Remembering Bloody Sunday at Croke Park

21 November 2025 - 2:40PM

Flames are lit in memory the victims during the GAA Bloody Sunday Commemoration at Croke Park in Dublin on November 21, 2020. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

By Cian Murphy

Today marks the 105^th anniversary of the Crown Forces attacks on Croke Park on 21 November 1920 which resulted in the killing of 14 people at the Dublin-Tipperary football match at the stadium.

One of the worst atrocities to occur during Ireland’s War of Independence, the incident is part of what is known as Bloody Sunday 1920 and had a deep and lasting impact on attitudes towards the GAA and the playing of Gaelic games at Croke Park.

Uachtarán CLG Jarlath Burns said: “More than a century on from the horrific events of that day, the Bloody Sunday attack and massacre at Croke Park continues to reverberate down through the generations for all of who hold the GAA dear. On this, the 105^th anniversary of the appalling loss of life of innocent people who went to a match and never came home, we remember them and honour their memory. It was an event that transformed the significance of Croke Park to the GAA and to Ireland, and it will forever be a place that preserves their memory, just as it stands as a monument to all that is inspirational about our culture. To the descendants and relatives of Jerome O’Leary, Billy Scott, Perry Robinson, Jane Boyle, Daniel Carroll, Joe Traynor, James Matthews, James Teehan and James Burke, to Tom Ryan, Tom Hogan, Patrick O’Dowd and Michael Feery and Mick Hogan – Cuimhnímis orthu uilig. We remember them all.”

A photograph of Hill 16 in Croke Park taken the day after Bloody Sunday in 1920.

Around 3.15pm on the afternoon of Sunday, 21 November 1920 a mixed force of police and army surrounded and stormed the ground roughly 10 minutes into a challenge football match between Dublin and Tipperary and began shooting in all directions.

Several spectators were shot and killed inside and outside the ground, while several more were caught in a crush as panicked supporters tried to escape the gunfire but were prevented from doing so by armoured vehicles. On the field, Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan was fatally shot as he tried to evade the gunfire. In 1925 it was agreed to name the main stand at Croke Park in his honour. Today at Croke Park the national flag will fly at half mast, the victims will be remembered throughout the day and later at a special annual mass.

The Croke Park dead of Bloody Sunday are:

Jane Boyle (29), Lennox St, Dublin

Charge hand to a pork butcher

James Burke (44), Windy Arbour, Dublin

Terenure Laundry employee & father

Daniel Carroll (30), Templederry, Tipperary

Bar manager of Kennedy’s in Drumcondra

Michael Feery (40), Gardiner Place, Dublin

Unemployed & WW1 veteran & father

Mick Hogan (24), Grangemockler, Tipperary

Farmer

Tom Hogan (19), Tankardstown, Limerick