GAA President Jarlath Burns presenting a hurl with the GAA crest and McKay family crest to Philip Byrne, Simon McKay, Emilia McKay, and Patrick McKay at Croke Park.
By Donal McAnallen
November 1st has held several deep cultural meaning to Irish people for many centuries. The old Celtic feast of Samhain, being the start of the winter season, and reputedly when portals opened to the otherworld, gave way to All Saints’ Day, a holy day of reflection on the saints and martyrs of Christian history.
It has also become fabled over time as the birthday of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, formed at Hayes’ Hotel, Thurles, 140 years ago today. Michael Cusack, genius that he was, selected that day to launch his new organisation as it sought to reawaken native spirit through sport and reignite the soul of the Irish nation.
Tomorrow, the GAA’s latest milestone will be marked by the All-Star awards celebrations at the RDS. A much smaller, but more symbolic birthday party, is also taking place in Thurles. Coiste na Staire agus na Comórtha, the History and Commemorations Committee, is holding its own meeting at Hayes’ Hotel. Joining in the occasion will be some officers of Coiste Contae Thiobraid Árann and Comhairle na Mumhan, and two more special guests.
Patrick and Simon McKay of Kent are completing their great GAA DNA journey.
Six months ago, I detailed in an article for this website how I had finally tracked down Patrick, great-grandson of GAA co-founder John McKay, last December. Before then, at 73 years of age, he had no idea of his paternal Irish lineage. He had been to Ireland once, in 1957, at the age of 7. One photograph survives from that visit – showing him standing in front of the statue of St Patrick in Kilkenny, along with his younger brother Joseph, and both holding camáns. Yet, until we spoke 66 years later, he was unaware of his ancestral link to the organisation and codification of hurling, and the establishment of the largest sporting organisation in Ireland.
John McKay, one of the founders of the GAA.
At once, he learned he had the unofficial accolade of being the joint closest living direct descendant to the active founders of that association. (It’s notable that none of Cusack, Maurice Davin and John Wyse Power, the other three elected officers from the inaugural meeting, have any direct descendants surviving today.)
Keen to connect with their newly discovered heritage, Patrick, along with his daughter Emilia and son Simon, came to Ireland in April. In a whistle-stop tour, they visited the McKay homestead at Cargagh, near Downpatrick; were treated to a dinner by the Down County Board; were hosted at the new Irish News office in Belfast, where a blue plaque for John McKay had been reinstalled; and met their distant cousins at last.
The trip closed with their maiden pilgrimage to Croke Park. ‘GAA & CROKE PARK welcome the McKay family 1884-2024’, the stadium scoreboard proclaimed. They entered Seomra Uí Thuathail, the inner sanctum where McKay’s picture sits on the wall of GAA officialdom. Uachtarán Jarlath Burns presented a special ceremonial camán to them at pitch-side, and they were given a tour of the GAA Museum before heading back to England.
The prospect of their going to Munster back then was obstructed by schedule clashes, but this weekend has provided the perfect opportunity to complete the family mission.
No doubt today’s meeting at Hayes’ Hotel will invoke a new sense of connection to John McKay and the GAA forefathers.
Patrick McKay pictured visiting his ancestral homeland of Downpatrick in County Down.
Afterwards, they are bound for Tullacondra, Ballyclough, near Mallow, to see the homeplace of Ellen Browne, who married John McKay in 1883 and lived to reach 95. They are meeting Tom Browne, grandnephew of Ellen, and second cousin once removed of Patrick.
Finally, their path leads back to the Lee. On Saturday they will tour houses, offices, churches, cemeteries and fields where John McKay and family sported when he was a reporter for the Cork Examiner 1878 and 1894, and when they returned to the city briefly in the early 1910s.
At 3.00 p.m. on Saturday, the remarkable tale of the McKays will be told in a talk at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. At this event and the subsequent Cork Intermediate A Hurling Championship final, the McKays will be special guests for their first-ever game of hurling. We can be sure it won’t be their last.
Agus nach críoch shona é sin?!