GAA marks 140th anniversary in Thurles

The GAA is celebrating its 140th anniversary today, having been founded at a meeting in the billiards room of the Hayes Commercial Hotel in Thurles on 1 November, 1884.

That meeting elected Maurice Davin as the first President of the Gaelic Athletic Association, and the positions of secretary to Michael Cusack, John Wyse Power and John McKay.

JK Bracken, Thomas St George McCarthy, and Joseph P Ryan were also at the meeting, which may have had as many as 13 attendees.

Davin was a track and field athlete of international fame, who wanted Irish governance for athletics on this island and formal rules for the traditional sports of hurling and Gaelic football.

The Tipperary man drafted the first set of football rules, which were adopted by the GAA in January 1885, and is the only two-time president in the association's history.

Clare man Cusack was a teacher, journalist and enthusiastic advocate of Irish sports, who started hurling clubs in Dublin before linking up with Davin to establish the new body.

While usually recognised as the prime mover in the foundation the GAA, he was also a combative individual, who was removed as secretary in 1886 after clashing with the association's first patron Archbishop Croke.

Both Cusack and Davin have stands named after them at Croke Park.

Waterford native Wyse Power and Down man McKay were supportive journalists, who wrote accounts of the meeting.

McKay also served as a GAA secretary until 1886 while Wyse Power was the first chairman of the Dublin county board before resigning in protest at the ban on RIC members in 1887.

Patrick McKay, a great-grandson and the oldest surviving direct relative of the founding officers, attended an event in Hayes's Hotel today by the GAA History & Commemoration