Paul Rouse: The trouble and strife of Cork's first club championship campaign

An extraordinary crowd came to Cork Park; the biggest of the summer of 1887. The semi-final meeting of St Finbarrs and the Cork Nationals was expected to be the greatest hurling match yet seen in the city

There has been no hurling championship quite like the first Cork County Championship, played in the late spring and early summer of 1887.

Some 22 teams entered to compete when the draw was made in February 1887; the local belief was that the champion club of Cork would be a good bet to go on and win the overall All-Ireland honours.

But the logistics of running a first-ever county championship were challenging for the men who ran the new County Committee in Cork.

There were two problems. The first was Cork Park, a town-owned grounds to the east of Cork City, where all the matches were played. During the first two years of the GAA, it was maligned as ‘an exaggerated pig-stye’, which held merely ‘one rickety set of goal posts’.

By the summer of 1887, Cork Park had much improved, with good goal posts and the pitches, though not considered good, now deemed acceptable.

But Cork Park was not always available. In 1887, matches were hindered because – as Michael Cusack wrote – the place had been ruined by celebrations in honour of Queen Victoria. He wrote that the British army had “wanted some place to manoeuvre and to waste powder in commemorating the advent of a squealing baby a trifle 68 years ago.

"Consequently, Tommy turned his eyes to the Park and, with the instinct of the brave British soldier, when he wants some place or something not exactly his own, [he] laid violent on the goalposts of the Cork Gaels, and threw them in a mangled heap in a sheep bin outside the Park gate.”

Further, the ties fixed for Sunday, April 3 were postponed.

A major demonstration was planned to commemorate the death of Peter O’Neill Crowley, a Fenian leader from East Cork who had died during the 1867 Rising. All matches were cancelled to allow for attendance at the unveiling of a monument in his honour at Ballymacoda.

Eventually, the championship progressed to the point where the final matches were scheduled for Sunday, July 17. The two teams most fancied to win the championship – St Finbarrs and the Cork Nationals – were drawn to meet each other in the semi-final at 1pm, with the winners were to play Passage in the final later in the afternoon.

As the championship winners were already fixed to represent Cork in the All-Ireland championship in Dungarvan the following Sunday against Kilkenny, there was no room for further delay.

An extraordinary crowd came to Cork Park; the biggest of the summer. The semi-final meeting of St Finbarrs and the Cork Nationals was expected to be the greatest hurling match yet seen in the city.

Before the match had even started, the St Finbarrs’ men lodged an objection against the ineligibility of the Cork Nationals. This was rejected and the ball was thrown in at 2pm. The Cork Nationals scored an early point. There was some tremendous cheering from the crowd, but hissing from other sections.

St Finbarrs, wearing dark blue jerseys, then attacked. The ball flew around the Cork Nationals’ goal area. Amid great confusion, the referee ruled that the ball had crossed the line inside the point posts and accordingly awarded a point to St Finbarrs.

Spectators rushed onto the field with opinions sharply divided on the justice of the decision.

The umpire standing at the goalposts was asked his opinion and he said he believed the ball had not crossed the line and that no point should be awarded. This view was corroborated by two clergymen standing nearby.

The upshot was that the Cork Nationals refused to accept the decision of the referee while St Finbarrs refused to accept any decision but the referee’s. Attempts to resolve the impasse proved fruitless and the match was abandoned.

The problem which now presented itself was that, not only were the two most important hurling clubs in the county in dispute and the county championship left unfinished, but the prospect was now looming that Cork would be unable to field a team in the All-Ireland hurling championship.

The Cork County Committee organised a meeting for the following evening, Monday. The committee decided the match should be replayed the following Friday afternoon at 3pm.

Further, it was decided that 20 minutes had elapsed so just 40 more would be played.

Further still, the match would start on a score of Cork Nationals one point, St. Finbarrs no-score.

In other words, the Cork County Committee was over-ruling the referee and disallowing the additional point which had been awarded to St Finbarrs.

Appalled by the decision, James Dennehy, captain of the St Finbarrs club, wrote to the newspapers on the Tuesday and Thursday of the following week, and set out why his club would not be playing. Among other things, he said many of his players worked until after 7pm in the evening and could only play on Sundays.

They would, however, gladly play the Cork Nationals in Dungarvan on Sunday before the match against the Kilkenny champions, provided the game started with both teams on even scores.

On Friday at 3pm, a large crowd again assembled in Cork Park. The Cork Nationals took the field, but there was no sign of St Finbarrs. The Nationals played a match among themselves for 15 minutes and then left the field.

An emergency meeting of the Cork County Committee was held on Saturday evening; it was a classic last-ditch attempt to find a solution. The meeting was held at the business premises of Alderman D Horgan, chairman of the Cork County Committee.

A huge crowd gathered outside as the meeting took place. After some discussion, the Passage Hurling Club agreed to withdraw from the competition, as they would be unable to get a team to go to Dungarvan at such notice.

St Finbarrs agreed to a proposal that lots be drawn between themselves and the Cork Nationals to decide who would go to Dungarvan the following day. The Cork Nationals rejected the idea. They said they would agree to accept whatever the decision of the County Committee would be, but they would not draw lots.

And there the meeting reached an impasse, for the quorum to make a decision at a County Committee meeting was five, and there were but four members present.

When news of the impasse filtered from the meeting to the crowd waiting outside, there was “the greatest dissatisfaction.” Either ways, a special train had already been organised by the Cork Butter Exchange Band and Reading Room Society to travel in support of the Cork champions, whoever they would be. That train arrived in Dungarvan at 12 noon on Saturday, carrying 500 passengers, who were greeted by the Dungarvan brass band who led a procession through the town.

The day ended in a dreadful anti-climax. The Tullaroan team took the field and claimed the championship match against Cork as there were no champions from that county on the field.

The story had not yet ended, however. One month after their bitter dispute, the hurlers of St Finbarrs and the Cork Nationals were invited to play an exhibition hurling match in Tralee.

There was no doubting on the day which was the superior team, with a clear-cut victory for the Cork Nationals by four goals and five points to the four points scored by St Finbarrs.