'Gut Your Man' ...
On the day when we were scheduled to play St Loman's in the opening round of the 2020 championship, we take a look at what happened seventy-five years ago in 1945 when the two town teams met in the second round of the senior championship and repeat some of Sarah Jane Foster's pictures showing action from the historic county final of 2018 and a few taken by Roger Nicholson from 2017.
In another context the poet, Patrick Kavanagh wrote about 'the tremendous silence of mid-July'. Well we now have the tremendous silence of mid-April as far as sport is concerned and mid-July will be silent as well. Joe Brolly's excellent article in today's Sunday Independent makes it clear that football this year is very doubtful. Kavanagh wrote a few bits and pieces about football and one offering appeared under the heading of 'Gut Your Man'. In this piece, he wrote about a tactic favoured by his club Inishkeen Grattan's when they were in a losing position: 'We never finished a game if towards the end we were a-batin. We always found an excuse to rise a row and get the field invaded'. This was a common tactic of the time. The game between Mullingar Football Club and The Mental Hospital in 1945 was a 'Gut Your Man' type of game and failed to make it to the final whistle and shows how much attitudes have changed since then. The football played at the time wasn't even a distant cousin of the present day but there are some hardy souls who would say that the GAA has lost much of its colourful characteristics since those lawless days.
The Match
Mullingar Football Club's 1945 senior championship campaign ended in bizarre fashion and dealt a crushing blow to the group of players that Brother Hogan had assembled over the previous three years and setback the development of football in the town for at least a decade. The controversy revolved around a penalty decision and once again the Mullingar club emerged at the wrong side of a county chairman’s decision, one that was scarcely credible from a Mullingar perspective. The game played in Cusack Park on 22 July 1945 was an ugly, brutal affair punctuated by acts of violence and thuggery that were abnormal even for the standards of the day.
In 1944 a younger smaller and lighter Mullingar team had literally run the Mental Hospital Club off the pitch with the pace and precision of their play. A year later the Mental Hospital men opted to use ‘their superior weight to the best advantage and the Townsmen were not yielding an inch’ the Westmeath Examiner reported. The Mullingar club notes were critical of the tactics adopted by both sides as the game entered its final quarter. According to An Fear Faire ‘after a good three quarters of an hour’s hard keen football certain incidents caused frayed tempers to explode and the remaining quarter of an hour was one long succession of fouls, over vigorous tackling and brawls. Both sides may take their share of the blame, although roughness on the part of some of the local lads was most apparent towards the end'.
The first half ended with Mullingar ahead by 2-3 to 1-2. Mental Hospital dominated the early stages of the second half and scored two points without reply from Mullingar. Law and order broke down in the final stages when in the language of the report ‘a Mullingar player was badly tackled and took the count’.
'In a general melee that followed a Mental Hospital player also took the k.o. The referee failed to send any player to the line for these incidents and whatever little control he had over the players up to this vanished. Rough and dangerous tackling now crept into the game and with several Mullingar players losing their heads and disorganising the team' the Mental Hospital playing very cute football scored four points to put them two points in front'.
There was time for one final incident. In a last desperate attempt to salvage the game Andy Duncan raced through the hospital defence and was hauled to the ground inside the square. A penalty kick was awarded to Mullingar but the Mental Hospital defenders refused to leave the goal and at this stage the referee abandoned the game with the Mental Hospital leading by 1-8 to 2-3. According to An Fear Faire ‘it was an end in keeping with a game which must have disgusted every real Gael and sportsman in the large crowd present’.
The referee in his report fleshed out the gory details of the match which got badly out of control in the second half. From a Mullingar Club perspective it did not make pretty reading. All went well up to ten minutes into the second half when the referee reported that
What happened after that was a disgrace to the GAA and I had to warn a Mullingar player for striking a Mental Hospital player At this stage spectators encroached the pitch – mostly Mullingar supporters. With the assistance of the Guards I got the game re-started. When awarding a free to a Mental Hospital another Mullingar player approached me and threatened that if Mullingar did not win I would not leave the pitch alive. Then when a Mental Hospital player was in a position to score a goal another Mullingar supporter rushed on to the field and pulled him down. I then had to warn a Mullingar player for striking a Mental Hospital player, another Mullingar player for warning me that if Mullingar lost I would not leave the pitch safe. Playing overtime I awarded a penalty to Mullingar. Six Mental Hospital players refused to leave the goal. I had no alternative but to blow the whistle and award the match to Mullingar. While this was happening spectators were crowding around the goal all shouting. The Mental Hospital players may not have understood or heard my decision.
County Board Meeting
At the County Board meeting Jack Keane and Vincent Gillick represented the Mullingar Club and Joe Gerety and Billy Martin stated the case for the Mental Hospital. Keane stated that only about six spectators invaded the pitch and ‘not more than three were Mullingar supporters’. Vincent Gillick suggested that the referee was incompetent and lost control of the game from an early stage. Gillick claimed that ‘he himself was made a punch ball of and was unconscious for fifteen minutes’. As far as he was concerned, Ben Lambden was the ‘real villain of the piece’ but he was defended by Billy Martin who stated that Lambden ‘appeared to be the butt of all the players’ and in no way provoked an assault. Tommy Lynch of the Mullingar club was present at the meeting and admitted to losing his head and ‘entering the pitch with his togs under his arm’ where ‘he went for the ball with Wade but did not go for the man. If such were his intentions, he would hardly go out with togs under his arm’.
The Mental Hospital delegation intended to argue the case that their players were not aware that the referee had awarded a penalty and did not hear the referee’s instructions to leave the goal-line because of the ‘shouting of the crowd around the goalmouth’. This argument was quickly shredded. The referee was present at the meeting and explained that he awarded the penalty after consulting with his umpire, Mr Tuite. Vincent Gillick pointed out that he distinctly heard the referee inform a Mental Hospital player that they had two minutes to leave the goal and that player then ‘ran in and tried to get the rest out’. The referee confirmed this version of events but stated that he did not give the hospital players ‘time to consider what their refusal would involve’.
Joe Gerety then concentrated on the conduct of the spectators which was ‘nothing short of scandalous' in this game and the previous one against Gibbinstown.
The epithets and abuse hurled at the players was a disgrace. It was not fair to the players listening to this every Sunday. Another incident which obviously the referee did not see was a spectator rushing in and striking one of the players. He noticed a Mullingar player already mentioned in connection with the black-list in the centre of the pitch.
Gerety outlined the reasons why the Mental Hospital Club was claiming the match. A team that included a player insulting or threatening a match official was liable to disqualification. It was clear from the referee’s report ‘that they could safely conclude that Mullingar played a rough game and according to rule such a team, even though winning a match, could be disqualified’. The Mullingar Football Club’s case was simple and clear cut and was outlined by Vincent Gillick. According to rule when a player or team leaves the field or refuses to continue the referee was entitled to award the game to the opposition. The mood of the delegates favoured a replay and concluded with Chairman Dan Leavy (grandfather of the current rugby international of the same name) ordering a replay. Peter Lynch, Andy Duncan, and Tommie Lynch would have their suspensions moved at the next county board meeting and Johnny Lyng was also required to attend this meeting. Bill Hahessy was exonerated.
The decision destroyed what proved to be a brief attempt at establishing a working GAA structure in the town. An Fear Faire, in the Mullingar club notes observed that ‘rules apparently never serve their real meaning in matters relating to us ... The Chairman has created a very dangerous precedent. Any team now in danger of defeat, can dispute a free kick, pretend they do not know what the referee is talking about, get the game called off and get a replay’. The replay was won by The Mental Hospital team.
Westmeath Examiner in trouble ...
The Westmeath Examiner also found itself in trouble with the officers of the County Board as a result of its comments on the events surrounding the original game. In an editorial headed ‘Rowdyism At Games’, the conduct ‘which brings our National pastimes into disrepute’ was described as ‘a disgrace to those who are responsible for it’. The conduct of players and spectators at Mullingar was a cause for complaint once again according to the editor. Players from the two Mullingar teams, ‘who meet each other almost every day in friendly intercourse’, went on to the field with ‘the idea that their team should try and win at all costs, which meant that the laws of the game were to be set aside when it suited, and the result was that the match was completely spoiled by a series of scrimmages and fights’. The writer was careful not to apportion blame to either side but did ‘venture to make a suggestion that in the more important games an effort should be made to have competent referees, who come from elsewhere than the immediate neighbourhood of the teams concerned, appointed to take charge’. As a result the Westmeath Examiner representative was refused admission in ‘an official capacity’ by the County secretary when he arrived to report on the replay.
