When Tipp put their hurling ‘world title’ on the line against Cork
The Tipperary hurling team that toured the USA in 1926 pictured aboard the SS Bremen.
By Cian Murphy
The rivalry between hurlers from Tipperary and Cork isn’t just the greatest in Gaelic games, it actually predates the GAA itself – and thanks to local historians like John Arnold, the exploits of their 1741 match to mark the end of that year’s horrific famine, and the poems dedicated to it, have been revived for a new generation.
But if its roots predate the GAA foundation in Thurles, their battles of 100 years ago this year were central to bringing their duels to the national consciousness and making a Tipp-Cork game a stand-alone event, one that this weekend ensures that the capacity of Semple Stadium will be stretched to its limit.
Their meeting in last year’s All-Ireland final was the first time they clashed with the Liam MacCarthy Cup on the line, but it was the three matches it took to decide the Tipperary-Cork championship showdown in the 1926 Munster final that cemented their place as a guaranteed crowd puller in the GAA calendar.
Cork headed into that 1926 Championship as proud owners of the newest national title in hurling as the first ever winners of the Division 1 National Hurling League and custodians of a cup donated by Archbishop Croke, presented after a league final victory over Dublin.
But Tipp’s confidence was rooted not just in the fact that they were reigning Munster and All-Ireland champions of 1925, they were recently returned from a successful unbeaten tour of the US which had labelled them Hurling World Champions in the media.
Captained by John Leahy and starring full forward goal machine Martin Kennedy, the Tipp hurlers had embarked on a voyage that revived GAA adventures to America.
The importance of the success of the trip cannot be underestimated. The GAA’s only previous Trans-Atlantic expedition in 1888 had ended in disaster when they sent 50 of its best players on a promotional tour of America that ended in financial ruin for the fledgling Association, needing a £450 bailout from Michael Davitt of the Land League to get the players home (€87,000 in today’s equivalent). More than a dozen opted to stay in the States, and the GAA abandoned that year’s 1888 All-Ireland Championships – the only year marked absent in the record books. Several of those players who stayed had successful business and sporting careers after, including winning Olympic medals representing the USA. The Tipp stars of 1926 would lead to other county teams following their lead and heading to America in the following years.
The accomplishment and achievement that was the staging of the revived Tailteann Games at Croke Park in 1924 had paved the way and shown the GAA that the time was right to try and conquer America again. The idea was that a tour by the top hurling team in Ireland would help promote the GAA in America and it was championed on Central Council by Nenagh’s Frank McGrath.
With financial lessons learned and financial assurances given, permission was granted and they set sail from Cobh on a German liner called the SS Bremen.
The Tipperary hurling team and management that toured the USA in 1926.
Details of the trip have been preserved thanks to a diary kept by one of the 23 players who travelled, Tom Kenny of Portroe. His diary was later turned into a book, and his original handwritten manuscript was secured by Tipperary GAA historian Seamus J King for the GAA collection of Lár na Páirce in Thurles. The book recounts the Tipp men enjoying themselves on the three-week voyage from Ireland, dancing with the bemused German women on board and even joking about staging a mutiny and taking control of the vessel.
After a hero’s reception in New York’s City Hall, Tipp’s 11-week run of games saw them go unbeaten in matches in New York, Buffalo, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco. According to accounts of the time, Martin Kennedy amassed 27 goals on the tour, including a reported seven goal haul in one game against an Offaly selection in New York.
The Munster championship was delayed because of the tour. Having left as the reigning All-Ireland champions, Tipperary had now conquered the New World – so it is little wonder then that interest in the fortunes of the new ‘World Champions’ when they eventually came home was at fever pitch.
But this came to a dangerous head in the Munster final on 12 September at the Cork Athletic Grounds in the summer of 1926 when the game was abandoned midway through the first half due to the enormous crowd, estimated at 30,000, spilling out and around the pitch and it being deemed too dangerous to continue. Tipp were leading 1-2 to 0-0 when referee Diny Lannigan stopped the game.
Noted Tipperary hurler and GAA administrator, Tom Semple, after whom Semple Stadium in Thurles is named.
The refixture was moved to Thurles one week later and put under the control of the legendary Tom Semple, three-time All-Ireland winner with Tipp, later an accomplished administrator and who was at the head of the committee which purchased the Thurles Showgrounds in 1910 and made it a home for Gaelic games. It would be eventually named Semple Stadium in his honour, 55 years ago this year in 1971.
Thurles catered for the 25,000 who attended the second day and who were treated to a thriller that finished level, Tipperary 4-1 to Cork’s 3-4. Tipp clawed back an eight-point deficit. In 2022, an Evening Echo tribute to Cork hero and four-time All-Ireland champion Dinny Barry quoted him as describing the second match in 1926 as “the toughest game I ever played in.” Both sides finished with 14 men.
The deciding act took place in Thurles again on 3 October and this time Cork made no mistake and claimed the Munster title by 3-4 to 2-6 in another captivating battle, with Tipp’s indiscipline their undoing. It was a victory that would power Cork directly into the All-Ireland final and saw them defeat Kilkenny 4-6 to 2-4 in front of 27,000 at Croke Park in a game not played until 24 October because of the Tipp travels and the Munster final mayhem.
The interest and crowds attending matches like the Cork-Tipp ‘trilogy’ were important when the GAA was agitating for more column inches during this era. Unhappy with the coverage its games were getting in the national newspapers, the GAA had committed to part funding a proposed new publication with the Gaelic League that would champion Gaelic games coverage and address the imbalance they felt.
The game changer that was the Irish Press would not arrive until 1931, but in 1926 the GAA was on the cusp of a wave of popularity that would propel it onto a new level – fuelled by rivalries between great hurling and football teams of the 20s and 30s, and this was also the summer when the Galway-Kilkenny All-Ireland hurling semi-final in August of 1926 was the first sports event broadcast live and in full on radio anywhere in Europe – another nod to the popularity and importance of GAA Championship matches.
In 2024 Sheffield Halam University studied the Economic Impact of the sold-out Munster hurling final held in Thurles that year – the meeting of Limerick and Clare estimated to be worth €3.6m to Thurles and more than €4m to county Tipperary as a whole. Even allowing for the fact that Cork fans will be the only new money entering the town this Sunday, a packed house in Tom Semple’s field resonates not only on the pitch, but off it too.
This Sunday Cork are the Munster champions. Tipp are the All-Ireland champions – 100 years on from the iconic three match saga of 1926 the clash of the Rebels and the Premier remains an occasion not to be missed.
To learn more on the Tipp tour of 1926, and Tom Semple, see: