Bloody Sunday Article in the Daily Telegraph

[IolarCoisCuain]

The Daily Telegraph is not noted for anything other than staunch Unionism. How astonishing, then, that they should print this article about Croke Park. The Indo picks up a lot of copy from the Telegraph - I don't think they'll be going for this one. How quickly we forget.



'Old foes' return to Bloody Sunday site
By Brendan Gallagher
Last Updated: 11:08am GMT 07/02/2007

Tipperary's popular half-back and captain, Michael 'Mick' Hogan, who had travelled to Dublin for an afternoon's sport to play in a friendly against Dublin, lay motionless on the greensward of Croke Park, blood oozing from his gunshot wounds, cut down by a British machine gun. So too Jane Boyle, dressed in her Sunday best, who had attended the match with her fiance and was to have got married five days later, and William Scott, a fanatical 14-year-old 'Dub' or Dublin supporter.

A couple of yards away lay 11-year-old William Robinson and 10-year-old Jerome O'Leary – good friends, Gaelic football fanatics and defenceless children who were bleeding to death after being gunned down by the so-called tough men of the Black and Tans. At one point during an afternoon of madness, the Tipperary and Dublin teams were lined up in the centre of Croke Park to be executed summarily by the British but mercifully a high-ranking, although unidentified, officer intervened and screamed that there had been enough killing on this awful day. November 21, 1920. Bloody Sunday. The first Bloody Sunday, that is. The second followed 52 years later in Derry.

In all, 14 Irish citizens were killed by British forces at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday and 80 badly wounded – including Hogan's Tipperary colleague Jim Egan – which goes a long way to explaining why the ground is so strongly identified with Irish nationalism. Part shrine, part cathedral, a living historical monument to the freedom fight. Hill 16 – the massive terrace that holds up to 15,000 fans – is built on the rubble of Sackville Street (renamed O'Connell Street when the British moved out) after the uprising of Easter 1916 had left the city centre in a state of some disrepair. The rubble was carted out to Croke Park, piled high and grassed over.

It is a mercifully rare, probably unique, occurrence for a sportsman to be shot dead by British troops on the field of play, so the story of Mick Hogan warrants re-telling. Indeed, just telling – it is doubtful if anybody this side of the Irish Sea without Irish antecedents has ever even heard it. Strangely, it was never included in history lessons in British schools.

Horan was born at Currasilla near Nine-Mile-House in Tipperary in 1896 into an old and much respected farming family. A talented sportsman who played for the Grangemockler GAA club, he rose quickly though the junior ranks to captain Tipperary, and like most able-bodied men in the area he joined the local volunteers to help in the underground fight to rid Ireland of the occupying British Army. Indeed, as a natural leader, he had been elected company commander of the Grangemockler Volunteers on the Friday night before the Tipperary team travelled up to Dublin by train the next day.

The Irish War of Independence (1919-21) had meant that all Gaelic sport had been banned by the occupying forces throughout 1920 but by the autumn a few inter-county matches had been allowed and Tipperary's game against Dublin – undoubtedly the two top sides of the era – had been organised hastily to raise funds for the families of those who had been imprisoned by the British. It was undeniably an overt political act during a period of extreme tension. While that does not excuse anything that followed, it does place the incident in context.

Bloody Sunday took place soon after the death of hunger striker Terence McSwiney and execution of Kevin Barry, and the Irish Republican Army were looking for revenge. Early on the morning of the match, in an operation planned by Michael Collins, a hit squad – the 12 Apostles – staged a series of raids on British intelligence officers in Dublin who were collectively known as the Cairo Gang. An hour later 14 covert intelligence officers had been killed and six badly wounded.

The British Army, based at Collinswood, considered how to retaliate and thoughts turned immediately to Croke Park where a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 people was expected. In fact, however, Dublin was in such turmoil that day that the figure was nearer 10,000. The Army later argued that such a crowd was probably the best hiding place for the assassination squad and their intention was to search everybody as they left after the game. Anybody not cooperating would be shot dead on the spot.

It was a combined exercise between the Police (RIC) and the Army (Black and Tans), with the latter taking the lead. A spotter aircraft was dispatched to fly over Croke Park where the game had started half-an-hour late, and three armoured vehicles circled the ground. However, contrary to Hollywood's version in the film of Michael Collins — Liam Neeson taking the starring role — a tank did not burst on to the field itself.

On the approach of the soldiers and police, the turnstile attendants raised the alarm, a stampede ensued and the armed forces rushed straight into the ground and on to the pitch, firing indiscriminately. In the chaos it is doubtful if they actually targeted Hogan as such, although Army officials would probably have known of his background and that of other players. They were simply reckless as to whom they killed.

Later that night two IRA officers, Dick McKee and Paedar Clancy, were arrested for their alleged part in the morning assassinations and shot dead at Dublin Castle while "trying to escape". Meanwhile Hogan's remains, accompanied by the team, arrived in Clonmel on the Wednesday after the game. Thousands joined the funeral procession to Grangemockler.

He was buried in his Tipperary football suit, the coffin was draped with the Tricolour and lowered into the grave by the men who had played beside him on that fateful day.

Thirty years later the main stand at Croke Park was named in his honour and one of the massive new stands retains his name. They say sport and politics shouldn't mix but on this day they were indivisible – which explains why Croke Park will always be more than just a sports stadium and Mick Hogan is more than just a Tipperary football player.

• The Six Nations clash between Ireland and England is on Feb 24.


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[Fiodoir Ard Mhacha]

Remarkably well-written (i.e. balanced) account of Bloody Sunday 1920 for a paper like the British Telegraph.

Was it written to give the British rugby/soccer supporters something to ponder when they arrive at Croke Park in the coming weeks?

[realredhandfan]

Lest we forget - an excellent reminder of our GAA roots.

[Kerry Mike]

Tipperary has waited a long time to get its revenge in, and as a proud Tipperary man, I wonder if Denis Leamy will have this at the back of his mind when he crunches into the first tackle with the English in a few weeks. Seeing him nailing a Brit back on his hole early in the game will be sure to get the crowd going.

Anyway its a good balanced report but I am sure there are still a few raw wounds about from that day.

[magpie seanie]

I just hope to jaysus that Ireland win that bloody match.

[ross matt]

Well detailed and well balanced article.

[An Cloch Scoilte]

Brilliant report. Just be interesting to know if any of it was taken in by the British  readers.

[Onlooker]

Far and away the best article of all those we have seen on Croke Park and Bloody Sunday over the last few weeks and I doubt if we will see many better ones between now and the rugby match between Ireland and England.  I have read a lot about that fateful day and many years ago heard eye witness accounts from a family member who was in Croke Park that day as a Tipperary supporter and who would have known several of the players on both sides.  However, there is one factual error that has been repeated many times recently, notably by the usually well informed Enda McEvoy in the Tribune last Sunday.  Michael hogan was not the captain of the Tipperary team.  The team was captained by the full back Ned O'Shea, who also captained Tipperary when they won the 1920 All Ireland Football Final, played in 1922.  That day was such a huge one in the history of the G.A.A., that it would be a pity if an error came to be accepted as fact by reason of repitition.

[Ethan Edwards]

Excellantly written article, very balance and informative, when we beat the brits in Croke Parc it will never be forgotten in Irish history.

I wouldnt miss the kick off and the resulting 1st tackle of that match for anything

[Square Ball]

Onlooker

thanks for the fact, always thought that he was the captain on the day, this has been taken from Wikipedia

"On November 21, 1920 Croke Park was the scene of a massacre by the Auxiliary Division. British police auxiliaries entered the ground, shooting indiscriminately into the crowd killing 13 during a Dublin-Tipperary football match. The dead included 12 spectators and one player, Michael Hogan. The latter, Tipperary's captain, gave his name posthumously to the Hogan stand built four years later in 1924

[Canalman]

Great article. I always felt that the other 13 victims of the massacre were always somehow neglected. Don't get me wrong it was right that Hogan was commemorated by the naming of the stand, but I was always personally curious about the others killed on the day.

You would never see such an article in an Irish paper.

[Turfsmoke]

I think I've seen it all now - so a tackle by a Tipperary rugby player on an English equivalent will represent "revenge" for the murder of Michael Hogan and the others?

I'm not into revenge myself, especially for things that happened 85 years ago but I do believe in honouring and respecting what happened and especially seeing if the equivalent is going on today.

This sort of trivialising our history is part of what's making the Republic the increasingly unpleasant place it's becoming.

But sure roll on Germany later in the year. Maybe a sliding tackle on the Hun will allow us to put The Holocaust to bed.

[Mid Mon]

I think I've seen it all now - so a tackle by a Tipperary rugby player on an English equivalent will represent "revenge" for the murder of Michael Hogan and the others?

I'm not into revenge myself, especially for things that happened 85 years ago but I do believe in honouring and respecting what happened and especially seeing if the equivalent is going on today.

This sort of trivialising our history is part of what's making the Republic the increasingly unpleasant place it's becoming.

But sure roll on Germany later in the year. Maybe a sliding tackle on the Hun will allow us to put The Holocaust to bed.

I've never read such a load a trash

[winghalfun]

Actually Mid Mon, I think Turfsmoke made a very succinct point.

Tipperary has waited a long time to get its revenge in, and as a proud Tipperary man, I wonder if Denis Leamy will have this at the back of his mind when he crunches into the first tackle with the English in a few weeks. Seeing him nailing a Brit back on his hole early in the game will be sure to get the crowd going.

I would like to know was Kerry Mike's tongue firmly in his cheek or does he really believe that Denis Leamy's thoughts will be of Mick Hogan on that fateful day in Croke Park when he makes that

crunching tackle

?

If anybody's post was trash, it was Kerry Mikes.

[Onlooker]

Someone should tell Kerry Mike that hundreds of Tipperary hurlers and footballers have played in Croke Park since Bloody Sunday and will again in the future.   We did not have to wait for a rugby player to represent us there.