and the GAA Tadhg Barry
(1880-1921) Tadhg Barry
Imbued with a love of Gaelic games from childhood, Tadhg Barry went on to become one of the leading GAA activists of his era. His time as a GAA organiser began at Eglinton, where he was a member of the local St. Vincent’s club. Although he was not a very good player (according to a teammate!), Tadhg was a superb organiser and was central to the revitalisation of the GAA in Cork in the early twentieth century. He was a major figure in the creation of the Éire Óg GAA club in 1903 (a product of the Cork Celtic Literary Society) and the Sunday’s Well Hurling Club (later part of St. Vincent’s). On the pitch, he became a respected referee; off it, he made history when he began to train the first camogie team in Cork and only the second in Ireland, Fáinne an Lae, established in 1905 in the Blarney Street area.
Founding Éire Óg was a strategic move by a group of radical nationalists – led by J.J. Walsh, Tadhg and Michael Mehigan – who had big plans to professionalise and modernise the GAA’s administration. Their opportunity came in 1909 when, via Éire Óg, they took control of the Cork County Board. They introduced turnstiles, hired professional
accountants, reorganised clubs and standardised refereeing. The result was greater public confidence, higher attendances at matches, more players and a proliferation of new competitions, including those for schools and colleges, which Tadhg championed more than anyone. Holding numerous positions within the Cork County Board, he was regularly
elected delegate to national annual conferences. In 1909, he was elected chairman of the newly established Sunday Hurling League, in addition to his role as honorary secretary of the Saturday Hurling League. Tadgh did not want to chair the new league and proposed someone else, but such was his popularity that his fellow activists would countenance only him. The reformers were remarkably successful and earned for the Cork County Board a reputation as one of the most capable and efficient bodies in Irish sport. By 1914, they had helped to make the GAA the dominant sporting organisation in Cork city, with twelve hurling clubs, eleven football clubs and three camogie clubs, compared to just seven soccer clubs, four cricket clubs and three rugby clubs.
Tadhg promoted the GAA in every way he could. Between 1910 and 1916, ‘An Ciotóg’s’ weekly ‘GAA Notes’ were a crucial aid in popularising the association in Cork. Given that the Cork Examiner was, according to Tadhg, preoccupied with ‘foreign games’ like soccer, rugby, cricket and hockey, his work was ground-breaking. As an enthusiastic supporter of ‘The Ban’
One of Tadhg Barry’s ‘An Ciotóg’ columns about all things GAA in Cork, published weekly in the Cork Free Press between 1910 and 1916. This article, dated 7 February 1914, featured one of his poems. (UCC Archives)
(which infamously prohibited GAA players from playing or watching these ‘foreign games’), he was delighted when the North Mon, then a famous rugby school, made hurling its primary sport. Indeed, it was to the lads of his alma mater that Tadhg dedicated Hurling and How to Play It , published in 1916. It was first hurling’s codified manual and would be the only one of its kind for decades to come. The rulebook became the go- to reference for anyone interested or involved in the sport and was arguably his greatest gift to the GAA.
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