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Michael Cusack and the revival of Gaelic games in Ulster

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2015

Dónal McAnallen
Dónal McAnallen*
Affiliation:
Department of History, National University of Ireland, Galway
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Extract

Ulster has not yet been invaded systematically, but from the information we have received, many important centres are taking to the fields in the most enthusiastic manner'. Thus wrote Gaelic Athletic Association (G.A.A.) founder Michael Cusack in 1885. It was fashionable then to refer to a national sports party ‘invading’ another land to exhibit a sport to the host country, but Cusack was probably parodying unionist depictions of recent nationalist political campaigns in the north-east as ’invasions’ – a term that itself mocked nationalism and its southern promoters as foreign entities in the north.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 145 , May 2010 , pp. 23 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2010

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References

1 United Ireland, 11 July 1885.Google Scholar

2 Cusack himself endorsed the infamous, G.A.A.’s‘invasion of America’ (Celtic Times, 21 May 1887). See also Mike Cronin, ‘The Gaelic Athletic Association’s invasion of America, 1888: travel narratives, microhistory and the Irish American “other”‘ in Sport in History, xxvii, no. 2 (June 2007), pp 190–216.Google Scholar

3 See Belfast News-letter, 19 June 1883, for ‘[t]he Healyites having audaciously invaded County Monaghan’. See also Magee, John, ‘The Monaghan election of 1883 and the “invasion of Ulster”‘ in Clogher Record, viii, no. 2 (1974), pp 147–66;Google ScholarBelfast Morning News, 21 Sept. 1883; and Dublin Evening Mail, 7 Jan. 1885.

4 The ‘black north’ term originated in the eighteenth century, as a reference to a region covering parts of Counties Derry, Donegal and Tyrone, , where the land was treeless after confict (Irish News, 14 Feb. 1939). See also Aodh de Blacam, The black north. An account of the six counties of unrecovered Ireland: their people, their treasures and their history (Dublin, 1938).Google Scholar

5 O’Connor, T.P., The Parnell movement (London, 1886), p. 520.Google Scholar Similarly, Cusack described standard southern nationalist views of Belfast as ‘a scene of sectarian strife and bloodshed’ (Celtic Times, 26 Mar. 1887).

6 Garvin, Tom, The evolution of Irish nationalist politics (Dublin, 1981), p. 8.Google Scholar See O’Halloran, Clare, Partition and the limits of Irish nationalism (Dublin, 1987), pp 4–5,Google Scholar for an overview of southern attitudes to the north in the late nineteenth century.

7 See Londonderry Sentinel, 12 June 1888, for condemnation of a G.A.A.- I.R.B., Dundalkexcursion to Derry as ‘the wanton invasion of a peaceable Protestant city on a Sunday by a mob of nationalists’.Google Scholar

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30 One who grew up on the outskirts of Newry in the early 1880s, referred to life being ‘drear and aimless during leisure hours, especially for the young’ (Devlin, P.J., Our native games (Dublin, 1934), p. 43);Google Scholar ‘I had never seen either football or hurling. The only football played in my region was played by British military teams…’ (ibid., p. 45). clubs, G.A.A.began to organise in Newry from 1888 (Síghle Nic An Ultaigh, Ó shíol go bláth: an dún – the G.A.A. story (Newry, 1990), pp 28–9).Google Scholar

31 Monroe, John, Q.C. (1839–99), is recorded as ‘son of John Monroe of Moira, Co Down’ (Who was who: a companion to ‘ Who’s who ‘ containing the biographies of those who died during the period 1897–1916 (London, 1920), p. 501;Google Scholar the author is grateful to Margaret Toal, Queen’s University Belfast Library, and Seán Hughes, Trinity College Dublin Library, for this reference). Monroe probably spent some time growing up in the north. He read law at Queen’s College, Galway, also studied in London, and spent his working life in Dublin (www.nuigalway.ie/law/documents/alumni.pdf, accessed on 3 Jan. 2009). His retort to Cusack – ‘Don’t mind how long you were in the North; there’s some fun there yet.’ (Irish Times, 5 June 1885) – also suggests that he was familiar with Ulster.

32 Similarly, in the same case Cusack said that he ‘would not have the slightest objec tion to have 25 fve members of the Orange lodges if the other members were suffcient to counterbalance them’ (Freeman’s Journal, 5 June 1885).Google Scholar

33 United Irishman, 1 Oct. 1899.Google Scholar

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37 Caithnia, Ó, Micheál Cíosóg, p. 300.Google Scholar

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40 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, pp 57, 113.Google Scholar

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42 Some sources, including Cusack’s press report of the meeting (United Ireland, 8 Nov. 1884), which appended ‘etc, etc’ after these seven names, have suggested that more than seven attended. See also Rouse, Paul, ‘Gunfre in Hayes’ hotel: the I.R.B. and the founding of the G.A.A.’ in McConnel, James and McGarry, Fearghal (eds), The black hand of repub licanism: Fenianism in modern Ireland (Dublin, 2009), p. 85.Google Scholar

43 Rouse, , ‘Michael Cusack: sportsman & journalist’, pp 51, 53.Google Scholar

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45 United Irishman, 11 Mar. 1899.Google Scholar

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47 Búrca, Marcus de, The G.A.A.: a history (2nd ed., Dublin, 1999), p. 12.Google Scholar See also Davin, Pat, Recollections of a veteran Irish athlete (Dublin, 1939), p. 43.Google Scholar

48 P., LiamCaithnia, Ó, Scéal na hiomána: ó thosach ama go 1884 (Dublin, 1980), pp 610–25;Google ScholarRiain, Séamus Ó, Maurice Davin (1842–1927): frst president of the G.A.A. (Dublin, 1994), pp 14–15,Google Scholar 31, 41, 48. For a literary portrayal of parish games and athletics in Munster in the 1880s, see Kickham, Charles J., Knocknagow, or The homes of Tipperary (13th ed., Dublin, 1887), pp 454–62.Google Scholar

49 United Ireland, 8 Nov. 1884.Google Scholar

50 Derry Journal, 3 Nov. 1884. MacLoughlin’s absence from Thurles may be explained by distance, but he took no notable part in G.A.A. activity thereafter. He was the president of a cricket club in the city’s Waterside area (Derry Journal, 13 Apr. 1885), and briefy an offcial of the City of Derry Working Men’s Regatta, until he quit when a Unionist ultra, Charles Lewis M.P., was made its patron (Londonderry Sentinel, 4 July 1885).Google Scholar

51 O’Sullivan, Thomas F., The story of the G.A.A. (Dublin, 1916), p. 20.Google Scholar The club subse quently renamed itself as ‘First Ulsters’: see Gallogly, Rev. Daniel, Cavan’s football story (Cavan, 1979), pp 19, 21–22.Google Scholar

52 United Ireland, 17 Jan. 1885.Google Scholar

53 Belfast Morning News, 14 Feb. 1885.Google Scholar

54 United Ireland, 14 Feb. 1885.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., 16 May 1885.Google Scholar

56 Ibid., 4 July 1885.Google Scholar

57 Ibid., 11 July 1885.Google Scholar

58 Ibid., 17 Jan. 1885.

59 See ibid., 1 Sept. 1883, for Smyth as a member of the I.N.L. national executive; also Derry Journal, 21 Jan., 25 Feb., 4 Mar., 27 May 1885, for his organisational work for the I.N.L. See also Walsh, Louis J., Old friends: being memories of friends and places (Dundalk, 1934), pp 53–9;Google ScholarDerry Journal, 20 May 1932; and McGee, Owen, The I.R.B.: the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Féin (Dublin, 2005), pp 160, 261Google Scholar.

60 O’Sullivan, , Story of the G.A.A., p. 11.Google Scholar

61 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, pp 106, 107–08, 110–11Google Scholar; Corry, Eoghan, An illustrated history of the G.A.A. (Dublin, 2005), p. 10.Google Scholar

62 United Ireland, 21 Mar. 1885.

63 Derry Journal, 18 Mar. 1885.

64 Ibid., Jan. 1885 to 29 June 1885 passim, does not report any Gaelic sports or G.A.A. in Derry.

65 Gallogly, , Cavan’s football story, pp 19–22;Google ScholarO’Duffy, Frank, The Farney Fontenoys: shades of Donaghmoyne (Monaghan, 1986), p. 25;Google ScholarShort, , Ulster G.A.A., pp 19–21.Google Scholar

66 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, pp 131–44passim.Google Scholar

67 See, for example, Bulfin, William, Rambles in Éirinn, volume 1 (Glasgow, 1981 reprint), pp 88–98Google Scholar (originally published in 1907). Bulfn’s impressions of Belfast were frst published in a newspaper column in the early 1900s; see United Irishman, 11 Apr. 1903.

68 Celtic Times, 26 Mar. 1887.

69 Ibid.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid.

73 Ibid.

74 Ibid., 23 July, 5 Nov. 1887.

75 Short, Ulster G.A.A., pp 28–33.

76 McCabe, Brian, ‘The Celtic Times and the G.A.A. in Cavan’ in Breifne: journal of Cumann Seanchais Bhreifne, ix, no. 39 (2003), pp 120–4.Google Scholar

77 McCluskey, Seamus, The G.A.A. in Co. Monaghan … a history (Monaghan, 1984), pp 3–10.Google Scholar

78 Short, Con, Murray, Peter and Smyth, Jimmy, Ard Mhacha, 1884–1984: a century of G.A.A. progress (Armagh, 1985), pp 28–35.Google Scholar

79 Brock, Gabriel M., The Gaelic Athletic Association in County Fermanagh (Enniskillen, 1984), pp 13–18.Google Scholar

80 Ultaigh, Nic An, Ó shíol go bláth, pp 21–38.Google Scholar

81 For a general overview, see Bourke, Marcus, ‘The early G.A.A. in South Ulster’ in Clogher Record, vii, no. 1 (1969), pp 5–26.Google Scholar

82 See, for example, Sport, 16 Nov. 1889, 7 Feb., 21 Nov., 5 Dec. 1891.

83 Derry Journal, 7 Nov. 1890.

84 Freeman’s Journal, 10 Mar. 1892; cited in Búrca, de, Michael Cusack, p. 175.Google Scholar

85 Short, , Ulster G.A.A., p. 34.Google Scholar See, for instance, Derry Journal, 7 Nov. 1890, for a Dublin promise to play in Derry; and ibid., 31 Dec. 1890, for the Dublin party reneging on this promise.

86 See, for example, Impartial Reporter, 20 Apr. 1889; cited in Bourke, , ‘Early G.A.A.’, p. 11Google Scholar; Short, , Ulster G.A.A., p. 260;Google ScholarUltaigh, Nic An, Ó shíol go bláth, p. 36.Google Scholar

87 Rev. Deery, Leoet al., Doire, 1884–1984: a history of the G.A.A. in Derry (n.p., 1984), p. 34,Google Scholar details a mêlée when a Dundalk club visited Derry in 1888.

88 Garnham, Neal, Association football and society in pre-partition Ireland (Belfast, 2004), pp 40–1.Google Scholar

89 Anglo-Celt, 29 Dec. 1888.

90 Bourke, , ‘Early G.A.A.’, pp 20–2;Google ScholarÓ Mórdha, Pilib S., The story of the G.A.A. in Currin and an outline of parish history (Monaghan, 1986), pp 14–15Google Scholar; McGinn, Phil, Armagh harps 120 years (Armagh, 2008), pp 16–17Google Scholar; Anglo-Celt, 29 Aug. 1896; ibid., 21 Oct. 1899.

91 Freeman’s Journal, 17 Apr. 1893, 23 Apr. 1894. In 1894 the Central Council appointed a committee ‘to organise the derelict counties of Leinster, and Ulster, ’ (Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association, p. 99).Google Scholar

92 Freeman’s Journal, 8 June 1895.

93 Gaelic Athletic Association, Offcial guide, 1896–97 (Dublin, 1896), p. 38Google Scholar; Freeman’s Journal, 11 May 1896.

94 Blake, R. T., How the G.A.A. was grabbed (n.p., 1900), p. 2.Google Scholar

95 Précis of Home Offce papers, 3, 13, 29 June 1896; miscellaneous notes, B series, xiii, June 1896, p. 29; ibid., xvi, Sept.–Oct. 1896, pp 66–7 (N.A.I.) and cited in Mandle, , Gaelic Athletic Association, p. 111Google Scholar. See also McCluskey, , Co Monaghan, p. 11.Google Scholar

96 Búrca, De, G.A.A., pp 51–8;Google ScholarMandle, , Gaelic Athletic Association, pp 108–17Google Scholar.

97 Freeman’s Journal, 3 Aug. 1896; Northern Whig, 15 Nov. 1898; Irish News, 1 Dec. 1898.

98 Póilin, Aodán Mac, ‘Irish in Belfast, 1892–1960: from the Gaelic League to Cumann Chluain Ard’ in Brún, Fionntán de (ed.), Belfast and the Irish language (Dublin, 2006), pp 114–16;Google Scholar F. de Brún, ‘Introduction’ in ibid., p. 9.

99 Meehan, Helen, ‘Shan Van Vocht’ in Ulster Local Studies, xix, no. 2 (summer 1997), pp 80–90.Google Scholar

100 Cusack, , ‘The rise of the Gaelic Athletic Association’, p. 147.Google Scholar He probably meant Whit Monday 1886, when a sports day in Dublin led to a dispute that precipitated his ultimate sacking (Búrca, de, Michael Cusack, pp 135–6, 137, 140–43Google Scholar).

101 ‘Sceilg’, ‘Paddy Devlin’s work for native games and ideals’ in Irisleabhar Bliantúil 1942: the G.A.A. annual (Dublin, 1942), p. 9. For his admiration of Cusack, see Devlin, P. J., ‘Lest we forget – Michael Cusack’ in An Raitheachán: The Gaelic Quarterly Review, no. 2 (Sept. 1936), pp 36–7;Google Scholar ‘Celt’, ‘Michael Cusack and his time’ in ibid., no. 4 (Mar. 1937), pp 18–20, 46–8, 58; and Devlin, , Our native, p. 45Google Scholar. See also Caithnia, Ó, Micheál|Cíosóg, p. 40.Google Scholar

102 Devlin, Patrick J., ‘A practical suggestion: the G.A.A. in Ulster’ in Shan Van Vocht (1 Nov. 1897), p. 201.Google Scholar

103 Ibid.

104 Patrick J. Devlin, ‘The Celtic revival – Camanacht’ in ibid. (3 Jan. 1898), pp 12–13.

105 ‘Celt’, ‘The Gaels and the centenary’ in ibid. (5 Sept. 1898), p. 167.

106 ‘Celt’, ‘Under Gaelic laws’ in ibid. (3 Oct. 1898, pp 180–1. A previous article in the magazine – ‘Gaelic athletes and the national movement’ in ibid. (1 May 1896), pp 88–9 – had no listed author, but its style and general laudation of the G.A.A. were quite similar to those of Devlin.

107 See, for example, Frank P. Burke, ‘Irish independence’ in ibid. (6 Sept. 1897), p. 166.

108 Idem., ‘The revival of the G.A.A.: an appeal to the young men of Belfast’ in ibid. (3 Oct. 1898), p. 186.

109 Idem., ‘Ata an bealach reidh: the progress of the G.A.A. in Belfast’ in ibid. (12 Dec. 1898), p. 220.

110 Idem., ‘Fag an bealach: the Red Branch Hurling Club’ in ibid. (7 Nov. 1898), p. 214.

111 Idem., ‘Ata an bealach’, p. 220.

112 Devlin edited the offcial G.A.A. annual in the 1900s, and wrote Gaelic games columns for the Catholic Bulletin, c . 1928–40, the daily Irish Press in the 1930s (as ‘Celt’), possibly also for the United Irishman in the 1900s and almost certainly (as ‘Mutius’) for republican weekly An Phoblacht, c . 1925–31. ‘Mutius’ reminisced on a visit by Cusack to Belfast: ‘I have seen him preside over an assembly of Northern Gaels, who have their own amenities and preconceptions, which do not always coincide with those of other parts, and in half an hour he controlled the gathering by right of a common purpose and his appeal to the higher traditions of North and South. He fostered emulation in praiseworthy, pleasure-giving things. How deftly he applied this stimulus once at a Belfast reunion of local and Gaels, Dublin’ (An Phoblacht, 1 Oct. 1926)Google Scholar. See also McGuire, James and Quinn, James (eds), Dictionary of Irish biography from the earliest times to the year 2002 (9 vols, Cambridge, 2009), iii, 245–6.Google Scholar

113 United Irishman, 8 Aug. 1903.

114 Nolan, William (ed.), The Gaelic Athletic Association in Dublin, 1884–2000 (3 vols, Dublin, 2005), i, 52–3, 73Google Scholar. Burke was chairman of Dublin County Board from Oct. 1899 to Sept. 1900, when he moved back to Kilkenny.

115 Ryall, Tom, Kilkenny: the G.A.A. story, 1884–1984 (Kilkenny, 1984), p. 285.Google Scholar

116 Evening Telegraph, 16 June 1904. Burke’s romanticism of the ancient Fianna was not confned to Belfast; he addressed Leaguers, Kilkenny Gaelic on ‘The Old Fenians’ (Kilkenny People, 26 Jan. 1901;Google Scholar thanks to Damien Brett, Kilkenny County Library, for this reference).

117 Irish News, 8 Oct. 1898. Burke proposed the Red Branch Club’s name at its frst recorded meeting (Shan Va n Vocht (3 Oct. 1898)) and attended at least two other meetings, chairing the latter (Irish News, 18 Oct., 27 Oct. 1898).

118 Nolan, , Dublin, 1884–2000, i, 52–3Google Scholar; Irish News, 14 Nov. 1898; ibid., 8 June 1899.

119 United Irishman, 25 Mar. 1899; Nolan, , Dublin, 1884–2000, i, 43–4, 50.Google Scholar

120 Irish News, 10, 14 Nov. 1898.

121 Ibid., 16 Nov. 1898. A motion to suspend Belfast Celtic for the season had also been proposed.

122 Ibid., 19 Nov. 1898.

123 Irish Football Association minute book, 1903–09, entry for 5 June 1906; cited in Garnham, Association football, pp 166–7.

124 Belfast News-letter, 10 Nov. 1898.

125 Standing rules and regulations for the government and guidance of the Royal Irish Constabulary (3rd ed., 1872), p. 297; ibid. (4th ed., 1888), pp 399–400.

126 Belfast News-letter, 12 Nov. 1898.

127 Ibid., 1898.

128 Northern Whig, 14 Nov. 1898.

129 McAnallen, Dónal, ‘Sabbatarianism and the G.A.A. in Ulster, 1884–1920’, a paper pre sented at the conference of Sports History Ireland, at University College Dublin, in Feb. 2005.Google Scholar

130 Northern Whig, 14 Nov. 1898. The only incident recorded in the R.I.C. county inspector’s report for that month was ‘in connection with alleged ritualistic practices at some of the Protestant Churches on Sundays’: county inspector’s report for Belfast for Oct. 1898 (T.N.A. P.R.O., CO/904/69).

131 Shan Van Vocht (12 Dec. 1898). A more conservative estimate was about five or six thousand (Northern Whig, 14 Nov. 1898), or three thousand (Belfast News-letter, 14 Nov. 1898).

132 Irish News, 14 Nov. 1898.

133 Northern Whig, 14 Nov. 1898.

134 Anon., ‘The progress of hurling in Ulster: the story of a struggle’ in Evening Telegraph, 26 Sept. 1903.Google Scholar

135 Burke, , ‘Ata an bealach’, p. 220Google Scholar, urged the city’s fve branches of Conradh na Gaeilge to feld hurling teams.

136 For another example of the local impact of the cultural nationalist movement, particularly Conradh na Gaeilge, on the national Gaelic games revival, see Hunt, Tom, Sport and society in Victorian Ireland: the case of Westmeath (Cork, 2007), pp 190–201Google Scholar. In 1904, the Conradh-organised Feis na nGleann, in rural north Co Antrim, helped to put the G.A.A. on a formal footing where hurling was being played informally for many years previously (McAllister, Charlie, ‘Cumann Oisín, 1904–2004’ in Phoenix, Eamon, Cléireacháin, Pádraic Ó, McAuley, Eileen and McSparran, Nuala (eds), Feis na nGleann: a century of Gaelic culture in the Antrim Glens (Belfast, 2005), pp 163–7)Google Scholar.

137 Northern Whig, 15 Nov. 1898.

138 The accounts of Jesus’s life in the gospels of Matthew, , Mark, , Luke, and John, do not mention athletic sports at Cana: see ‘The New Testament’ in The Jerusalem Bible (London, 1968), pp 5–153.Google Scholar

139 Northern Whig, 15 Nov. 1898.

140 Ibid.

141 Cusack actually sued the Irish Sportsman newspaper for libel in 1885 (Búrca, de, Michael Cusack, pp 117–18, 125–6)Google Scholar, and he regularly criticised Dublin press coverage of Gaelic games.

142 Northern Whig, 19 Nov. 1898.

143 Ibid., 28 Nov. 1898. Cusack was being quite disingenuous here, as he himself com plained about preferential treatment of cricket and polo in the park (United Ireland, 18 Apr. 1885; and Celtic Times, 23, 30 Apr., 7 May 1887), and the right of hurlers to use certain sections of the park was contested until as late as 1903 (United Irishman, 21 Feb., 7 Mar., 11 Apr. 1903).

144 Northern Whig, 28 Nov. 1898.

145 Póilin, Mac, ‘Irish in Belfast’, pp 115, 116Google Scholar. See also Belfast Morning News, 18, 23 Feb. 1887; and Derry Journal, 3 June 1898. Only a fortnight before his death, he spoke at an Orange hall against proposals for a Catholic university (Irish Times, 7, 21 Nov. 1898).

146 Northern Whig, 28 Nov. 1898.

147 Ibid.

148 Seaton and Alice co-wrote a tourist guide (Milligan, Seaton F. and Milligan, Alice L., Glimpses of Erin: containing an account of the ancient civilization, manners, customs, and antiquities of Ireland (London, n.d., c. 1889)Google Scholar. The family lived in Omagh, Co Tyrone, before moving due to Seaton’s business (Johnston, Sheila Turner, Alice: a life of Alice Milligan (Omagh, 1994), pp 20, 21, 26, 33Google Scholar).

149 Northern Whig, 29 Nov. 1898.

150 Ibid.

151 Irish News, 1 Dec. 1898.

152 Minutes of meeting between representatives of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, 3 Nov. 1938 (P.R.O.N.I., HA/8/237).

153 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, p. 176.Google Scholar

154 ‘Benmore’, ‘In memoriam’ in Irish News, 5 Dec. 1906.Google Scholar

155 Caithnia, Ó, Micheál Cíosóg, p. 254;Google ScholarBúrca, de, Michael Cusack, p. 181;Google ScholarMcNamara, Br. Seán, The man from Carron (Ennis, 2006), p. 53.Google Scholar

156 Irish News, 10 Apr. 1899. The Red Branch Hurling Club claimed to have 200 members at this time – one of the largest enrolments of any club in Ireland (ibid., 29 Apr. 1899).

157 United Irishman, 15 Apr. 1899.

158 A series of articles by ‘Micheál’ appeared in the frst ten issues of the United Irishman, from the 4 Mar. 1899 issue to the 6 May 1899 issue.

159 Smyth’s career stretched from the Land League in 1879 and the I.N.L. and I.R.B. in the 1880s (McGee, , I.R.B., pp 160, 261Google Scholar) to being the chief republican organiser in south Derry up to circa 1916 (Augusteijn, Joost, ‘Radical nationalist activities in County Derry, 1900–1921’ in O’Brien, Gerard (ed.), Derry and Londonderry: history and society (Dublin, 1995), pp 574, 576Google Scholar). See also Derry Journal, 20 May 1932.

160 Dobbyn, like Smyth, was originally from south Derry: see McGee, , I.R.B., pp 235, 242–3, 247, 316–17, 322Google Scholar; Kelly, M. J., The Fenian ideal and Irish nationalism, 1882–1916 (Woodbridge, 2006), pp 105, 113, 230, 231Google Scholar; Baoighill, Pádraig Ó, Nally as Maigh Eo (Dublin, 1998), p. 279Google Scholar, and Shan Van Vocht (7 Feb. 1896).

161 Irish News, 10 Apr. 1899.

162 Ibid., 1 Mar. 1898.

163 Freeman’s Journal, 14 Mar. 1898. Both men were arrested and interned after the 1916 Rising: for Dobbyn, see O’Mahony, Seán, Frongoch: university of revolution (Dublin, 1987), pp 170–1Google Scholar, and for Smyth, , see Hansard 5 (Commons), lxxxii (24 May 1916).Google Scholar

164 Cusack, , ‘The rise of the Gaelic Athletic Association’, p. 147.Google Scholar

165 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, p. 177Google Scholar; Devlin, , Our native, p. 14.Google Scholar

166 Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, p. 50.

167 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, p. 165.Google Scholar

168 For example, two accounts (Irish News, 29 Aug. 1899; United Irishman, 3 Feb. 1900) refer to ‘the usual weekly meeting’ of John Mitchel Hurling Club, but if the meetings were so regular, most went unreported.

169 See Irish News, 24 May 1899, 5 Feb., 22 Mar. 1900.

170 Shan Van Vocht ceased publication in Mar. 1899. The Irish News, the main national ist daily in Belfast, gave most coverage in this period to Belfast Celtic F.C., a club which shared its alignment with nationalist M.P. Joe Devlin. Its reporting of Gaelic games was erratic for many years, however.

171 See Irish News, 17 June, 9 Aug. 1901.

172 Ibid., 18 Sept. 1901.

173 Ibid., 25 Oct. 1901.

174 See Dundalk Democrat, 25 May, 29 June 1901; and Rev. Gilsenan, Michael, Hills of Magheracloone, 1884–1984 (Magheracloone, 1985), pp 30–1Google Scholar.

175 Dónal Mac An Ailín, ‘Cén fáth a raibh cúige Uladh chomh lag chomh fada sin? Deacrachtaí CLG ó thuaidh’ in McAnallen, , Hassan, & Hegarty, (eds), Evolution of the G.A.A., p. 143.Google Scholar

176 United Irishman, 12 Sept. 1903.

177 Derry People, 19 Sept. 1903.

178 Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, p. 50, recalls Cusack that day as ‘a venerable-looking old man, sturdy and squarely-built with a long fowing beard’. Similarly, Bulmer Hobson remembered him as ‘a vigorous vital old man’ (Búrca, de, Michael Cusack, p. 181). See also ibid., pp 170–1.Google Scholar

179 Anon., ‘Progress of hurling in Ulster’ in Dublin Evening Telegraph, 26 Sept. 1903.Google Scholar

180 Frontier Sentinel, 28 Dec. 1935; Nic An Ultaigh, Ó shíol go bláth, pp 19, 57.

181 Derry People, 19 Sept. 1903.

182 Memoirs of Senator Joseph Connolly, p. 50.

183 Irish News, 18 Sept. 1903; see also ibid., 1, 8 Sept. 1903 for title of Cusack’s lecture.

184 Frontier Sentinel, 22 July 1905.

185 It appears likely that the ‘Mr Cusack’ in question is P. J. Cusack, who was an afcionado of athletics in Dublin around that time. See Cusack, P. J., ‘Training’ in Dinneen, F. B., The Irish athletic record (Dublin, 1906), pp 1–7.Google Scholar

186 Frontier Sentinel, 8 Dec. 1906.

187 Ibid., 15 Dec. 1906.

188 Búrca, De, Michael Cusack, pp 145–84 passimGoogle Scholar. Cusack often addressed friends as ‘Citizen’. The author would like to thank Róisín Ní Ghairbhí and Paul Rouse for kindly reading drafts of this article.