GAA AND THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT:President Michael D Higgins will again be the main guest of honour at Sunday's All-Ireland final but the GAA has not always enjoyed such cordial relations with the leaders of the State, writes CORMAC MOORE
AT THE recent All-Ireland senior hurling final between Kilkenny and Galway, Michael D Higgins was, for the first time as President of Ireland, guest of honour. Upon his arrival at Croke Park, the “Presidential Salute” was played. President Higgins then followed in the footsteps of many of his predecessors and was accompanied by the GAA president, Liam O’Neill, on the red carpet to greet the teams before the start of the final.
He will once again be the main guest of honour at Sunday’s All-Ireland football final between Donegal and Mayo. This enduring image has been one we have grown up with, highlighting the primacy of the GAA’s status in the nation and its close ties with body politic.
The GAA has not always enjoyed such cordial relations with the leaders of the State. In November 1938, just months after his inauguration, Ireland’s first President, Dr Douglas Hyde, attended a soccer match between Ireland and Poland. This was seen by the GAA as breaking its rule on members playing or attending “foreign games” and they subsquently removed Hyde as GAA patron. This controversial decision led to a severe straining of relations between the GAA and Éamon de Valera’s Fianna Fáil government, a situation that was not resolved until 1945 after Hyde had been succeeded by Seán T O’Kelly.
Hyde attended the All-Ireland football final between Galway and Kerry in September 1938, the only All-Ireland final he attended in his capacity as president. Michael McDunphy, secretary to the president, was not pleased with the reception accorded to Hyde by the GAA at Croke Park that day, stating the President’s “arrival passed unnoticed. There was no announcement from the loud speakers, and although the anthem was played its significance was not realised by the spectators”. Alfred “Alfie” Byrne, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, also arrived at the same time as Hyde, further obscuring the head of state’s arrival.
McDunphy believed the president should receive a more fitting welcome by the GAA: his arrival should have been visible to spectators by having his car driven across the field; loudspeakers should herald his arrival in Irish and English; the national anthem should be played; and a separate enclosure should be made available for the president to ensure he was free from any “troublesome attention” that might come his way.
McDunphy was far happier with the reception accorded to Hyde by the Football Association of Ireland a couple of months later at the Ireland-Poland soccer match. Comparing the receptions Hyde received at both events, McDunphy said: “In marked contrast with his reception at the All Ireland Football Final in Croke Park on 25 Sept. 1938 . . . were the arrangements made for the reception of the President at Dalymount Park . . . He was received at the gate by the senior officials of the Football Association. A private room was placed at his disposal. His arrival was announced in Irish and in English. A special box was placed at his disposal, in fact in every way the utmost respect was accorded to him as Head of the State.”
That game between Galway and Kerry ended in a draw. Hyde did not attend the replay in October 1938 as, according to Dunphy, Hyde was not particularly interested in Gaelic football. Once Hyde was removed as GAA patron in December 1938, and this decision was ratified at the GAA Annual Congress of April 1939, there was no question that Hyde would ever attend an All-Ireland match again in an official capacity.
Predicting the likely response, the GAA did not even invite him to the subsequent All-Ireland final, the hurling match between Kilkenny and Cork, which took place on September 3rd, 1939. This match would go down in history as the “Thunder and Lightning” final, one that was played under atrocious conditions of thunder, lightning and a severe downpour for the last 20 minutes of the game. It was also the date on which the second World War began with Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany.
Hyde also missed out on the opportunity to be celebrant-in-chief when his home county, Roscommon, had its finest hours of winning back-to-back All-Ireland football titles in 1943 and 1944.
Hyde decided not to seek a second term as president upon completion of his first term in 1945 and was succeeded by O’Kelly. The incumbent GAA president, Séamus Gardiner, decided to pay a courtesy visit to O’Kelly at Áras an Uachtaráin after O’Kelly’s election. This was the first time there had been communication between the president’s office and the GAA since 1938.
Gardiner’s request was denied: he was instead summoned to Government Buildings to meet the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera. At the meeting the GAA was reprimanded for the slight it had imposed on Hyde by removing him as patron. De Valera contended that the president of Ireland was president of all the people of Ireland and would, in future, attend GAA events as well as other sporting events, including those of sporting bodies affected by the GAA’s “foreign game” ban. The GAA completed a U-turn by agreeing with de Valera in principle that the president should be allowed to attend “foreign games” as well as GAA ones.
Based on the meetings between the GAA and de Valera, O’Kelly decided to go to the All-Ireland hurling and football finals of 1945. This was considered by McDunphy as the renewal of friendly relations between the president of the country and the GAA. At the 1945 hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary, O’Kelly had a motorcycle squadron as escort, was greeted with a fanfare of trumpets (Artane Boys’ Band) and then was accorded the “Presidential Salute”.
Cormac Moore is author of The GAA v Douglas Hyde – The Removal of Ireland's First President as GAA Patron. It is published by The Collins Press, price €14.99, and is available in all good bookshops and online from www.collinspress.ie.
