IF THERE’S ONE boast that Galway hurling folks don’t make half enough of, it is that they were in this thing from the ground up.
In the first All-Ireland hurling final, they went represented by the Meelick club team, in Birr. They might have been beaten by Thurles, but that day they played a part in establishing a tradition back in 1887.
It took them until 1923 to land their first All-Ireland, although that timeline is slightly sketchy too.
With the country still trying to emerge from curfews and martial law at the end of the Civil War, the provincial championships in Munster and Ulster were halted at semi-final stage in October ’23.
Their finals were eventually played; Limerick beating Tipperary in March ’24, and Donegal dishing out a walloping to Antrim a month later.
Limerick beat Donegal in the semi-final in late April. Galway triumphed over Kilkenny in mid-May. It wasn’t until 14 September 1924 that the 1923 All-Ireland final was played, Galway – wearing purple and orange – beating Limerick 7-3 to 4-5.
18,000 people attended that day, a figure 5,000 greater than attended the opening day of the recently-resurrected Tailteann Games.
Match reports make various, quirky references to ‘Hill 60’, and the fact that more young clergymen were present, mainly from the west.
But we digress.
Galway found themselves back in the All-Ireland final, the 1924 edition, a mere two months later when they were beaten by Dublin. By now the format was established that they would only have to peak for one game with an automatic place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Through this method, further finals were reached in 1925, ’28, ’29, without another win.
The next time they got to a final was 1953, beating Kilkenny in the semi-final.
But the final took on a life of its’ own, bringing some notoriety to the GAA history of Barry’s Hotel. Galway’s star defender Mickey Burke was struck off the ball by Christy Ring, who had been well handled, according to contemporary reports.
That evening, passions ran high. Ring was on a staircase in the Gresham Hotel and an unidentified Galway player punched him, causing Ring to stumble down the stairs.
The following morning, Ring was breakfasting in Barry’s Hotel and some from Galway entered the building, intent on damage. They were herded off by some of Ring’s Glen Rovers clubmates.
In print, some Cork reporters praised the efforts of Galway, but the Cork Examiner’s Tom Higgins wasn’t as charitable, criticising their support of unruly behaviour and expressing a wish that he hoped it would be, ‘At least another 24 years before Galway are seen in an All-Ireland final.’
The fall out was pretty spectacular. A yarn was spawned that Galway fans burned copies of The Cork Examiner in Eyre Square, though there is little evidence. Galway trainer Padraig Fahy however, did call for Burke’s attacker, aka Ring, to be expelled from the GAA.
From then on, it was a hard struggle. They went straight through to the finals of 1955 and 1958 but lost by eight points to Wexford and 10 points to Tipperary respectively.
There were some horrors. An 18-point mincing in the semi-final to Cork in ’54. 17 points to Wexford in ’56. 13 points against Waterford the year after.
In an effort to arrest the slide, they applied to join the Munster hurling championship. The theory was that an earlier start date would encourage continuous practise and training and they were set to join for the 1959 season.
A date in late June in the Gaelic Grounds had everything going for it. 50,000 turned up for a meeting with Waterford.
After five minutes, Galway goalkeeper Ignatius Gavin lost the flight of a Seamus Power ball in and it dropped into the corner of the net.
A minute later, Power himself ripped the net. Gavin was summarily substituted and then on eight minutes, Donal Whelan goaled.
Galway were essentially out of the championship, though they had to endure more than an hour more of this stuff.
The Munster Council would not agree to Galway getting home games, though that was nothing new to the county that here heretofore surviving in splendid isolation in Connacht.
While the hurlers were guaranteed games earlier in the year and the opportunity to build up a head of steam, it also came at a time when the county footballers oozed an impossible glamour.
Under the doughty John ‘Tull’ Dunne of Ballinasloe, he had already brought the Tribesmen to an All-Ireland in 1956, before reaching the 1963 final. Thereafter, they won a three-in-a-row. He was able to put out The Terrible Twins of Stockwell and Purcell of the ‘50s and move seamlessly then to a team of goalkeeper Johnny Geraghty, Jimmy Duggan and his own son, Cyril.
The hurlers could barely dream of such glamour as they faced into this brave new world of Munster hurling.
The bare statistics show that they got nothing but a chasing. The experiment lasted eleven years before it was abandoned. It brought just one win, against Clare in 1961, to be followed by another slap down from Tipperary.
The years went as follows;
1959: Waterford 7-11 Galway 0-8
1960: Waterford 9-8 Galway 4-8
1961: Galway 2-13 Clare 0-8, Tipperary 7-12 Galway 5-6
1962: Limerick 2-13 Galway 2-7
1963: Limerick 3-9 Galway 2-7
1964: Cork 4-14 Galway 2-7
1965: Clare 4-8 Galway 3-10
1966: Waterford 2-16 Galway 1-9
1967: Clare 3-13 Galway 1-11
1968: Cork 3-15 Galway 1-6
1969: Cork 3-15 Galway 1-10.
The last two defeats to Cork were enough beat a hasty retreat. By 1970 they were content to play a one-off All-Ireland semi-final where they ran into Wexford and were beaten by two points.
Behind the scenes, the rethinking of the Coiste Iomána na nÓg led to a significant shake up of how hurling affairs were conducted in Galway.
From 1979, they made seven All-Ireland finals in a decade, winning three of them.
Joe Connolly’s famous speech, “People of Galway, we love you,” became an epic paean to hurling in Galway. But the good times weren’t consistent.
By 2009, they were seeking a bit more company and Leinster admitted them. In their fourth season, they won their first Leinster title. They won subsequently in 2017 and 2018.
Since 2018, they have played 25 Leinster championship games, winning 15 of them. Only Kilkenny have a better record in the province over those years.
There can be no doubt that playing a round-robin Leinster has left them a better-equipped and prepared team. So natural does the relationship feel now that they have a Leinster manager in Henry Shefflin.
And now, it all comes down to this; Saturday night, Croke park, facing the All-Ireland champions.
A long way from clumsy schmozzles on the staircase of the Gresham Hotel.