GAA Museum Director Niamh McCoy on commemoration

Remembering the GAA’s darkest day: Bloody Sunday 1920

Bloody Sunday 1920 is a moment in time seared into the Irish psyche. On 21 November 1920, 90 seconds of shooting claimed the lives of 14 people and wounded 60 more, elevating Croke Park from sporting field to hallowed ground. Ciarán Galway speaks with GAA Museum Director Niamh McCoy about curating a commemorative programme to enhance understanding of the event and its victims.

Amid the ongoing War of Independence, a wave of violence, culminating in the deaths of 33 people across Dublin, ensured that 21 November 1920 would be collectively remembered as one of Ireland’s Bloody Sundays. As well as being the epicentre of Ireland’s national games and the thirdlargest stadium in Europe, Croke Park is a War of Independence lieu de mémoire.

On the morning of Bloody Sunday 1920, the IRA in Dublin executed a plan to disrupt the British intelligence network in the capital. The IRA’s Chief of

Intelligence, Michael Collins, tasked

‘The Twelve Apostles’ with assassinating 20 British intelligence agents across eight locations in the city. In total, 15 men were killed and one mortally wounded while an additional five survived.

That afternoon, in an act of retribution, Crown Forces entered Croke Park during a challenge game between the Dublin and Tipperary footballers and opened fired on the 10,000 people gathered there. In the panic, 14 people were killed, including three children, while over 60 were injured. This was followed later that the evening with the execution of two high-ranking IRA officers and a civilian in Dublin Castle.

To mark the centenary of Bloody Sunday, the GAA Museum, as the national custodian of the GAA’s archives and artefacts has coordinated a commemorative programme. “The GAA Museum has an educational remit and wanted to present the facts, tell the story again and bring it to new audiences. The main focus of our event programme was remembering the victims,” explains Museum Director, Niamh McCoy.

From the perspective of the GAA Museum, the commemorative programme has three main objectives. The first is to

remember the victims and bring their names back into public consciousness. The second is to educate and, as such, a series of lectures has been organised. The third is to promote reconciliation.

While Tipperary fullback Michael Hogan’s story is renowned and his name immortalised in Croke Park’s Hogan Stand, the GAA Museum is keen to ensure that the stories of the other 13 victims now receive appropriate recognition.

“The other 13 people were much like any fans attending a sporting event of a weekend. They were civilians; we wanted to tell their story,” the Museum Director emphasises.

Exhibition

As the cornerstone of the overall programme, the GAA Museum has curated a comprehensive Bloody Sunday exhibition, telling the story of the entire day through artefacts which include, among other items, newspaper reports, photographs, letters, the referee’s whistle and an original match ticket.

“Originally, we had anticipated that the programme of events, including walking tours, would take place in the museum in Croke and visitors would then visit the exhibition. We have Tom Hogan’s coat that he was wearing on the day, a prayer book, a crucifix belonging to Thomas Ryan and a lot of correspondence sent to the family of Michael Hogan family. We also have the burial register on loan from Glasnevin Cemetery Museum. It’s a very large leather-bound book and includes the entries for six of the victims. All these artefacts help bring the story to life,” McCoy states.

However, the centrepiece of the Museum’s exhibition is a collection of portraits of each of the 14 victims, including interpretations for those whom no known photographic record exists. “It’s poignant that they’re all represented together in that way,” says McCoy.

The Museum was also keen to incorporate a legacy component into its centenary programme. As such, it commissioned the GAA’s current eLearning Manager and talent artist, David Sweeney, to produce a painting to mark the occasion. The erstwhile Dublin senior hurling captain subsequently painted ‘Transilience’.

The names of those who were killed in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 1920:

James Burke Daniel Carroll Michael Hogan James Matthews Jerome O’Leary

Tom Ryan James Teehan Jane (Jenny) Boyle Michael Feery Thomas (Tom) Hogan Patrick O’Dowd William (Perry) Robinson John William (Billy) Scott Joseph Traynor

“We weren’t prescriptive and David formulated the idea. The revolutionary years were a turbulent time for the GAA but it survived and 100 years on, the Association is thriving. His painting juxtaposes the images of contemporary Croke Park on the day of Bloody Sunday as a layer of history below a modern Croke Park on matchday. It’s included in the exhibition and it’s something that will be there forever,” explains McCoy.

Education

As necessitated by such a complex element of the revolutionary era, the GAA Museum has endeavoured to comprehensively engage in multiperspectivity and deliver the story to new audiences. Simultaneously, in compiling its programme, the Museum Director was cognisant of the need to remember Bloody Sunday with respect and sensitivity.

“The Museum primarily focuses on the history of Gaelic games, brilliant matches, incredible teams and their sporting achievements. We don’t usually deal with an event like Bloody Sunday which was something of watershed moment in a conflict scenario.

“It was such a tragic event. We are acutely aware that it is a very emotive subject and have been mindful in how we presented the programme and the appropriateness of the language that we used. We have sought to present the facts as objectively as possible,” she notes.

In August 2020, the GAA Museum’s annual summer school examined the theme of sport, peace and reconciliation. The panel included DKIT historian Richard McElligott, former Armagh footballer and Ulster GAA’s Head of Club and Community Development Diarmuid Marsden, and Gareth Harper from Peace Players.

Subsequently, a lecture series organised by the Museum was opened by UCD historian Diarmaid Ferriter who delivered a contextualisation of Ireland in 1920. Running from September 2020 to November 2020, other lecturers in the series include Anne Dolan from TCD, Will

4

Overcoming challenges

Murphy from DCU, Fearghal McGarry from QUB, UCC’s Ciara Chambers and Siobhán Doyle from TU Dublin. Likewise, during the Hedge School at the GAA Museum event in November 2020, History Ireland Editor Tommy Graham will host a round table discussion of history, memory and Bloody Sunday 1920. From a community perspective, the Croke Park Community Team is collaborating with an organisation called Fighting Words. An ongoing intergenerational project, predicated on speaking with older community members around Croke Park, aims to record the recollections of Bloody Sunday that may have been passed down by word-of-mouth. The intention is to collate an oral history and produce a book co-written by the participants. “It’s brilliant to get support from people with this kind of knowledge and who want to engage with the museum to help it produce this programme of events. We couldn’t do it without them. “Historians, artists and communities have been crucial to this programme. We’ve enlisted lecturers that we know are experts. Again, because of our educational remit, we know that they can help us deliver really interesting and compelling content,” McCoy remarks. With its own board of directors and a clear remit within the wider Association, the GAA Museum was confident in its delivery of the centenary programme. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted Ireland’s tourism sector unlike any other time in living memory.

While the Bloody Sunday exhibition had

only opened several days before public health restrictions once again closed museums across the country, it will remain in situ throughout 2021. Meanwhile, the series of events originally intended to take place within Croke Park, including the lecture series, History Ireland’s Hedge School and the Fighting Words initiative

“The revolutionary years were a turbulent time for the GAA but it survived and 100 years on, the Association is thriving.”

have all successfully pivoted online. “Nobody could foresee the challenges ahead with the Covid-19 pandemic. The important thing is that the programme will continue to take place and one positive consequence is that because the lectures have migrated online, accessibility has been greatly enhanced. Initially, we had limited tickets because of public health restrictions. Now we can distribute the content to a greater audience.

“Like other organisations in the tourism industry, the Museum has contingency plans if it reopens in the next number of weeks. Though the main priority is simply to get back on an even keel, reaching out to audiences that typically visit us and doing what we do best. We’ll do as much as we can within the public health restrictions at any given point in time,”

McCoy concludes.

Profile: Niamh McCoy

Niamh McCoy is responsible for all the activities in the GAA Museum and Tours. A proud Meath woman, McCoy has worked in Croke Park for 15 years, initially selling corporate tickets before assuming the role of GAA Museum Director.

“First and foremost, I work with a great team. It’s a great place to work because we all have shared interests and everyone is committed to the role. If you work in the museum, you’re interested in the GAA and you’re interested in history,” she says.

TRADE UNION

It took a global pandemic to expose the deep flaws in our economic model. ICTU’s Macdara Doyle writes.

The ‘free market’ has been relentlessly promoted as the very epitome of lean, seamless efficiency, superior in every way to the stuttering efforts of the State, capable of meeting every challenge and providing for every need. That has now been laid bare as fanciful propaganda.

In every area of society and the economy, the State has been forced to step in and become the provider and guarantor of last resort, on a scale not seen since the New Deal of the 1930s or the wartime economies that followed.

Even prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was clear that our current model was incapable of providing the services and standards necessary to ensure a decent quality of life and a reasonable standard of living for millions across the globe.

In strategic areas, such as housing, successive Irish governments had abandoned their key role and outsourced the task to the market. The result is the longest and most severe housing crisis in our history. Housing became a commodity for speculators that was divorced from its core social function. Tens of thousands in insecure housing were left exposed and vulnerable to eviction when the pandemic hit. The State was again forced to step in.

Within developed economies, the contradictions at the core of our model were visible within days of the first lockdown: without a veritable army of primarily low-paid and precarious workers our societies would have ground to a halt. Indeed, the very success of our model seems to be predicated on insecurity and inequality. Care workers, retail staff, distribution staff, drivers, cleaning staff and many others had previously formed an unseen and disposable underclass. When required, these essential workers were to be found on the front line. They ensured our shops stayed open, the shelves were filled and supply chains clear, they cared for the sick and the elderly and kept our transport systems running. In doing so, they were at greater risk of exposure to Covid-19.

In a study of the impact of the virus, the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) pointed out how the pandemic had made ‘poor jobs’ worse, but more valuable to society as a whole.

The NESC report said that higher standards of employment must be seen as an essential component of a modern economy: “Society needs to have a very practical and detailed discussion about good jobs, what a good jobs economy means and about what levers are available to policy-makers to promote them.”

A key challenge is tackling low pay, which is prevalent in the very sectors on which we depend. Alongside Retail and Distribution, Accommodation and Food is among the lowest paid sectors of the workforce with pay rates that often fall below the OECD low pay threshold. The same workers also face exorbitant costs for housing and childcare.

Where there is trade union presence, collective agreements have secured higher than average wages and conditions for workers, primarily in major outlets and chains. Critically, trade unions in this jurisdiction also secured a landmark ban on notorious Zero Hour

DESK

Contracts, through the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act of 2018.

But low pay and growing inequality appears hard-wired into our current global model, with the OECD reporting on “unprecedented levels of wage stagnation’’ and a decline in labour’s share of national income.

Simultaneously, we have seen a dramatic rise in CEO pay, with a pay levels up to 200 times that of the average salary, according to studies by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. And the Financial Times recently reported that the wealth of the world’s richest reached an all-time high during the early months of the pandemic, as did the number of global billionaires.

Meanwhile our essential service workers in retail, distribution, care and many other sectors remain undervalued and underpaid. It’s time to reset and rebuild. Putting decent work at the heart of any recovery must be the first step in that process.