Weeshie's Week

'The Ban' was an unfortunate relic

November 17th, 2009
by Weeshie Fogarty

The two month closed season or collective training ban introduced by the GAA for inter-county teams began earlier this month and there has been mixed reaction to it from the various managers/trainers around the county. The word ban itself brings back mixed memories for me, because I grew up in an era when another infamous ban on playing so called foreign games was in vogue. I expressed amazement to a group of friends whose company I was in recently when most of them, admittedly of a slightly younger generation, confessed of knowing absolutely nothing about this divisive ban, which was in operation right up to the seventies.

Until Congress in Belfast in 1971 if a GAA player was known to have attended or played association football, hockey, cricket or rugby or believe it or not attended a so called foreign dance or a dance promoted by the afore mentioned "foreign" games you would be suspended from playing with club and county. It was so divisive. I have vivid memories of watching Killarney rugby team play its home games in the cricket field (it's still there) on the Muckross Road back in the fifties and sixties. However, we dare not venture into the field because the GAA vigilante committee was on the prowl watching for the player who would break the rule and risk being contaminated by these "foreign" games.

These do-gooders of the Association worked in secrecy and no one knew their identities. Naturally this of course unfortunately led to paranoia and suspicion of ones friends who were known to favor this infamous ban. We dare not put a foot inside that Cricket field. Sounds incredulous, well its true. So the way around the problem for us sports mad youngsters of the fifties and sixties was to watch the rugby games from the old Flesk Bridge adjacent to the playing field.

So we were on the main road and safe from prosecution. Later the rugby club moved to the Killarney race course where they played their home games for a few years. And it was here one February day around 1960 that I barely escaped the wrath of the GAA authorities because of a soccer match – that dreaded foreign game. Soccer as we know it today had not yet arrived in Killarney, but the young generation of the town kept a close eye on what was going on across the water. So a few brave young Killarney boys with a vision for the future organised a competitive match with a team from Mallow in county Cork. A few lads from there were working in Liebherrs crane factory at the time and it was from here that the connection was made.

Two great friends of mine, two Dr Crokes men, Richard Clifford and Michael Looney together with some of my own Legion colleges, Nolie O'Brien, Brian Mulcahy and John Doyle were the main organisers of this historic probably first ever competitive game played in Killarney. I was deeply involved with my own club Killarney Legion at the time and expecting to get on the Kerry under twenty one team later in the year. So when the lads approached me and asked me to play with them I was in a bit of a dilemma. Play and risk getting a six months suspension or refuse and turn my back on friends. The word was out that this group of Legion and Crokes lads were playing that "despicable" foreign game in the race course and the vigilante committee were sure to be informed of the happenings.

So rather than refuse to be involved and discretion being the better part of valor I took the middle road and offered to referee the game. Killarney won 21. And sure enough the vigilante committee were hiding in the bushes. An old Kerry and Killarney footballer who had won a Junior All Ireland medal with the county reported the matter to the authorities. Some of the senior members of both clubs were furious with their players being involved in a soccer game. To them this was the ultimate betrayal. Mike Looney and Richard Clifford both I recall received twelve months suspension and Mike was even barred from playing with his work mates in Liebherr factory. The inter firm leagues were then in full swing and a great addition to the GAA calendar in the county.

A few days later I was called to account for my actions by my club. Pat O'Meara one of our all time great club men was then an officer (treasurer) of the county board. He summoned me to his pub in College Street and informed me that I was in deep trouble and a suspension was pending. When I quizzed him as to what rule in the book governed the refereeing of a soccer match by a GAA man. He hesitated. In fairness to Pat he saw a way out for one of his players and the following day he told me that because the referring of a soccer match was not mentioned in book or paper I was in the clear. Nevertheless I was issued with a stern warning as to my future conduct regarding "foreign" games.

Motions to remove the ban failed heavily at the Congresses of 1962-65-68. This despite the efforts of Tom Wolfe, a Kerry man, associated for many years with the Civil Service Club and the Dublin County Board. However, at the 1968 Congress a Mayo motion was passed without much debate and this signaled the beginning of the end for the Ban. This motion asked that a committee be set up to set out the present day reasons for the ban and that every club member be afforded the opportunity to vote on the issue.

This nationwide referendum produced a very high pole. At the end of the day twenty nine counties had voted for its abolition. So by the time Congress came around in Belfast in 1971, deletion was a mere formality. The late Lar Brady of Laois protested alone. Rule 27 had passed away with the ease and elegance of a movement whose time thankfully had come to an end. Pat Fanning of Waterford was the President who oversaw it passing. At a fiery and heated meeting my own club voted to retain the Ban.

Fogra: That much awaited Kerry GAA book "Thirty Six and Counting" will be launched at the Firies club grounds on Saturday December 12, at 7 pm. Niall Flynn, a former Kerry minor, has been working on this massive project for the bones of five years. Close to 400 pages it covers every single Kerry game, player, scorer, etc, since the championship began.

It will answer every Kerry GAA question and I believe no other county in Ireland has a record published such as this.



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