We have come a long way since that November day 140 years ago

Dublin, October 27th, 1884.

Dear John,

I hope this finds you well and in rude health in the company of your family and friends in the noble County of Cork.

You may be aware that for some considerable time I, and others, have been advocating for action to be taken in order to reverse the diabolical situation which now pertains in this fair land of ours in the matter of our native pastimes. The pestilential Famine of four decades ago hastened our decline as an ancient Gaelic race. It is said that our spirit has been bent but never broken but alas I fear for our grand practises of running and lepping and the playing of the ancient hurling and football games.

Scarce ever now of a summer’s evening do we see hostings of our young people gather on village green or in country field to play the games of our ancestors. I fear if something is not done in haste these noble pastimes will indeed be just memories of past times, fading away in the same manner as our language and traditions.

It pains me to see the sports of a country, which rules over us with an iron hand, now being adopted as ‘our own’ -shame I say, shame and sorrow. Is it any wonder that bitter tears of sadness fall on this letter? Maybe the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Maybe the spark can yet be fanned back into flame and a glorious revival enkindled.

To this end I have summoned a gathering to take place on this coming Saturday, the first day of November in the town of Thurles. Miss Letitia Hayes has kindly put the Billiard Room of her Commercial Hotel at our disposal at no cost. The meeting will commence at 3 o clock (Old Time). I am aware that it is the Feast of All Saints and a Church Holyday of Obligation but implore you to attend if at all possible. A GSW train that leaves Fermoy Station at half past the hour of eight that morning and serves the Junction at Limerick and is scheduled to arrive in Thurles at half past the hour of one. This train may make your journey more possible. For your information a train departs Thurles Station on Saturday evening at a quarter after the Angelus Bell. Miss Hayes has kindly offered suitable victuals to those who will attend.

You, like me, are of the old stock - yearning for the flourishing of our race and for the preservation of all matters Gaelic and Irish. We are proud to be Irish in this the land of our ancestors who toiled and played on our green swards long, long before the invaders came and tried to teach us their ways. I ask you to make every strenuous effort possible to attend this noble gathering.

Yours in Gaelic sport, Michael Cusack

Well I got a fair bit of a surprise right enough when the postman delivered this letter to me. Seldom we get a letter save the registered one four times a year demanding the rent from a less than patient landlord living in a luxurious condition somewhere near London. Though now and then we do get some news from our cousins in Australia - it must be a fierce distance beyond the sea - it often takes three or four months to come - sure they be asking about the harvest and it after Christmas! But that’s the way things are.

So when I got the letter from Michael Cusack I was unsure what to do. If, as he suggested, I went to Fermoy and took the train to Thurles I would miss Mass on a Church Feast Day of Obligation.

Now I had never met this Cusack man but I had heard he was a teacher from Clare and operated a kind of school in Dublin to prepare students for Examinations. On The Cork Examiner, Freemans Journal, United Ireland and The Irishman newspapers I had read his letters expressing upset at the state of our games and athletics.

Well, as luck would have it didn’t I meet our Parish Priest Father Maurice Kennefick on the road and he on horseback going to visit the school. 

I told him of the letter I’d got and he was overjoyed! 

A great Gaelic scholar himself he had collected and gathered old handwritten Irish manuscripts in different parts of the county and put them in a safe place in St Colman’s College in Fermoy. ‘About time someone did something before it’s too late’ was his reaction when I told him about the contents of the letter. ‘Go’ says he ‘you’ll be back for Mass on Sunday and that’ll do grand’. So with that spiritual endorsement I made up my mind to head for Thurles on the Saturday. Cows out by six o clock and yard work done half an hour later I fixed the lamps on the trap and tackled the pony and off I went for Fermoy. I left the pony and trap at Callaghan’s - old Mrs Callagahan was an Arnold so they’d mind things and see after the pony.

The town of Thurles was busy with country people in for the day. It’s a grand town with a square and the streets running off it. I was fine and early so I took tea in a small eating house near the Square. I headed for the hotel of Miss Hayes shortly after two on the clock. The dining room seemed busy and when I asked where was the Billiard Room a nice girl working there pointed me down a little hall. The door was open and in I went. There were maybe 15 or 20 standing around. About 50 timber chairs were neatly arranged in rows -sadly they weren’t all needed.

Just after the big clock struck three proceedings began. 

I think there were just 13 sitting down. One or two more came in later and a few left also. Cusack took the chair, a powerful cut of a man with a long flowing beard. He explained his reasoning for summoning the gathering together here in Thurles. He read out a few letters of apology from people who were unable to attend. Cusack and Tipperary man Maurice Davin more or less ran the meeting. Both were very passionate about the work in hand and all present felt something needed to be done. After a long discussion someone suggested that because of the small attendance no progress could be made at that meeting and the best action to take was to forget about the whole thing. Some agreed and some disagreed with this view. 

Cusack felt that a start needed to be made and argued that every great journey began with one small step.

I didn’t know anyone at the meeting though a John McKay was there on behalf of Cork athletics - born in County Down McKay was then working for The Cork Examiner as a journalist so he was there also as a reporter. Eventually on Cusack’s proposal it was agreed to proceed with a new organisation and so ‘The Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes’ was formed. Davin was the President and Cusack, John McKay and John Wyse Power from Waterford, another journalist, were elected Secretaries. It was decided to write to Archbishop Croke, Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell asking them to become Patrons of the new grouping. The second meeting would be held in Cork in the next few weeks.

I shook hands with all the newly elected officers and wished them luck - John McKay laughed and said ‘We’ll need more than luck to get this going’. But they did, they persevered and after a shaky first few years the GAA spread like wildfire.

I returned home that Saturday evening, my feelings were a mixture of excitement, anticipation and hope for the future. Truly we have come a long way since that November day 140 years ago.

On this coming Friday I hope to go back to Hayes Hotel for a meeting of the GAA’s History Committee. 

In attendance in Thurles will be two direct descendants of John McKay - on their first visit to Thurles.

On Saturday at 3pm in SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork, Donal Mc Anallen will give a talk on the remarkable story of John McKay, his Ballyclough born wife, their family, their life in London and his research into ‘finding’ the family again 140 years after the first GAA meeting.

I’m glad I got that letter from Michael Cusack.