seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Category Archives: Sports


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Founding of the Irish Rugby Football Union

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The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland, both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, is founded in Dublin on February 5, 1879. The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where adult men’s Irish rugby union international matches are played. In addition, the Union also owns Kingspan Stadium in Belfast, Thomond Park in Limerick and a number of grounds in provincial areas that have been rented to clubs.

Initially, there are two unions, both founded in 1874. The Irish Football Union has jurisdiction over clubs in Leinster, Munster, and parts of Ulster. The Northern Football Union of Ireland controls the Belfast area. The IRFU is formed in 1879 as an amalgamation of these two organisations and branches of the new IRFU are formed in Leinster, Munster, and Ulster. The Connacht Branch is formed in 1900.

The IRFU is a founding member of the International Rugby Football Board, now known as World Rugby, in 1886 with Scotland and Wales. England refuses to join until 1890.

Following the political partition of Ireland into separate national states, Ireland, originally the Irish Free State then Éire, and Northern Ireland, a political division of the United Kingdom, the then Committee of the Irish Rugby Football Union decides that it will continue to administer its affairs on the basis of the full 32 Irish counties and the traditional four provinces of Ireland – Leinster (12 counties), Ulster (9 counties), Munster (6 counties), and Connacht (5 counties).

This leads to the unusual, but not unique, situation among international rugby union teams, where the Irish representative teams are drawn from players from two separate political, national territories. To maintain the unity of Irish rugby union and the linkages between North and South, the IRFU purchase a new ground in 1923 in the Ravenhill district of Belfast at a cost of £2,300. The last full International at Ravenhill involving Ireland for more than a half-century takes place in 1953–54 against Scotland who are victorious by 2 tries (6 points) to nil. Australia plays Romania in the 1999 World Cup at the ground. The next full International played at Ravenhill is the Rugby World Cup warm-up match against Italy in August 2007 due to the temporary closure of Lansdowne Road for reconstruction.

The four provincial branches of the IRFU first run cup competitions during the 1880s. Although these tournaments still take place every year, their significance has been diminished by the advent of an All-Ireland League of 48 Senior Clubs in 1990.

The four provincial teams have played an Interprovincial Championship since the 1920s and continue to be the focal point for players aspiring to the international level. These are Munster, Leinster, Ulster, and Connacht . All four provinces play at the senior level as members of the Guinness Pro12.

There are currently approximately 95,000 rugby players in total in Ireland. There are 56 clubs affiliated to the Ulster Branch, 71 to the Leinster Branch, 59 to the Munster Branch, and 19 to the Connacht Branch. In addition, there are 246 schools playing rugby: Ulster (107), Leinster (75), Munster (41) and Connacht (23).

The IRFU also has an Exiles Branch tasked with developing “Ireland-qualified” players (i.e., eligible to play internationally for Ireland through ancestry) living in England, Scotland, and Wales. Volunteers provide coaching, administration and development under the supervision of a paid development manager.


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Birth of John Gubbins, Racehorse Breeder & Owner

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John Gubbins, breeder and owner of racehorses, is born on December 16, 1838 at the family home in Kilfrush, County Limerick. He is fourth son of Joseph Gubbins by his wife Maria, daughter of Thomas Wise of Cork.

Of three surviving brothers and five sisters, the third brother, Stamer, breeds horses at Knockany after distinguishing himself in the Crimean War. He dies at the age of 46 on August 7, 1879, after a horse falls on him while “schooling” over fences.

John Gubbins, after being educated privately, inherits the Knockany property from his brother and purchases the estate of Bruree, County Limerick. A fortune is also left him by an uncle, Francis Wise of Cork. Settling at Bruree in 1868, he builds kennels and stables and purchases horses and hounds. He hunts the Limerick country with both stag and fox hounds, and is no mean angler, until forced to stop by the operations of the Land League in 1882.

From his youth he takes a keen interest in horse racing. At first his attention is mainly confined to steeplechasers, and he rides many winners at Punchestown Racecourse and elsewhere in Ireland. He is the owner of Seaman when the horse wins the grand hurdle race at Auteuil, but sells him to Lord Manners before he wins the Grand National at Liverpool in 1882. Usna is another fine chaser in his possession. Buying the stallions Kendal and St. Florian, he breeds, from the mare Morganette, Galtee More by the former and Ard Patrick by the latter. Galtee More wins the 2000 Guineas Stakes and the St. Leger Stakes as well as the Epsom Derby in 1897, and is afterwards sold to the Russian government who later pass him on to the Prussian government. The Prussian government also purchases Ard Patrick just days before he wins the Eclipse Stakes in 1903, when he defeats Sceptre and Rook Sand after an exceptionally exciting contest.

Other notable horses bred by John Gubbins are Blairfinde, winner of the Irish Derby, and Revenue. In 1897 he heads the list of winning owners and is third in the list in 1903. In 1903 Gubbins is rarely seen on a racecourse due to failing health and sells his horses in training. In 1905, however, his health apparently improving, he sends some yearlings to Cranborne, Dorset, to be trained by Sir Charles Nugent, but before these horses can run he dies of bronchitis at Bruree on March 20, 1906.  His final instructions are, “As I aspired to breed fast horses, please see that my hearse is pulled at speed on my final journey.” Gubbins is buried in the private burial ground at Kilfrush.

In 1889 he marries Edith, daughter of Charles Legh, of Addington Hall, Cheshire. She predeceases him without issue. His estates pass to his nephew, John Norris Browning, a retired naval surgeon.


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Death of Open Champion Fred Daly

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Frederick J. Daly, Northern Irish professional golfer best known for winning The Open Championship in 1947 at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, dies on November 18, 1990.

Born in Portrush, County Antrim, Daly is the only Irishman from either side of the border to have won The Open until Pádraig Harrington wins it in 2007 and the only Northern Irish major winner until Graeme McDowell wins the U.S. Open in 2010. Daly wins the Open in 1947 while professional to the Balmoral Club in Belfast. He wins with a score of 293, a single stroke ahead of runners-up Reg Horne and amateur Frank Stranahan.

During his acceptance speech at Royal Liverpool, Daly says he is very honoured to receive the Claret Jug and take it back to Northern Ireland. He goes on to say that the trophy has never been to Ireland and that he is hoping that the change of air will help it. There is much applause and laughter at his humorous comments.

In addition, he adds the News of the World Match Play tournament, which is the main British Match Play Championship, becoming the first since James Braid (1905) to win both the Open and the Match Play title in the same year.

Daly is the only Ulsterman to win the Irish Open until 2016, when Rory McIlroy wins at The K Club. Daly wins in 1946 at Portmarnock, and plays on four Ryder Cup teams, in 1947, 1949, 1951, and 1953. Daly is awarded the MBE in the 1984 New Year Honours “for services to golf.”

Fred Daly, age 79, dies in Belfast on November 18, 1990, of a heart attack.


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Founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association

gaelic-athletic-associationThe Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is founded on November 1, 1884, by a group of Irishmen gathered in the billiard room of the Hayes’ Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary. The architects and founding members are Michael Cusack of County Clare, Maurice Davin, Joseph K. Bracken, Thomas St. George McCarthy, P.J. Ryan of Tipperary, John Wyse Power, and John McKay. Their goal is to to formulate a plan and establish an organisation to foster and preserve Ireland’s unique games and athletic pastimes.

The GAA focuses primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball, and rounders. The Association also promotes Irish music and dance, as well as the Irish language.

It has more than 500,000 members worldwide, assets in excess of €2.6 billion, and declares total revenues of €94.8 million in 2010, with a total gross profit of €78.5 million.

Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular activities promoted by the organisation, and the most popular sports in the Republic of Ireland in terms of attendances. Gaelic football is also the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland. GAA competitions, activities, and structures are organised on an all-Ireland basis, without reference to the border drawn in 1921. The women’s version of these games, ladies’ Gaelic football and camogie, are organised by the independent but closely linked Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association respectively. GAA Handball is the Irish governing body for the sport of handball, while the other Gaelic sport, rounders, is managed by the GAA Rounders National Council.

Since its foundation in the late 19th century, the Association has grown to become a major influence in Irish sporting and cultural life with considerable reach into communities throughout Ireland and among the Irish diaspora.


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Birth of Mick Doyle, Rugby Union Player & Coach

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Mick Doyle, Irish rugby union international player and coach, is born in Castleisland, County Kerry, on October 13, 1941.

Doyle begins playing rugby union at Newbridge College, County Kildare. He goes on to study veterinary science at University College Dublin, who he also represents at rugby. He makes his Ireland debut against France on January 23, 1965, scoring a try in the game. While representing Ireland he also studies at the University of Cambridge where he gains a Blue in the 1965 Varsity match against the Oxford University RFC. Doyle also studies at the University of Edinburgh and plays club rugby for Edinburgh Wanderers before returning to Ireland.

Doyle goes on to earn the distinction of never being dropped during his 20-cap international career as a flanker. Doyler, as he is affectionately known, scores the winning try against Wales in the 1967 Five Nations Championship, tours Australia with Ireland in 1967 and South Africa with the British and Irish Lions the following year.

His last game for Ireland is against Australia in October 1968, when he lines out alongside his brother Tommy. He coaches Leinster to Interprovincial Championship success five times between 1979 and 1983 before he succeeds Willie John McBride as Ireland coach during the 1984–85 season. Under In 1985, under Doyle’s stewardship, Ireland wins the Triple Crown and Five Nations Championship.

Doyle leads Ireland to the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup, but that joy is tinged with sadness as he suffers a heart attack at the opening dinner. He battles illness and adversity and his recovery from a brain problem is chronicled in his book 0.16.

In later years, apart from working in his veterinary practice, Doyle is a regular contributor to rugby matters on RTÉ Radio One.

Mick Doyle is killed in an automobile accident in Dungannon, County Tyrone, on May 11, 2004.


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1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final

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For the first and only time, the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final is played outside Ireland on September 14, 1947, at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, New York City, to cater for the large Irish American community there.

The New York final matching Cavan against Kerry is also intended to observe the centenary of the Great Famine that triggered mass Irish emigration to the United States and other countries. Around 30,000 people are in attendance for the final. Cavan travels to the U.S. by air and Kerry by sea. The Ulster team credits their victory partially to their shorter time spent travelling. The Cavan team flight, via the Azores, takes 30 hours. Kerry’s trip by Ocean Liner takes far longer.

Mick Higgins, a key member of the Cavan team that day, recalls later in life, “There was no huge send-off for us in Cavan, but both teams got a good reception in New York when we arrived. I remember the team stayed in the Commodore Hotel, but I stayed with my relatives.” He also remembers the “oppressive heat” during the game itself.

After a slow start, Cavan fights back to lead 2-5 to 2-4 at the break and goes on to win by four points. Peter Donohoe scores eight points from frees and is called “the Babe Ruth of Gaelic football” in the New York press. The match commentary was broadcast by radio across the Atlantic Ocean by Michael O’Hehir.

The Cavan team returns to Ireland aboard the RMS Queen Mary. Higgins recalls, “It was only after we arrived in Southampton that we realised the joy of it all. Large numbers of Cavan people turned up to see us in London and Birmingham. We were treated like kings in Cavan.”


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Pádraig Harrington Wins the 2007 Open Championship

padraig-harrington

Pádraig Harrington of Dublin becomes the first Irish golfer to win the British Open in 60 years on July 22, 2007, when he snatches victory from the jaws of defeat at Carnoustie Golf Links in Scotland.

At the 2007 Open Championship, Harrington defeats Sergio García in a four-hole playoff at Carnoustie, becoming the first Irishman to win The Open Championship in 60 years, and the first ever from the Republic of Ireland. Both players go into the playoff having shot a 7-under 277 for the championship. Harrington subsequently wins by one stroke in the playoff.

Harrington is the first European golfer to secure a major victory since Paul Lawrie on the same course in 1999 and Ireland’s first since Fred Daly in 1947. President Mary McAleese is the first to convey her congratulations to Harrington, while Labour sports spokesman Jack Wall says, “Pádraig Harrington’s magnificent victory in the Open without doubt represents one of the greatest days in the history of Irish sport.”

A year later at the 2008 Open Championship, it is unclear if Harrington would get a chance to defend his Open title at Royal Birkdale Golf Club as eight days prior to the event he injures his wrist. However, he successfully defends his title, overcoming a 2-shot deficit to Greg Norman with a final round 69. He shoots a four-under-par 32 on the back nine, which enables him to pull away from Norman and Ian Poulter. His eagle on the par-5 17th all but seals the tournament. He is the first European golfer since James Braid in 1906 to retain the Claret Jug. The win moves him from fourteenth to third in the world rankings, behind only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

Just three weeks after winning the 2008 Open Championship, Harrington wins the PGA Championship over the South Course of the Oakland Hills Country Club, for his third major. Although at five over par after two rounds, he shoots eight under par for the weekend, carding successive scores of 66 in both the third and fourth rounds. His three under par 277 is two shots ahead of Sergio García and Ben Curtis. Harrington becomes the first European to win the PGA Championship since Tommy Armour in 1930 and is the first winner from Ireland.

Harrington’s victory in the PGA Championship secures his position as the number one player in Europe, earning him a spot in the 2008 European Ryder Cup team under captain Nick Faldo.


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The Last Official Bare-Knuckle Title Fight

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Heavyweight boxer John L. Sullivan defeats fellow Irish American Jake Kilrain in a world championship bout which lasts 75 rounds on July 8, 1889, the last official bare-knuckle title fight ever held.

Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports. It involves two individuals fighting without boxing gloves or other padding on their hands. The difference between a street fight and a bare-knuckle boxing match is an accepted set of rules, such as not striking a downed opponent.

The Sullivan-Kilrain fight is considered to be a turning point in boxing history because it is the last world title bout fought under the London Prize Ring Rules, and therefore the last bare-knuckle heavyweight title bout. It is one of the first sporting events in the United States to receive national press coverage.

For the first time, newspapers carry extensive pre-fight coverage, reporting on the fighters’ training and speculating on where the bout will take place. The traditional center of bare-knuckle fighting is New Orleans, but the governor of Louisiana has forbidden the fight in that state. Sullivan has trained for months in Belfast, New York under trainer William Muldoon, whose biggest problem has been keeping Sullivan from liquor. A report on Sullivan’s training regimen in Belfast is written by famed reporter Nellie Bly and published in the New York World.

Rochester reporter Arch Merrill comments that occasionally Sullivan would “escape” from his guard. In Belfast village, the cry is heard, “John L. is loose again. Send for Muldoon!” Muldoon would snatch the champ away from the bar and take him back to their training camp.

On July 8, 1889, an estimated 3,000 spectators board special trains for the secret location, which turns out to be Richburg, a town just south of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The fight begins at 10:30, and it looks as if Sullivan is going to lose, especially after he vomits during the 44th round. But the champion gets his second wind after that, and Kilrain’s manager, Mike Donovan, finally throws in the towel after the 75th round. Kilrain does not want to give up thinking he can outlast Sullivan, but Donovan defends his actions insisting that Kilrain would die if the fight continued. In any case, the Kilrain-Sullivan fight can rightly be listed among the greatest fights of the pre-modern era.


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Birth of Katie Taylor, Olympic Boxing Champion

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Katie Taylor, Irish sportswoman who has represented Ireland in both boxing and association football, is born in Bray, County Wicklow, on July 2, 1986. As of this writing, she is the Irish, European, World, and Olympic boxing champion in the 60 kg division. Regarded as the outstanding Irish athlete of her generation, she is the flag bearer for Ireland at the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony before going on to win an Olympic gold medal in the lightweight division.

Taylor first begins boxing in 1998 at the age of eleven. Her father coaches her and her two older brothers, Lee and Peter, at St. Fergal’s Boxing Club, which operates out of a former boathouse in Bray. At 15, she fights the first officially sanctioned female boxing match in Ireland at the National Stadium and defeats Alanna Audley from Belfast.

Between 1999 and 2005 Taylor attends St. Kilian’s Community School in Bray with her three older siblings. In addition to boxing and playing association football, Taylor also plays Gaelic football and camogie with her local GAA clubs, Bray Emmets and Fergal Ógs. Several American colleges reportedly offer her athletic scholarships while she is still a pupil at St. Killian’s. She opts, however, to attend University College Dublin. Although UCD is well known for sports scholarships, Taylor qualifies via her Leaving Cert results. As her sporting career begins to take off, however, she chooses not to complete her studies at UCD.

Taylor qualifies for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the first time women’s boxing has been considered for inclusion. Crowds gather on the streets of her hometown to watch her progress on giant screens erected especially for the occasion.

Taylor’s first appearance at the 2012 Summer Olympics comes on August 6, after a first-round bye. She achieves an impressive 26-15 victory over Great Britain‘s Natasha Jonas, booking her place in the semi-final and guaranteeing her, at least, an Olympic bronze medal.

In the semi-final on August 8, 2012, she proves far too good for Tajikistan‘s Mavzuna Chorieva and wins in a 17-9 victory, booking her place in the final and guaranteeing her of at least a silver medal.

Taylor defeats Russia‘s Sofya Ochigava in the final bout by 10-8 on August 9, 2012, winning the Olympic gold medal and becoming the first ever Olympic female lightweight champion.

On her return to Dublin with the rest of the Olympic squad she gets into the cockpit of the plane and leans out the window waving an Irish flag.


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Barry McGuigan Wins the World Featherweight Boxing Title

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Finbar Patrick McGuigan, known as Barry McGuigan and nicknamed The Clones Cyclone, wins the World Boxing Association featherweight title on June 8, 1985, defeating Eusebio Pedroza in a unanimous 15-round decision at Loftus Road soccer stadium in London.

Barry McGuigan, the son of singer Pat McGuigan, is born in Clones, County Monaghan. He represents Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Games at Edmonton in 1978 and represents Ireland at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

After a successful juvenile boxing career, McGuigan begins his professional boxing career on May 10, 1981, beating Selwyn Bell by knockout in two rounds in Dublin. He wins four out of five additional bouts in 1981. In 1982, McGuigan wins eight fights, seven by knockout, although one of these almost destroys his career and his life. Opposed by Young Ali, on June 14, 1982, McGuigan wins by a knockout in six rounds. Ali falls into a coma and dies five months later.

In 1985, McGuigan meets former world featherweight champion Juan Laporte and wins a 10-round decision. Following one more win, he finally gets his world title attempt when the long reigning WBA featherweight champion, Eusebio Pedroza of Panama, comes to London to put his title on the line at Loftus Road soccer stadium. McGuigan becomes the champion by dropping Pedroza in the seventh round and winning a unanimous fifteen-round decision in a fight refereed by hall of fame referee Stanley Christodoulou. McGuigan and his wife are feted in a public reception through the streets of Belfast that attracts several hundred thousand spectators. Later that year, he is named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, becoming the first person not born in the United Kingdom to win the award.

McGuigan twice successfully defends his title, first against American Bernard Taylor, who is stopped in nine  rounds, and then against Dominican Danilo Cabrera in a controversial knock out in fourteen rounds. The fight is stopped after Cabrera bends over to pick up his mouthpiece after losing it, a practice that is allowed in many countries but not in Ireland. Cabrera is not aware of this, and the fight is stopped.

McGuigan’s next defence takes place in Las Vegas in June 1986, where he faces the relatively unknown Steve Cruz of Texas, in a gruelling 15-round title bout under a blazing sun. McGuigan holds a lead halfway through, but suffers dehydration due to the extreme heat and wilts near the end, being dropped in the tenth and fifteenth rounds. He eventually loses the world title, which he never reclaims, in a close decision. After the fight McGuigan requires hospitalisation because of his dehydrated state.

McGuigan retires after the fight but returns to the ring between 1988 and 1989, beating former world title challengers Nicky Perez and Francisco Tomas da Cruz, as well as contender Julio César Miranda, before losing to former EBU featherweight champ and future WBC and WBA super featherweight challenger Jim McDonnell by a technical knockout. After the McDonnell fight he permanently retires from boxing. His record is 32 wins and 3 losses, with 28 knockouts. In January 2005, McGuigan is elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

McGuigan founds and is the current President of the Professional Boxing Association (PBA). He is also the CEO and founder of Cyclone Promotions.