ON A DAY when GAA President Liam O’Neill and Director-General Paraic Duffy appeared before an Oireachtas Committee to discuss their recent deal with Sky Sports, it seems appropriate that British Pathé have released archive footage of the 1934 All-Ireland final.
The game, between Dublin and Galway, took place on September 23, 1934 in front of — apparently — 36,000 fans. However, if you look at the footage, there could easily be double that in attendance.
Being in black and white, there’s very little to differentiate between the teams, other than their socks and, as the announcer helpfully states, “Galway are nearest the camera”.
Other highlights include a priest throwing the ball in for the first half and an awful lot of soccer skills on display some 73 years before the sport was officially allowed grace the Croke Park surface.
For the record, Galway won 3-5 to 1-9.