A bruiser, then drunken brawls, but glory for Thurles

In the early afternoon of Easter Sunday, April 1 1888, 42 hurlers stood in military formation on the roadway outside William Cunningham’s hotel in the middle of Parsonstown, King’s County (now known as Birr, Co Offaly).

The hurlers were carrying their hurleys across their shoulders as if they were carrying long rifles. James Lynam, a veteran of the American Army and a leading organiser for the radical Irish Republican Brotherhood in Connacht, was in control.

He shouted: “Right, about”, and the hurlers turned as one and marched shoulder-to-shoulder through the streets of Parsonstown.