From Fáinne an Lae, July 2, 1898.
‘The old joy in physical strength has now revived in full force in Ireland, and finds its fittest expression in the Gaelic Athletic Association, the modern democratic representative of Carmac’s School of Championships.’
This is what Mrs. Bryant wrote in ‘Celtic Ireland’ twelve years ago. The famine of fifty years ago almost killed the hurling. The National movements that originated towards the end of the fifties and developed in the early sixties forgot, or ignored, our ancient system of physical culture. In 1866 a feeble attempt was made to promote athletics in Ireland, but entirely on English lines; and the work of Anglicising us moved steadily on uninterruptedly for about sixteen years. Weight throwing and jumping were being wiped out because Englishmen were not able to meet Irishmen in contests requiring great strength and agility. The reaction set in, and the immediate result was the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association. England’s influence in the domain of athletics in Ireland received a reeling blow from which there can never be even the semblance of a recovery.
In the de-Anglicising work the Grocers’ Assistants of Dublin took an early and a leading part. Thirteen years ago they held their inaugural athletic meeting under Gaelic laws, and since that time they have been progressing year after year. Being liberally supported by representatives of the trade, they are enabled to give the most valuable prizes of the year. And where the good prizes are, the best athletes are sure to be; and where the athletes are, the admirers of manly sports and pastimes are sure to be found. This year’s great carnival is fixed for to-morrow (Sunday) at Jones’s Road. In quality and number the entries are astonishingly great. In every department some of the strongest men in the world, from Kiely of Tipperary, and Mangan of Wexford, who may be relied on to sling the half-hundred weight eleven or twelve yards, down to the swarms of ambitious youngsters, there will be competitions sufficiently keen to interest every variety of athletic tastes. The cyclists will be there in troops from all points of the compass to race against such formidable opponents as Carraher, Reynolds, Wells, and others of the like grit and stamina. Having seen an outline sketch of the programme, we are in a position to guarantee our readers that the bill of fare prepared by the Grocers’ Assistants of Dublin will satisfy the most fastidious of the thousands who will attend to-morrow’s meeting. We may add that the twenty-first and last event is as amusing as it is original in conception. It is a half-mile race from the grounds to the north-west of Rutland Square.