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Tag Archives: Luke O’Toole


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Birth of Luke O’Toole, Irish Gaelic Games Administrator

Luke O’Toole, Irish Gaelic games administrator, is born on June 21, 1873, in Ballycumber, Tinahely, County Wicklow.

O’Toole is the second son among five children of John O’Toole and Bridie O’Toole (née Doran). Of farming stock on both sides, he is educated at the local national school at Ballycumber and at a Dublin secondary school. When in the mid-1890s he moves to Dublin, he joins the Benburb Gaelic Football Club at Donnybrook, where his teammates include the future nationalist parliamentarian Thomas M. Kettle, who is killed in 1916 near Ginchy, France, during World War I. The proprietor of two newsagents’ shops near his home in Mount Pleasant Square, he soon becomes his club’s delegate to the Dublin county committee of the Gaelic Athletic Association about 1899. Founded in 1884 by Michael Cusack, the GAA by the late 1890s is insolvent and almost moribund, having been riven by rival nationalist factions. However, a group of younger officials which includes O’Toole is determined not to allow the Association to die, and at its annual congress in Thurles on September 22, 1901, stages what is in effect a palace coup. Alderman James Nowlan of Kilkenny, County Kilkenny, a labour activist and Gaelic League enthusiast, is elected president, and in a contest for the post of secretary, O’Toole defeats Cusack.

O’Toole holds the post of chief officer of the GAA until his death almost thirty years later. During this period, despite major political and military turmoil, including the world war, the Irish War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War, he is instrumental in turning the Association into the biggest Irish sports body, and some leading members, such as Michael Collins and Harry Boland, play major political roles between 1913 and 1923. Essentially a backroom administrator, O’Toole rarely appears in public apart from GAA events, one notable exception being on November 25, 1913, at the foundation meeting of the Irish Volunteers at the Rotunda Rink, Dublin, where he is one of the platform party. After the suppression of the 1916 Easter Rising, he goes into hiding temporarily in his native Wicklow. From then until the cessation of hostilities in mid-1921 he manages to evade the notice of the authorities though he is always a close associate of Sinn Féin leaders. He plays a big part in reviving the fortunes of the GAA after the Irish Civil War and is a principal organiser of the Tailteann Games in 1924 and 1928. His career, however, is cut short at the age of 56 by his sudden death at his desk on July 17, 1929.

For most of his life O’Toole resides in a house provided by the GAA beside Croke Park, the Association’s headquarters and principal stadium. He marries Bridget Doyle, a shopkeeper of Dublin. They have four sons and four daughters.

(From: “O’Toole, Luke” by Marcus de Búrca, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009 | Pictured: Michael Collins, Luke O’Toole and Harry Boland in 1921, Image credit: GAA)


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Birth of Gaelic Footballer Michael Hogan

Michael Hogan, Gaelic footballer and one-time captain of the Tipperary county football team, is born at Currasilla, Ninemilehouse, County Tipperary, on October 27, 1896. He is the only player shot dead, along with thirteen spectators, by British forces consisting of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries at Croke Park in Dublin on Bloody Sunday during the Irish War of Independence.

Hogan is one of four sons and three daughters of Patrick Hogan, farmer, and Margaret Hogan (née Galvin). His family are staunch nationalists who have been heavily involved in the land struggle. He is the brother of Major General Daniel (Dan) Hogan, who is Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces in the 1920s. On November 19, 1920, Hogan is elected company commander of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the Grangemockler area, where he is working on the family farm.

Hogan’s family are close friends of the Browne family, also from Grangemockler, that include the late Cardinal Michael Browne, Monsignor Maurice Browne (aka Joseph Brady), and Monsignor Pádraig de Brún.

A dedicated footballer, Hogan is the established full back on the Tipperary county football team. During the Irish War of Independence very few championships are completed, and challenge matches are the chief attraction. Following the success of a Kildare–Dublin challenge match, a challenge is organised between Tipperary and Dublin at Croke Park, Dublin, on November 21, 1920.

The day before the match, Hogan travels on the train with the other members of the team. A number of the players, including Hogan, become involved in a fight with soldiers from the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment before throwing them from the train. On arrival at (Kingsbridge) Heuston Station, they quickly go their separate ways anticipating arrest. Michael and Thomas “Tommy” Ryan, the two IRA members on the team, decide to stay at Philip Shanahan‘s pub in Monto that night, rather than Barry’s Hotel as planned. There they learn that “there is a ‘big job coming off” the following day but are unaware of the details.

On the morning of the match, fourteen members of the British intelligence service are assassinated by the IRA. This leads to concerns about the match and the safety of spectators, and the Dublin brigade of the IRA urges that the game be cancelled. Shanahan informs the team of the shooting of the British agents. Ryan claims that Dan Breen advised them it would be better not to attend the match, but instead to return to Tipperary. Leading Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) officials Jim Nowlan, Dan MacCarthy and Luke O’Toole decide the match should proceed, arguing that a postponement would associate the IRA’s activities with the GAA.

Dublin and Tipperary are two of the best teams in the country at the time (and later contest the 1920 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final when it is eventually played in 1922), so despite the events of the morning, a large crowd of some 10,000 people are in attendance.

At 3:00 p.m., not long after the match has started, a British military plane flies over and drops a flare, signaling British forces to converge on the ground. Black and Tans enter Croke Park and open fire on the crowd.

Hogan drops to the ground and is crawling to safety when a bullet hits him in the mouth. Tom Ryan, a young spectator from Wexford, enters the pitch to pray beside the dying Hogan and is also fatally shot. Another player, Jim Egan, is wounded, but survives. In all, fourteen people are killed and dozens are wounded and injured. The events of that day come to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”

Hogan’s body is returned to Grangemockler for burial on November 24, 1920. A huge crowd attends the funeral. He is buried in his football colours in a coffin draped with the tricolour. The GAA commemorates him by naming the main stand at Croke Park after him and erecting a monument to his memory at Grangemockler. His football jersey is in the South Tipperary County Museum in Clonmel.