An ocean-liner and a hackney car

Last Thursday night I stood outside Graiguecullen church awaiting a lift to Stradbally to watch the Carlow hurlers in Walsh Shield action against the host county. Regardless of the impending action or the conversations that might ensue on the journey your scribe had already decided on the stories he was going to wrap around this trip.

And those stories concern the venue, or rather the man the venue is named after and the exploits of his Stradbally and Graiguecullen footballing colleagues of yesteryear. That man is Bill Delaney. Not only is the Park in his beloved Stradbally named in his honour, the Leinster Senior Football Championship trophy also bears his name.

Bill Delaney was one of just four Laois men to hold the distinction of having won four Leinster Senior Football Championship medals on the field of play: the three in-a-row of the 1930s plus 1946. Two of the other three players who completed the quartet were his brothers Mick and Chris, the fourth Mick ‘Cutchie’ Haughney, a native of the famous Numbers in Graiguecullen. ‘Cutchie’ was the last surviving link with the ‘Village’ contingent who enjoyed a trip to the United States with the Laois team way back in 1938 when All-Ireland champions Kerry, who were entitled to the American tour, nominated the O’Moore County in their stead.

Laois won the Leinster title in 1936, ‘37 and ’38, beating Cavan in the All-Ireland semi-final of ’36 only to fall heavily to Mayo in the final. Kerry proved to be the blue and white’s bogey in the semi-finals of ’37 and ’38, the ’37 semi going to an infamous replay in Waterford in which it is claimed the ‘Boy Wonder’, 17-year-old Knockbeg College student and Graiguecullen starlet Tommy Murphy was ‘taken out of the game’ by over-robust Kingdom ‘tactics’.

STARS AND STRIPES:

 However that controversy had a sporting follow-on when Kerry offered Laois that dream trip to the land of the Stars and Stripes, a trip covered in fantastic detail in the 2019 publication ‘They took the USA by Storm’ compiled by a then 81-year-old Brian Delaney, son of Jack who one of the nine Stradbally men who boarded the SS Manhattan and set sail for the States where they spent close to a month, from May 12 to June 8. They were joined on the trip across the Atlantic by Ulster giants Cavan who Laois played twice in the Polo Grounds, New York, the first game ending a draw, Laois outscoring the Breffni boys 3-7 to 0-4 in the replay.

AN INTERESTING ASIDE: 

The Polo Grounds, of course, is the famous Big Apple sporting venue which hosted the 1947 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final in which Cavan beat Kerry, the only All-Ireland final played outside of the country. And here’s one for you, the Sam Maguire Cup did not make the trip to the USA! The Cup was presented to the Cavan captain, the great John Joe O’Reilly upon the new champions return to Dublin. This nugget of information is courtesy of ‘The Gallant John Joe’, George Cartwright’s comprehensive biography of the Cavan’s Millenium Man.

OCEAN LINER: 

Back now to that Laois sojourn in 1937 on which the Leinster champions also played a game in Boston and also in another iconic American sporting venue, the Yankee Stadium, New York. A programme for that game against the host city in the Yankee Stadium is in the possession of Seamus Moore of New Oak Estate, the former Dr Cullen Park groundsman, a native of Graiguecullen, and in that programme was carried the fantastic photo which accompanies this week’s column, that of the Laois team taken on the ocean liner en route to America.

MICK BYRNE RIP: 

Covid was still knocking around when the book ‘They took America by Storm’ was published and as it quickly sold-out I was unable to attain a copy. To my rescue came Mick Byrne of Hanover Crest and formerly of John Street and O’Hanrahan’s Avenue whose uncle, the great Jim Slator was one the Graiguecullen stars who sailed stateside. Mick loaned me his copy which I scanned and added to my digital archive before returning it to Mick who many GAA followers will remember as the jovial figure accompanying wheelchair users to matches in Dr Cullen Park and further afield. Indeed during Éire Óg’s glory years in the Leinster and All-Ireland Club Championship, a huge part of the fabric of match days in Newbridge and Croke Park was the Irish Wheelchair Association supporters, led by Mick, who had a word for everyone, making their way to the sideline. Mick had played with Éire Óg and also loaned me a copy of a photo featuring three suited championship winning captains at an early 1970s dinner dance, one of which was Mick himself. Sadly, Mick, having bravely battled illness, passed away last November. He truly was a great character, his wit and perfectly timed one-liners enlivening any company he was in. I have fond memories of the Kelly’s Bar, Centaur Street, trip to London for the 1992 All-Ireland Senior B Hurling final, an adventure involving a night boat to Hollyhead, a long road trip to London, then a hectic weekend in Shepards Bush and Ruislip before the victorious return trip was embarked on by the motley crew. Throughout it all Mick’s sense of humour was a true delight. Condolences to all Mick’s family and friends.

YANKEE DOLLAR/IRISH POUND:

 We also take this opportunity to recount a great yarn told to this scribe by the late Matt ‘No Hop’ Callinan on a train journey to the 1985 Leinster Senior Hurling final which Laois lost to Offaly, the last time the blue and white reached the Provincial hurling final. Matt was no mean footballer himself it seems and his nick-name was a nod to his no-nonsense defending where underneath a dropping ball Matt didn’t call ‘my ball’ but ‘no hop’ before plucking the sphere from the sky! Matt was a great man to recall times past and spoke highly of that great Laois team of the 1930s and was honoured to be added the county panel for a National Football League game against Mayo not long after the trip to the USA.

At that time Matt’s relation and namesake, the other Matt Callinan, known as ‘Hurls’, acted as Hackney driver for the Laois County Board and had the job of transporting the Graiguecullen contingent to Castlebar for the National League game. Now while Graigue had eight on the trip to the States, the number for the trip into the West was halved. They headed off on Saturday morning for the Sunday fixture and somewhere around Athlone the motor car ran into engine difficulty. While repairs were being carried out the players retired to a local hotel and eat a substantial meal as well as quenching their thirst with a few rounds of large bottles, their parting words to the hotel manager, “put the bill down to the Laois County Board.” Having overnighted in Castlebar, Laois took on Mayo the next day and though I can’t remember whether Matt told us if they won or lost I do recall that with a glint in his eye he told us that on the homeward journey they decided wouldn’t it be a right idea if the car broke down again!

So around Athlone, didn’t the engine splutter to a halt?! Into the same hotel, a bacon and cabbage dinner washed down with large bottles helping while away the time as the ‘repairs’ were carried out. Again the hotel manager, along with a jovial good-bye, was instructed to “put the bill down to the Laois County Board.” That was grand, “things rested so,” as the Seanachaí Eamonn Kelly would say, rested so until the next meeting of the Laois County Board when the Treasurers Report was issued to the assembled members in Portlaoise.

“Excuse me, Mr Chairman,” said Bill Delaney of Stradbally, Graiguecullen’s arch rivals, “it hardly cost as much to send Laois to America as it did Graiguecullen to Castlebar!”