‘Chasing Sam Maguire – The All-Ireland Football Championship 1928-1977', is authored by Colm Keys and Dermot Reilly and published by the O'Brien Press.
By John Harrington
Authors Colm Keys and Dermot Reilly have done GAA supporters and the Association as a whole a great service with the publication of their book, ‘Chasing Sam Maguire – The All-Ireland Football Championship 1928-1977'.
It’s a hugely impressive body of research that saves for posterity far more than just the vital statistics of each of the first 50 All-Ireland Senior Football Finals that came with the prize of the Sam Maguire Cup.
The seed was first sown when Reilly enquired of Keys where he might find a list of all the All-Ireland Football Final players and the clubs they were attached to.
When it became apparent no such repository existed, the duo set about collating it themselves and after eight years of tireless research have produced a book that makes for fascinating reading.
In the end they fulfilled far more than their initial brief. The final product also includes a potted history of each of the 50 championship campaigns, not just the finals themselves. While painting a social history of the times as well as a sporting one adds an illuminating context to the publication.
The hours of research that went into it must have been considerable, because even the primary task of collating the names and clubs of all the players who were involved in those 50 All-Ireland Finals was no easy feat.
The programmes and match reports for most of them would have just included the first initial of the players, and no clubs would have been commonly listed.
A tricky task was made more difficult by the fact that so many players represented multiple clubs over the course of their careers.
Clubs would commonly wink out of existence and so players would have to transfer to the next nearest one. Economic necessity forced many players to move to other counties and join clubs there, while some professions dictated regular cross-country relocations.
Mick O'Connell of Kerry, centre, in action against Sean O'Neill, left, and John Purdy of Down during the All-Ireland Senior Football Final match between Kerry and Down at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Connolly Collection/Sportsfile
Paul Russell, a Garda who played on the Kerry four-in-row team (1929-32), played for as many as eight different clubs between Kerry, Dublin, Wateford, Meath, Kildare, Cavan, and Galway during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
Rather than take the easy route of listing the initial parent club of each player, Keys and Reilly had the tenacity to, as best they could, track down each and every club a player featured for over the course of their career.
Match reports of the time didn’t always list the names of unused substitutes or extended panel members who didn’t make the final cut of 20 for All-Ireland Final day, but, once again, the authors went the extra yard here to be as all-inclusive as possible.
This required hours of trawling through archives of both national and local newspapers as well as club histories to cross-check and validate names and scores.
The authors start each chapter, or year, by telling the story of the campaign that lead to the final and nicely capture the various twists and turns, controversies, and dominant personalities that set the narrative of any given season.
This is followed by a detailed summation of the final itself, with a run of play as well as the key statistics of score, scorers, attendance, gate receipts, and referee.
Sean Doherty, Dublin, supported by team-mate Kevin Moran in action against Jack O'Shea, Kerry. GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Semi-Final, Dublin v Kerry, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: Connolly Collection / SPORTSFILE.
The ‘Final Miscellany’ section of each chapter is a treasure trove of internesting vignettes that bring the era to life and often leaves you shaking your head in disbelief. Here are just a few…
Patsy Lynch was only 16 years of age when he played at centre-back for Cavan in the 1928 Final against Kildare...
Kerry goalkeeper Johnny Riordan didn’t touch the ball once in Kerry’s 3-11 to 0-2 win over Monaghan in the 1930 Final due to the extent to which the Ulster side were outplayed and the fact he didn’t take kick-outs for his team...
Kerry’s mascot for the 1946 Final was a duck dressed in green and gold, while Roscommon’s was a wild hare...
In the run-up to the 1960 final between Down and Kerry such was the demand for match tickets that a Tyrone man offered a three-and-a-half acre farm in exchange for 10 of them...
Some nice context is also added by the ‘The Year That Was’ section, where some of the top Irish and International news stories of the year are listed in bullet-form.
Each chapter then culminates with the full list of players and their clubs who were involved on the day, a labour of love that will be really appreciated by anyone with an interest in GAA history.
‘Chasing Sam Maguire – The All-Ireland Football Championship 1928-1977’ is an important piece of work, and the good news is that the authors intend to publish a chronicle of the second 50 years to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Sam Maguire Cup in 2028.
‘Chasing Sam Maguire – The All-Ireland Football Championship 1928-1977’ by Colm Keys and Dermot Reilly is published by The O’Brien Press and can be purchased here - https://obrien.ie/chasing-sam-maguire
