By Damian White

The year 1847 will forever be remembered as ‘Black ‘47’ in Ireland, when the potato famine was ravaging the Irish population. It was also the year when the great liberator Daniel O’ Connell succumbed to illness and passed away in Genoa, on his way to visit the Pope to highlight the plight of his native people. It was in this period that two men who were to play a significant role in Irish life in the second half of the 19th Century were born into very different circumstances.

In Co. Wicklow, Charles Stewart Parnell arrived in the opulent surroundings of his family’s Avondale House in June 1846, while across the country on the eastern fringe of the Burren, in the parish of Carron in Co. Clare, herdsman Matthew Cusack and his wife Brigid welcomed their son Michael, the third of their five children into their humble home where Irish was the only language spoken. Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Cusack came from differing backgrounds, but their paths would cross often during their relatively short lives, as each in his own way fought to further issues of Irish self-determination, cultural revival, and sporting independence.

Teaching career

Cusack excelled at the local national school in Carron, and from 14 years of age was selected as the school’s Senior Monitor. He became a national schoolteacher in 1866, graduating from the Central Model school in Dublin, following periods working in model schools in Enniscorthy and nearby Corofin. His first appointment following qualification was a principal of Lough Cultra NS. Co. Galway where he remained for four years before switching to secondary teaching and moved north to a position in St. Colman’s College, Newry for a further three years. Further teaching work followed in Blackrock, Kilkenny and Clongowe’s Wood Colleges .

In 1877, Cusack, by now qualified as a professor, established his own Civil Service Academy, 'Cusack's Academy' in his own house at 4 Gardiner St. in Dublin which proved popular and successful in preparing pupils for the civil service examinations, Trinity College entrance exams, law and medical schools as well as the army, navy and constabulary. Significantly however, Cusack’s ‘other interest’s’ took up a significant amount of his time and energy, and it was no surprised when his Academy closed in 1887, the year in which the first All-Ireland Hurling and Football Championships were played.

‘Other Interests’

His ’other interests’ included his major love of sport, and as an accomplished athlete, he followed his childhood passion for hurling and athletics with significant accomplishments in rowing, handball, cricket and rugby after moving to Dublin. He won the All-Ireland 30 lb Shot Putt title in 1881 and 1882. His own Academy had its own rugby and ‘Hurley’ teams. Hurley was a game whose rules were first published by the Trinity College Hurley Club, rules were more akin to those of field hockey. The clubs who played hurley eventually affiliated with the Irish Hockey Union.

Cusack, who as late as 1881, had advocated for Cricket as Irelands national game, was growing increasingly frustrated at the way sport was organised, and the lack of opportunity and welcome for the majority of Irish people to participate. The lack of opportunity to play sports on Sundays, the only day free from work for most people, prevented large cohorts of people from participating in sport.

A romantic nationalist, Cusack had an interest in political affairs was also "reputed" to have had links with the Fenian movement. As a native speaker, he was part of the rapidly growing Gaelic revival. He was a member of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language, and later of the Gaelic League who in 1879 broke away from the Society.

‘Prairie Fire’

Also in 1879, Cusack met Pat Nally, a kindred spirit who was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a leading nationalist and athlete. They shared views on the negative effect of landlordism on the development of Irish sport and recreation. Cusack later recalled how walking with Nally through the Phoenix Park in Dublin seeing only a handful of people playing sports upset them to the extent that they agreed it was time to "make an effort to preserve the physical strength of [their] race." Nally organised a National Athletics Sports meeting in County Mayo in September 1879 which proved successful, with Cusack following suit with a sports event which was open to 'artisans' in Dublin the following April.

From 1882 onwards, Cusack became increasingly involved the promotion of the Irish language and culture. Further exploring the mythical and heroic status of Hurling in Ireland’s history led to him founding the Dublin Hurling Club in 1883. A high profile but poorly regulated hurling challenge match against Galway’s Killimor convinced him of the need to organise hurling and athletics nationally. In Cusack’s own words ‘The idea of doing something for our national pastimes, as my colleagues were doing for our national language was taking a firmer hold on me day after day.’

On 1 November 1884, Cusack together with his friend Maurice Davin, a member of the renowned sporting family from Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, called a meeting in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, and founded the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). A letter signed by Cusack and Davin published in the national press invited readers to the meeting ‘to form an association for the preservation and cultivation of our national pastimes and for providing national amusements for the Irish people during their leisure hours.’

Davin was elected the GAA’s first president and Cusack became its first secretary. Amongst the decisions made was the issuing of invitations to Dr. Thomas William Croke, Archbishop of Cashel & Emly, Irish Land League founder Michael Davitt and Home Rule leader Charles Stewart Parnell to become patrons.

Michael Cusack was mainly responsible for lining up political support for the GAA, but Maurice Davin had a greater role in ensuring it’s success in the sporting world, including drafting the first rules for Gaelic Football. The new Gaelic Athletic Association spread, according to Cusack, ‘like a prairie fire.’ GAA clubs sprang up all over Ireland, promoting Hurling, football, handball, rounders and athletics.

There were early challenges to the association, including from the Dublin based Irish Amateur Athletic Association (IAAA). The clash led to each side banning its athletes from participating in events organised by it’s rival. The ban on non-GAA sports would not be repealed until 1971.

Challenge

In 1886, a direct challenge to Cusack from within the fledgling organisation, which had been identified as an ideal vehicle for the promotion of political ideals, led to his dismissal from the organisation which he co-founded. Cusack was a temperamental man, unafraid to share his opinions in colourful language. Archbishop Croke was alarmed at developments and said he could no longer support the colourful Clareman.

Cusack launched ‘Celtic Times’, a newspaper devoted to Gaelic games, but lack of GAA support meant it wasn’t a success and closed in 1888.

Family

Michael Cusack loved his Co. Clare home, but after his father’s death in 1868, probably due to teaching and sporting commitments, he rarely got back to the family home at Poulaphuca, in his beloved Carron. His brother John and sister Mary emigrated to Australia, his brother Patrick became a teacher in Wales and his other brother Thomas settled in the USA.

In 1876 Michael Cusack married Margaret Woods from Dromore, Co. Down and they had six surviving children. Margaret died in 1890, followed soon afterwards by their daughter Aoife. Two other daughters Claire and Bríd settled in England, but his three sons Michael, Francis and John all settled in Dublin. John, who became a solicitor, attended the GAA’s Jubilee celebrations in 1934.

Legacy

Michael Cusack was a large man with a colourful and often forceful personality. He dressed distinctively and carried a blackthorn stick. He pursued his aims with formidable devotion. He despised rank and often addressed those whom he met as ‘Citizen,’ which makes him the likely character on which James Joyce based his character ‘The Citizen’- a loud, nationalistic personality in his acclaimed novel ‘Ulysees’.

Michael Cusack died in 1906, at the relatively young age of 59. He is rightly remembered as the driving force behind the formation of the GAA and is commemorated in several ways and places. The Cusack Stand in Croke Park and the imposing statue of the great man at its entrance, pay homage to his significance, as do the county grounds in Mullingar and Ennis , both called Cusack Park .

The primary school Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Cíosóg in Ennis, County Clare, is also named after him, as is Michael Cusacks's Sydney GAA Club, which was founded in 1988 by a group of Clare Gaels.

Chicago Michael Cusack Hurling Club is a GAA club consisting entirely of American-born players founded in 2008.

His birthplace in Carron, Co. Clare, in the beautiful Burren townland of Poulaphuca has been magnificently restored, and has beside it a very impressive exhibition centre, dedicated to sharing the remarkable story of a visionary man. It is a wonderful place to visit and a source of valuable information on the man and his time. Recently added to the grounds has been the much-discussed statue of ‘An Phúca’ which has eventually found a lovely home in ‘The Cave of the Púca’.

• Damian White is a national school principal and a member of Kilcormac/Killoughey GAA Club in Co Offaly and is Chair of the GAA’s History Committee – history@gaa.ie
• You can learn more about Michael Cusack and the formation of the GAA and explore exhibitions, tours and archives by visiting the GAA museum at Croke Park https://crokepark.ie/gaamuseum
• The Michael Cusack Centre is where the Cusack family cottage has been restored in Carron in Co Clare and celebrates the impact he had on Irish life. http://michaelcusack.ie/