by Mark Owens
Over the years, I have written quite a bit about the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) here in America, more commonly known as the North American County Board (NACB). Before I go any further I must thank in advance John O’Brien, Sr. for his assistance on digging into the past—questions I had for him on GAA in North America were answered like they happened yesterday, even the street address to a bar for a meeting held in 1959 he rolled of the tip of his tongue. Being the modest man that he is, John will probably have my neck for saying this about him, but he is an absolute wealth of knowledge when it comes to information on Gaelic games right here in North America.
NACB, as it is known now, was officially formed in the 1959 with the first Convention being held in the Cavanaugh’s Bar at 3132 Market St., Philadelphia, on February 8th and 9th. The bar was owned by the Philadelphia Divisional President Mickey Cavanaugh who was a very generous backer of Gaelic games in North America.
The meeting was called to order by the President at the time, John Courtney, from Buffalo. The following clubs and delegates were present at this 1st Convention: Baltimore: John Marron; Boston: Patrick Green, William Howe, Tom Curran and John Collins; Buffalo: Bertie Cronin and Mike Allen; Chicago: Joe Kilroy and John Herlighy; Cleveland: JJ Hennelly and John Ryan; Detroit: Dan O’Kennedy and JJ O’Rourke; Hartford: Jim Foley and John Mullarkey; Los Angeles: Patrick Lynch; Montreal: John O’Brien and Billy McGee; New Haven: Eddie Brissell and Joe Maskey; Philadelphia: Michael Cavanaugh and Jim Harvey; Pittsburgh: Tom Donahue and Peter Donnelly; Rochester: Tom O’Keefe and Sean McGinty; San Francisco: Daniel Boyle; Syracuse: Al Kissane; Toronto: Mike Lawlor and John Sinclair; Trenton: Pat Egan and Bob Gillard and finally Washington who were represented by a letter they sent.
Due to an already existing rotation of cities by alphabetical order, the 1959 Convention should have been held in Montreal, having been held in Detroit the year before. But a phone call from Cleveland-based and North American GAA legend Henry Cavanaugh to the then Chairman of Montreal, John O’Brien, resulted in the location being changed to Philadelphia. One of the reasons was that with the Convention back then being held the weekend before the start of Lent and the weather in Montreal that time of year would have made it very difficult for the majority of delegates to make it.
So at the Convention in 1959, the 1st board of officers to serve consisted of Chairman John Courtney, Vice-Chairman Mike Culhane, Secretary Pater Donnelly, Treasurer Bill Garvey, Registrar Jimmy Harvey and Coordinator Henry Cavanaugh. The coordinator was not really an officer’s position, but rather Cavanaugh was the go-to person for all things GAA. He knew how the games were administered inside out in Ireland and how they could be best administered here in North America.
His position was ultimately to be one of the most important in the development of the NACB in that he helped coordinate the expansion of the games here and worked on establishing a working relationship with the powers that be in Ireland at Croke Park. In 1960 Cavanaugh, along with a Buffalo based priest by the name of Fr. Peter Quinn, travelled to Ireland to present their case to Croke Park for the NACB to receive County Board status.
Fr. Quinn was a native of Ballina, Co. Mayo who won two All-Ireland Football medals with Mayo in 1950 and 1951. Without this support they both knew, along with their supporters within the NACB, that the games would not be as successful in this country.
]What followed from this development meeting was quite amazing, the county Down Senior Men’s Football All-Ireland winning side of 1960 were brought over by the GAA in Ireland to America to play a round of four games in the cities of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and Philadelphia. Fr. Peter Quinn who was instrumental in bringing the County Down side over for the exhibition games, played in the game in Philadelphia. Quinn incidentally was elected as Honorary President of the NACB in 1961.
In 1960, the NACB Convention did eventually make its way to Montreal, with the following board being elected: Chairman Mickey Cavanaugh (Philadelphia), Vice-Chairman Mick Culhane (Pittsburgh), Secretary Peter Donnelly (Pittsburgh), Treasurer Bill Garvey (Rochester), Registrar John O’Brien (Montreal), Coordinator Henry Cavanaugh (Cleveland) and Assistant Coordinator John Hehir (Boston).
The NACB and Cleveland
The Cleveland connection with the GAA in North America went back further than just Henry Cavanaugh, in the 1930’s and 1940’s Pat Lynch and Pat Duffy were major leaders in getting the games and teams up and running. Al O’Leary, who was born in Cleveland but raised in Lorrma, County Tipperary, returned to the city after serving a stint with the US Army whilst in Ireland.
He returned to Cleveland when his mother decided it was time to go back. An avid hurler, O’Leary helped start the Cleveland Hurling Club, which eventually became known as CJ Kickman’s, in 1959. Over the years Al was and still is very active in the Irish community in northeast Ohio, and has been involved with one of the country’s newest hurling clubs—the Akron Celtic Guards.
As mentioned earlier, John O’Brien was elected as registrar in 1960, at the time he was based in Montreal, but a few years later he would make the move to Cleveland. He is enormously active in the Irish community, where he serves as President of the West Side Irish American Club. The Kiltoom, Co. Roscommon man migrated to Montreal in 1956. He was a member of the Cleveland St. Pat’s team that won three Senior Men’s Football titles from 1962-1964 and also played in the exhibition games against Co. Down.
Another advocate for the GAA out of Cleveland was the late Sean Gannon, a native of Newport, Co. Mayo. Sean first came to Cleveland in 1962 and was a member of the Cleveland St. Pat’s Senior Men Championship winning side, having only been on the country for two weeks at the time. Soon after this Gannon would also become involved in the administration of the games in North America. He was elected vice-chairman in 1979 and went on to serve as NACB Chairman in 1980-82. Sean also spearheaded the revitalization of Cleveland St. Pat’s in the 1980’s–‘90’s and in 1988 spearheaded the permanent move for the team to the playing field at the West Side Irish American Club, where they still play their home games. Sean died in May of 2002.
Cleveland Convention 2011
For the first time in many years the annual NACB Convention will be held in Cleveland at the West Side Irish American Club, Olmsted Falls. The event has been coordinated on behalf of the Midwest Division by local club St. Pat’s GFC and starts on Friday evening, November 18th with a ‘get-it-off-your-chest’ type meeting for all. On Saturday the main Convention ‘showcase’ will be held, this is where stuff gets done. On Sunday morning there will also be a Youth Committee meeting, this will actually be held at the Cleveland Airport Marriott Hotel.
Saturday is when all the motions are debated and nominations are voted on. Motions will vary anywhere from the number of sanction players allowed on the field at one time, to whether or not the playoffs should be rotated through the major divisions of Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Philadelphia, also giving Cleveland and Seattle a shot at hosting the ever growing Labor Day Playoff’s.
Trivia
First last month’s question: Shamrock Rovers have supplied more players to the Republic of Ireland national team than any other League of Ireland side, one of these players also went on to manage the national team, who is he? Answer: Johnny Giles. The Dublin-born Giles played for Rovers from 1977-83, played for the National team fifty-nine times between 1959 and 1979. He was both a player and manager for National team for much of the 1970’s, and was two points away from taking the team to the 1978 World Cup when they finished second in their qualifying group to France.
This month’s question: Being that this month’s article discussed a lot about the history of the GAA in North America, the All-Ireland Football Final has only be held outside of Ireland on one occasion; where was it held, when and who played in that year’s final?
*Mark Owens is originally from Derry City, Ireland and has resided in the Cleveland area since 2001 where he is employed by State Farm Insurance Companies, having previously spent time studying at John Carroll University. Send questions, comments or suggestions for future articles to Mark at:
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