Tom Woulfe, one of the GAA’s most influential figures, dies age 99

The death has taken place in his 100th year of Tom Woulfe, one of the most influential figures in the GAA's history. A Kerryman, who lived most of his life in Dublin, he was a founder member of the Civil Service club and a well-known administrator within the association.

But it was for his campaigning work that he was best known. With his club, Woulfe drove the early attempts to repeal the GAA’s controversial rule prohibiting members from playing and attending rival sports - soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket - the notorious ‘ban on foreign games’.

The idea of dropping the relevant provision, Rule 27, was first floated by Woulfe and the club in 1959 but it would be another 12 years before the rule was finally deleted at the annual congress of 1971 in Belfast.

Civil Service club-mate the late Eamonn Mongey, the Mayo All-Ireland winner who also campaigned on the issue of the ban, was anxious to make the point that Tom Woulfe's contribution to Gaelic games far exceeded his highest-profile achievement.

“Tom Woulfe’s great drawback is that he has come to be known as the man who got rid of Rule 27, the famous ‘Ban’. The drawback arises from the fact that his successful campaign has overshadowed all his other achievements on behalf of the GAA in general and the Civil Service Football Club in particular.”