Old rivals Cork and Tipperary have Croke Park history
In 1896, Ballyhea claimed their first Cork county title as they defeated Ballygarvan at Mallow 6-10 to 1-2, which qualified them for a crack at the Munster championship against the all-conquering Tubberadora of Tipperary.
Incidentally, the Magpies’ route to the final hadn’t been without drama, as in the semi-final against Redmonds, a lady had taken offence at the robust play of the Ballyhea forwards.
“Don’t touch him again, you dirty clown,” she shouted as she stood in front of the Redmonds goalkeeper, “that’s nice play to catch a young fellow. I’ll settle you with this [umbrella] if you do it again.”
Kilmallock was the venue for the Munster final in August 1897, but, as related by the Ballyhea website, “tempers ran to fever pitch and the game had to be abandoned” with the sides tied at 1-3 apiece.
That game would be the closest Tubberadora would ever come to being beaten, in their short history, winning three All-Irelands in their four years of existence, 1895-98 (they didn’t compete in the 1897 competition).
With much heated debate regarding a replay venue failing to produce any consensus, the decision was taking to schedule the game for Jones’s Road in early November. Ballyhea had tried to recruit players from Blackrock and Aghabullogue to aid their cause but were unsuccessful. Coupled with poor travel arrangements and “too much liquid refreshments”, they were no match for their opponents in the second game, 7-9 to 2-3 the final score.
Tubberadora would go on to win their second All-Ireland in-a-row (played in the summer of 1898) by beating Dublin’s Commercials by 8-14 to 0-4 and then came back in March 1900 to win the 1898 title.
After that, their team broke up with players opting to play for neighbouring sides, though their colours of blue with a gold sash are still carried by their descendants Boherlahan-Dualla.
TIPPERARY (Tubberadora): M Maher (captain), N Maher, J Flanagan, P Byrne, E Ryan, P Scanlan, N Brennan, T Condon, T Flanagan, J Walsh, D Walsh, B Devane, J Maher, P Doherty, J Maher, T Ryan, J Connolly.
CORK (Ballyhea): J Murphy (captain), R Mooney, M Flaherty, P Bartley, M Leary, M Flaherty, P Daly, D Higgins, J Roche, P Gorman, T Gorman, M Reidy, W Dwane, D O’Brien, J Walsh, W Fennessy, J Murphy.
