irish culture and heritage, John Wyse Power immersed himself the revolution happening all around him and succeeded in living a life less ordinary.
“Cusack famously described the early growth of the GAA as being like a prairie fire. John Wyse Power protected and nurtured that flame in the three years he served as our secretary.
“It would be impossible for any of the dozen or so who gathered in Thurles in 1884 to have envisaged the impact the GAA would have on Irish life. The greatest tribute we can pay them is that as we stand here 142 years on, it is impossible to imagine an Ireland without the GAA. The games of hurling and football which they rescued from extinction and revived for a new era are today our national emblems, enjoyed by generations of Irish men and women and recognised by UNESCO for their intangible cultural heritage.
“We owe much to John Wyse Power and his contemporaries for making us realise our identity is unique; our language, our games, our music and customs are things worth saving, things worth protecting, and things worth fighting for.”
A journalist with the Freeman’s Journal, he helped establish the Irish Daily Independent and was an early editor of the Evening Herald, and among those who John Wyse Power influenced in Dublin’s literary circles was James Joyce who is understood to have based the Ulysees character John Wyse Nolan on him. He was a close supporter of Charles Stewart Parnell and defended him publicly when the Catholic Church went against Parnell in 1891.
Married to Jennie O’Toole who herself was a prominent nationalist and Land League activist and later a Free State senator, with whom he had four children, the 1916 Proclamation was signed in JWP’s house at 21 Henry Street where they ran a shop and restaurant called the Irish Farm Produce Company. The house was destroyed during the Rising but later rebuilt and a plaque marks the site today.
His death at the age of 67 came at a time when the Association he had helped to form and set out in life was on the verge of an explosion in popularity and publicity and prominence.
Today’s ceremony was organised by the GAA’s History & Commemorations Committee under its chair, Damian White.