1942: From the North Board to Blackguardism at Athenry

Regional boards, and the road to a game

Galway hurling in those years was run through regional boards. A parish club came up through its own board, and the North Board final was the step into the county series. The Connacht Tribune of 7 March 1942 fixed the junior final for Menlough on 29 March, at 4 p.m., with Mr T. Murphy as referee.

Players got to games on bicycles. A year later, with tyres still scarce, a Craughwell delegate told the same board, "We can't get 'bikes' and we can't get tyres." That was the ordinary way of travelling: you cycled, or you stayed at home.

Sunday 29 March 1942, Cussane

Fohenagh played Cussane in the North Board junior final on Sunday 29 March 1942, and won. The result was reported on 4 April. A club member's clipping collection keeps both papers, beside the Irish Newspaper Archives copies. The Tuam Herald of 4 April 1942, page 2, prints the opponents as "Cussaun" and says Fohenagh were "superior most of the hour". Great back play and the Cussane goalkeeper kept the score down, tempers were short at times, and the Herald says there was no very rough play. Fohenagh added a couple of goals in the last quarter and won well. The Herald prints no score. The Connacht Tribune of the same day, page 9, prints the name as "Cussane".

The final

Sunday 24 May 1942, Athenry

The 1941 county junior semi-final waited until the next summer. The Connacht Tribune of 23 May 1942, page 10, fixed Fohenagh against Claregalway at Athenry for that Sunday at 4.30 p.m., and said the winners would meet Eyrecourt in the final. A History of Fohenagh dates the day 23 May. The fixture gives Sunday 24 May. The game was played on the Sunday. It was abandoned, and nobody won it.

A fortnight earlier the County Board had already spent part of an evening on who would referee it. The Connacht Tribune of 16 May 1942 prints that argument. The chairman's ruling that evening was that M. Cullen would referee. The account of the day itself, printed in June, is Mr W. Corbett's, and he was the referee who took the match.

What followed is the referee's report, printed later, and it stays his report. The Connacht Tribune of 13 June 1942 carries it under the headline "Blackguardism at Athenry causes heat at County Board meeting". The Connacht Sentinel of 9 June carries the same story. As the Tribune prints him, Mr Corbett said that at first the game was fast, with keen, hard hurling on both sides, that spectators rushed the pitch, and that he called the match off when he could not clear it. He blamed the spectators and recommended a replay. The meeting heard the Fohenagh captain, Mike Barrett. The chairman said the Fohenagh players were called off the field by their officials.

Saturday 6 June 1942, the Royal Hotel

The County Board met in the Royal Hotel, Galway, on Saturday 6 June 1942. The Sentinel of Tuesday 9 June says the meeting was on Saturday, which gives the 6th, and the Tribune printed the report on 13 June. The chairman called Corbett's account "a serious report". The discussion lasted over two hours.

Mr M. Silver of Ardrahan, as the Tribune prints him, said some teams had powerful "panzer" divisions behind them. He proposed a two-year suspension for Claregalway alone. The motion was defeated by eight votes to one. Silver was the one.

Under the heading the paper gives as serious charges, the chairman said, "Fohenagh were not playing a legal team that day. Nobody in the North Board has played a legal team for a long time." Those are the chairman's words in the Tribune. Mr W. Callanan took exception: "Kilconnell always turned out legal teams." The chairman said he had not meant Kilconnell. Mr T. Murphy, still at the plain talking, said he had been told that Claregalway were playing their senior team that day. Each of those lines is an allegation in the report.

The officials' own links were spoken about in the room, and the papers are the source. Mr J. Muldoon said that if a suspension meant losing their chairman, Mr T. O'Connor, they could not afford to lose their chairman. Mr T. Murphy answered, "We cannot smash up any County Board like this," and tried to withdraw as seconder. The chairman refused to accept the withdrawal. Mr Walsh — the print says "Mr. Walsh", and both E. Walsh and N. Walsh are in the report — told them, "There are no angels playing hurling in this county." Fohenagh were in that sentence with everyone else. The parish has never pretended to be the exception, and the line has worn well.

N. Walsh proposed that both teams be suspended for twelve months. J. Deeley seconded. The vote was carried by six to three. The chairman then declared Eyrecourt the 1941 junior hurling champions. Eyrecourt had won the other semi-final. They took the cup because the two clubs who might have played them were stood down for a year.

The following June the same board was still arguing about boundaries. On 12 June 1943 the chairman said, "Fohenagh is definitely in the North Board." The 1943 North Board final itself waited until Sunday 28 May 1944, at Menlough, where Cussane won 5-3 to 2-4.

Sources

• A club member's clipping collection, with the Irish Newspaper Archives copies.
• Tuam Herald, 4 April 1942, page 2, "Cussaun" and "superior most of the hour". The cutting.
• Connacht Tribune, 4 April 1942, page 9, "Cussane". Irish Newspaper Archives.
• Connacht Tribune, 7 March 1942, page 10, Menlough on 29 March. The fixture.
• Connacht Tribune, 16 May 1942, page 9, the referee question. The report.
• Connacht Tribune, 23 May 1942, page 10, Athenry, Sunday 24 May, 4.30 p.m. The fixture.
• Connacht Sentinel, 9 June 1942, the suspension story. The Sentinel.
• Connacht Tribune, 13 June 1942, "Blackguardism at Athenry causes heat at County Board meeting". The Tribune.
• Connacht Tribune, 12 June 1943, "Fohenagh is definitely in the North Board." The 1943 report.
• A History of Fohenagh by Tony O'Gorman, page 144, for the 23 May dating.

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