It all began in a rented field in Ringsend At the beginning of the 1890s the Medical School rented a field at Sandymount, between the Star of the Sea Church and Ringsend. The moving spirit in this, as in so much else, was Ambrose Birmingham, Registrar and Professor of Anatomy, who leased the ground from a Dr. Nedley. This seems to have been the first move of its kind in the School, but in A PAGE OF IRISH HISTORY there is mention of an earlier, short-lived rugby club there called the Cuchullians, which was formed of first and second year students who, as no ground was available, had played in the Phoenix Park. There is no evidence that any rugby was played in Cowper Road in the very early days and we first hear of it in Sandymount. The impetus for it came from the School, no doubt inspired by tIle Hospitals' Cup competition which dates back to 1882. It is known that in the 1880s each of the hospitals attended by the Cecilia Street students - Mater, St. Vincent's, Richmond and Jervis Street - had their own teams which used the grounds of the established clubs, particularly Bective. Even at that time canvassing of promising schoolboy players, coming to the College or the School, was commonplace amongst the established clubs - although there cannot have been many to canvass then unlike the major industry which nowadays swings into action each year. The Golden Jubilee of the present club fell in 1960-61 and to honour the occasion it published a special programme for the match against the Irish Universities. Articles by Judge J.C. Conroy, Mr. Justice Cahir Davitt and G.P.S. Hogan give us a considerable amount of information on the early years. Judge Conroy writes that in 1895 the Catholic University Rugby Club with J. Blaney as Secretary was affiliated to the Leinster Branch. This might have been Alexander J. Blayney, Professor of Biology, later assistant Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the Mater who was prominent in supporting the sporting activities of the School and later of the College. The Branch records show that on March 18, 1895 the club beat CUS, Leeson St. in the- Junior Cup, but was beaten in the next round by the GPO. This was actually the first formal appearance of tIle Catholic University on the wider sporting scene, ante-dating the first appearance of the Soccer Cillb by a few months, but in his report to the Annual General Meeting of the Branch in September 1897 the h011. secretary reported that the club had ceased to function. Within a month it had affiliated again 1
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It all began in a rented field in Ringsend
At the beginning of the 1890s the Medical School rented a field at
Sandymount, between the Star of the Sea Church and Ringsend. The moving spirit in
this, as in so much else, was Ambrose Birmingham, Registrar and Professor of
Anatomy, who leased the ground from a Dr. Nedley. This seems to have been the
first move of its kind in the School, but in A PAGE OF IRISH HISTORY there is
mention of an earlier, short-lived rugby club there called the Cuchullians, which was
formed of first and second year students who, as no ground was available, had played
in the Phoenix Park.
There is no evidence that any rugby was played in Cowper Road in the very
early days and we first hear of it in Sandymount. The impetus for it came from the
School, no doubt inspired by tIle Hospitals' Cup competition which dates back to
1882. It is known that in the 1880s each of the hospitals attended by the Cecilia
Street students - Mater, St. Vincent's, Richmond and Jervis Street - had their own
teams which used the grounds of the established clubs, particularly Bective.
Even at that time canvassing of promising schoolboy players, coming to the
College or the School, was commonplace amongst the established clubs - although
there cannot have been many to canvass then unlike the major industry which
nowadays swings into action each year.
The Golden Jubilee of the present club fell in 1960-61 and to honour the
occasion it published a special programme for the match against the Irish Universities.
Articles by Judge J.C. Conroy, Mr. Justice Cahir Davitt and G.P.S. Hogan give us a
considerable amount of information on the early years. Judge Conroy writes that in
1895 the Catholic University Rugby Club with J. Blaney as Secretary was affiliated to
the Leinster Branch. This might have been Alexander J. Blayney, Professor of
Biology, later assistant Professor of Surgery and Surgeon to the Mater who was
prominent in supporting the sporting activities of the School and later of the College.
The Branch records show that on March 18, 1895 the club beat CUS, Leeson
St. in the- Junior Cup, but was beaten in the next round by the GPO. This was actually
the first formal appearance of tIle Catholic University on the wider sporting scene,
ante-dating the first appearance of the Soccer Cillb by a few months, but in his report
to the Annual General Meeting of the Branch in September 1897 the h011. secretary
reported that the club had ceased to function. Within a month it had affiliated again
1
and played in the Junior League and Cup for the next few seasons~ When this club in
its tum also collapsed - probably due to the loss of the Sandymount ground - it seems
as if there was no serious attempt to form a new club in either the old College or the
School before 1909.
The PAGE OF IRISH HISTORY tells us of two international players:
"Speaking of International Football, the College, (in fact, it was tIle School), was
represented for some years on the Rugby international scene by Tom Little, who was
a very popular student living in St. Stephen's Green.... At an earlier period Tom
Crean [another medical] who also lived near the College, was an international forward
... " Cream, educated at Clongowes, was a student of St. Vincent's Hospital and
played for Wanderers; he won nine caps between 1894 and 1896.
He was a member of the first Irish side to win the Triple Crown in 1894 and
toured South Africa with the British and Irish team in 1896. He played in all four
Test matches captaining the side in two of them. He is said to have brought a new
dimension to scrummaging by developing the wheel. He was to return to South
Africa as Surgeon Captain in the Boer War and WOll the Victoria Cross on 18
December, 1901 at Tyger Kloof.
THE HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL
quotes from the citation: "although wounded himself, he continued to attend the
wounded ullder heavy fire, at only 150 yards range from the enemy. He did not desist
until he was wounded for a second time". He also was later awarded the Royal
Humane Society's testimonial for saving life at sea. He died in London on 25 March
1923. Tom Little was a member of Bective and was capped seven times from 1899,
the Triple Crown year, to 1901 and became a well-known general practitioner.
At the end of 1902 the 81. Vincent's Hospital Club played at Cowper Road,
which is the only record of rugby being played there.
New beginnings
Immediately on the opening of tIle new College a Rugby Club was formed;
" ....on January 10, 1910, it was affiliated to the Leinster Branch on the proposal of
Bective, seconded by Monkstown." It made an imnlediate mark on the administration
of the Branch. The minutes of a Committee meeting on February 2 relate: "An
application from University College FC for a grant towards expenses of touring in
Cork was considered and refused." The minute goes on to say that the following
resolution was then passed: "That in future grants for travelling expenses be only
allowed to clubs that have been merrlbers of the Branch for the three years preceding
the date of application."
At the end of October 1912, the club received a more sympathetic hearing. "A
letter from University College F.C. asking permission to enter for Junior and Minor
League; it was decided to accept entry if same could possibly be arranged with the
league teams, a letter to the Hon. Sec. of League suggesting this proposal."
Prominent among the club founders were the first captain, P. O'Connell (who ,j
was capped with Bective in 1913 and 1914), Dr. E.P. Carey, Dr. Joe Brennan and Dr.
Michael Davitt. At tIle time Michael Davitt was a member of Bective 1st XV and he
did not play regularly for the club until 1913. The first committee listed is that for
1910-11 with P. O'Connell as captain and E.P. Carey as secretary.
The difficulties which faced the founders of the new club were formidable.
No proper playing facilities were available - the only home pitch was one adjoining
the soccer pitch at Croydon Park, until it closed and the College got the use of what is
now Croke Park. This was used on Wednesdays and Saturdays, by the Hurling,
Gaelic Football and Rugby Clubs. Secondly, all the outstallding rugby players in the
College were members of senior clubs. They were loath to leave them to join a club
of unstable foundations and with no proper facilities. In its issue for February 1913
the NATIONAL STUDENT listed 14 prominent Bective players, six Blackrock
players and five St. Mary's players who were College students.
The start of the club was, in fact, unpropitious. During its first season it
entered for no competition. Matches were limited to a few friendlies played at
irregular intervals. In November 1910 the NATIONAL STUDENT'S comment on
the first season was acid. " ... one other club for whose existence we could only
apologise. This is the Rugby Club. Governed by a slack or incapable body of
officials, and having a most invertebrate set of playing members and followers, it
succeeded in often lowering our prestige. Started merely for the purpose of supplying
this year's students with a settled and well organised club, it has ended by turning
away much promising talent fronl the College. Instead of a help it has beconle a
hindrance. To repair the damage done by them a new provisional committee has been
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chosen. In it we are glad to see that none of last year's incapables have been
included."
It may be noted from the fixture card that the club regards its first season as
that of 1910-11 in which E.P. Carey represented it 011 the Athletic Union Council.
Two menu cards, one for the Coming of Age Dinner, and the other for the Silver
Jubilee Dinner give the dates 1911-1932 and 1911-1936 respectively, and in each case
the names of the founders are given as Michael Davitt and Edward Pat Carey.
The first match of which we have a record was played at Nutley Avenue in
December 1910 when College defeated the Dental Hospital by 18pts to six. The
scorers for the winners were O'Donoghue, Collins and O'Connell. A week later
Knockbeg College, Carlow were beaten. We are told by the FREEMAN'S
JOURNAL, which reported both matches, that "the forwards of Knockbeg College
were physically superior to those ofUCD, but the back line of the visiting Dublin side
were good enough to run in two tries, for an 11pts. to nil victory." The arithmetic
seems questionable; still, a win is a win.
The new committee brought about an immediate improvement and we also
have the names of some of the players - McCabe, Coyne, Collins, Donoghue,
Connell, Dundon, Lynch, Morton, Murnane and Farrell. A year after the thunderbolts
from the NATIONAL STUDENT the picture was very different as the hour brought
forth the man with E.P. Carey as secretary a11d the club entered for the Jllnior Cup for
the first time. For the year 1911-12 J.H. McKenna was captail1.
Merrion were defeated in the second round of the Junior Cup by 6pts to nil,
but in the final College were beaten by Carlow. This match created difficulties for the
club according to Cahir Davitt reporting on it in the Jubilee Programme. The
coincidence of the Easter vacation and Leinster Branch Cup matches, still with us to a
certain extent, presented very major problems in those days.
"The match was played on March 30, 1912, by which time half the team had
gone home throughout the country and there were no substitutes. Michael Davitt, not
yet playing for the club, attempted to help by recruiting four Bective nlen so that a
team would at least appear. He was not entirely successful. College started with
twelve men and were one short throughout. Apparently it was arranged that Carlow
would get the Cup anyway but, in fact, they won by 6-nil."
By now, however, the NATIONAL STUDENT was loud in its praises. "It is
flourishing and is assured of a long and vigorous life. Great credit is due to the men
who re-organised the club and made it a real College Club, and not a combination got
together whenever members of outside teanlS thought they would like a match. Great,
very great, credit is due to the Heaven-sent Secretary, Mr. E.P. Carey, whose
enthusiasm and organising ability has been a motive force all along." A year later
came the attack on those students who persisted in playing for outside clubs.
The move to Terenure and its own pitches, in itself a major advance, brought
in several well known players such as Micllael Davitt. The club played its first match
there on January 24, 1914. Results in the League games had been only moderate but
it then went on to win the Junior Cup, even though in January the NATIONAL
STUDENT had been of the opinion that the winning of tIle Junior Cup was as far
away as ever. The club had now arrived, sellior rugby beckoned, but the outbreak of
war meant that all official fixtures were abandoned and it had to wait until they were
resumed.
The War years
The captaill for 1914-15 was W. Marmion with Cahir Davitt as secretary.
Davitt records that Bective, Blackrock, St. Mary's, Clontarf, Merrion and UCD
carried on and arranged fixtures between themselves. A weak UCG team began a
short Dublin tour at Terenure in January, 1915 but were well beaten by 23-nil. In the
1915-16 season under the captaincy of M.H. O'Connor the first match, against
Merrion, was lost but all of the others were won.
In April, it was complained that the loss of the Merrion match had spoiled
what would otherwise have been a clean sheet from the first nlatch with Bective in
1914. There was a good intake of first years, but also criticism of irregularity in
turning out for matches, of unpunctuality when people did appear, a lacl< of
uniformity in jerseys and a general lack of cleanliness as regards togs. Mothers or
5
land-ladies were not as appreciative of footballers' needs as they are today but, of
course, techniques of washing their togs have also made great strides.
The captains for the next few years were F.M. McDermott in '16-' 17 and P.J.
Stokes for the l1ext two years. In March 1918 College had the greater share of
possession against UCC but the final score was 3pts each; McDermot scored the
College try. Throughout all this time UCD were still widely referred to in the press as
the National University. Usually the context makes it clear that UCD is intended but
occasionally difficulties can arise. It took a very long time for the practice to die out
and even still one hears it. It is not so long since I was myself asked had I qualified in
"National".
Before the official post-war resunlption in a competition known as the Dublin
League in which the College, Trinity South Africans, College of Science, S1. Mary's,
Blackrock and Merrion took part was inaugurated. UCD and Trinity South Africans
qualified for the play-off but after two exciting drawn matches the competition was
abandoned.
Into the twenties
On May 21, 1919, the club decided to apply for senior status and adopted
playil1g colours of "Light blue (81. Patrick's blue) jersey with the College arms in
saffron, stockings saffron and light blue ribbed." Before this jersey had been of light
blue and saffron hoops, although there is contemporary evidence of considerable
variation in the colours in which teams turned Ollt. Senior rugby had begun again in
October 1919, and College played its first senior game, against Trinity, on October
18. The Trinity side included several South Africans and had previously beaten
Clontarf by 40 points to nil; they now won by 14-11.
The first captain of the club in senior ranks was Wally Murphy, with Bob
Davitt as han. secretary and A. Cantwell as hone treasurer. The start of the season
was good but by the end of the first term came the complaint that the club had gone
from bad to worse. Players of the time were Hallissey, Sullivan, Johnny Keohane,
Temple, Donovan, Schofield, Cantwell, Hanrahan, Jerry Breen, A.W. Spain, Gerald
Moore, Cussen, DOff, Dowling and Frank McDermott.
The club soon made its mark. In the 1919-20 season Paddy Stokes and Andy
Cour11ley were chosen for Leinster, and Courtney became the first College man to
play for Ireland.
A.W. Courtney seems to have been a character larger than life. Dr. Louis
Courtney, his nephew, provides some backgrollnd information. "He was variously
known as Tony or Andy depending on whether he was in Tipperary or Dublin. Some
of his escapades, both on and off the field, were quite extraordinary. In one season,
1920, he played Rugby for Ireland alld Gaelic Football for Tipperary ....He was also
light-heavyweight boxillg champion of the University at the time, and the Black and
Tans had taken a special interest in him as well, for some reason wllich I have never
been able to fathom accurately.
"He told me that on one occasion wIlen playing against Trinity in College
Green a platoon surrounded the field much to the surprise of tIle other players. Tony
had anticipated their il1terest and had left his clothes in the Turkish Baths in Dawson
Street. I asked him if he thought of making a run for it be he answered with a chuckle
of disbelief: 'What would I do that for, there were thirty of us. I jogged off the field
with the boys and kept jogging through the pavilion, out the otller end, over the
railings and back to the Turkish Baths where I had left my clothes, while the others
were being checked and searched." He then spent the succeeding fortnight in the
residency of the Eye and Ear Hospital in Adelaide Road until the dust settled.
"He told me that during that time he world heavyweight champion had put on
an exhibition fight in Dublin - I think it was Sam Langford. He apparently stayed at
the Shelbourne Hotel and went for a stroll the following nl0ming when Tony and a
friend of his were jogging through the Green. Tony told me that he knew he would
never again get a chance of fighting the world champion so he stopped with his friend
and suggested that they have a go at him.
"His friend, who was the second row forward on the Irish team, asked him if
he were out of his mind and that the champion would kill him. He apparently
couldn't resist the temptation, however, alld challenged and had a go at the champion,
keeping so close that he couldn't get a decent swing at him, and then they two of them
sprinted out of the Green and didn't stop jogging 'til they reached Glasnevin where
they sat on a wall laughing. They returned the long way round to avoid the police."
7
In his recent work THE TROUBLES Ulick O'Colllior gives a possible reason
for the Black and Tans' interest in Courtney. In 191 7 he had been a steward at the
massive funeral procession in Dublin of Tll0nlas Ashe after his death in prison on
hunger strike.
"Along the North Quays Dick McKee was in charge of the procession. A
despatch rider from Dublin Castle on a motorbike rode past full tilt, skimming the
edge of the march. McKee jumped out and managed to dislodge him from his cycle.
The bike skidded on the footpatl1. It finished up at the feet of one of the Volunteer
stewards, Tony Courtney, a medical student. 'Dump that bike in the river' McKee
ordered Courtney. The student was reluctant to dispose of anything as valuable as a
motor cycle then was, and remembers being tom between the instinct to preserve it
and the sheer authority that McKee exuded. However, he heaved the bike into the
Liffey and the despatch rider returned to Dublin Castle on foot. Three years later,
Courtney would be capped at Rugby for Ireland against England at Twickenham.
When the Irish team were received by King George V before the match, Courtney
found himself in a dilenlma because of his republican views. But as the king
approached Courtney stooped to tie his bootlace, thus avoiding having to press royal
flesh and at the same time maintaining a semblance of courtesy."
Courtney won seven caps, against Scotland, Wales and France in 1920 and
1921, and against England in 1921. They all carne as he was playing for College.
There were many problems, not all of which were on the playing field, in
those years during which violence constantly escalated and by early 1921 fixtures in
all braches of sport had to be abandoned. It was not doubt such a political atmosphere
which prompted the following letter to the SPORTS MAIL in April 1921:
"Sir,
"I am instructed by the Committee of University College Rugby Club to write
to you in reference to a belief which seems to be prevalent in Dublin Rugby
circles in regard to our club. It is frequently hinted at, and very often stated in
tIle Press, that we experience a great amount of opposition from the other
College Clubs and from certain College sources. It would not be fair to these
clubs, etc., to let this assumption pass unchallenged. We wish, therefore, to
state enlphatically that we have experienced from them nothing but the most
cordial support and friendly relations.
"Sincerely yours,
"R.E. Davitt'
"Hon. Sec. U.C.R.F.C."
While it is quite possible that, given the times, there were some who would not have
looked too kil1dly on Rugby or Soccer players, the prominence of Davitt himself arid
of others, notably A.W. Spain, in College sporting affairs and the AUC would suggest
that such feelings, if they existed at all, were not widespread amol1gst the members of
the College clubs. Indeed, the contemporary NATIONAL STUDENT was to
complain that a man should be able, withollt hindrance, to play rugby on a Saturday
and wield a caman on the Sunday. Perhaps the best answer was the winning of the
Dudley Cup when Queen's, who fielded a backline which included George
Stephenson, were beaten by a try to nil.
The next meeting with Trinity was a landmark - the Leinster Senior Cup Final
on April 2, 1921, when Trinity, who included the South Africans Marais, Van Druten
and Malan, won by 5pts. to nil. College, captained by D.B. Sullivan, were missing j
their out-halfG.P.S. Hogan and P. McCarthy. The IRISH TIMES was moved to write
editorially on the match and is quoted, by kind permission, in the Golden Jubilee
programme, from which the following extract is taken. More than seventy years later
its message may still be relevallt.
"The green oasis of good fellowship persists in the barren wastes of high
affairs. A large section of the world of sport refuses to be dominated by the bitter
turmoil of international and party politics. Unionists, Constitutional Nationalists and
Sinn Feiners still meet as friends and fellow sportsnlen on the racecourse and football
groul1d. The final match of the Leinster Senior Cup at Lansdowne Road was a
landmark in the history of rugby football in Ireland. For the first time Trinity College
and University College Dublin met in the struggle for the coveted laurel. Trinity are
familiar with victory, but this was only the second season of University College's
appearance in rugby football. It was beaten but gave a good account of itself. The
score of one goal to nil represents a difference not greater than the thrilling length by
which Cambridge beat Oxford in the finest boat race of recent years.
"The nature of the game was such as befitted an anciellt University which has
made a high tradition in the field of sport and a young University which is il1tent on
making it. Everyone of the thirty players played for, and enhanced, the honour of his
side, and the whole match was an example of the best type of University Football.
9
Many will read of Saturday's encounter with mingled pleasure and regret. It is
pleasant that these two sets of young Irishmen should have proved so worthy of
thenlselves and one another. It is sad that their generous conlpetition in the Colleges',
and therefore their country's, service should be confined to the arena of sport.
"Even in the most sympathetic comment of this kind there is a danger that
some susceptibilities will be hurt. We shall not attempt, therefore, to suggest how
Irish history ought to have been made. We shall not try to answer the fascinating
question: How would Ireland stand today if during the last fifty years her best young
men of all creeds and parties had been educated in one great and really national
University?
"Nobody will deny, however, that the tragedy of Ireland's division is most
painful a11d injurious in the case of her young men. Roughly, today, tIle three Irish
Universities stand for three different and largely conflicting schools of political and
economic thought. 111 all of them are hundreds of fine young men, vigorous, with
brave ideas, anxious to make their country prosperous and 11appy. Alas! The ideas
clash, the strength of youth is dissipated and, by some dreadful blunder of the political
chemists, all the elements of unity are transmitted into the baleful material of civil
war.
"The most appalling waste in Ireland today is the waste of youth, and the most
nlagnificent blessing of settlement, when settlement conles, will be the new
brotherhood of youth. Those of us who live to see the young output of our
Universities engaged for their country's sake in SUCll chivalrous rivalry as Lansdowne
Road saw last Saturday will be able to utter their "nunc dimittis" from thankful
hearts."
In 1922-23, with Paddy Collins as secretary, the club was reported as having J its best season since its foundation in spite of losing the Dudley to Queen's. It was
described as tIle lightest team in town with the pack ably led by Alec Spain. It now
gave the NATIONAL STUDENT something to write about and student hyperbole
really came into its own. Trinity still dominated tIle Leinster and, indeed, the Irish
Rugby scene.
"Ash Wednesday, 1923, is, in our eyes as famous a day as the Good Friday on
which Brian Boru beat tIle Danes. To have beaten Trinity for the first time was an
achievement; as well as that the team we beat that day was an uflbeaten side which
had vanquished all the other crack 'Varsity sides to wit: Oxford, Cambridge,
Edinburgh and Queen's. No doubt we surprised Trinity, but we surprised ourselves
also by the way we stuck to our guns in the last quarter of an hour, against a
desperately heavy side going 'all out' to cross our line.
"It was the stubbornness of our defence that made us deserving winners for it
cannot be denied that Trinity had all the bad luck tl1at was going, and by the way they
took their 'bad luck' in the sporting spirit which is so characteristic of Trinity Rugger
men."
Sarsfield Hogan puts the match, won 9-8, into perspective. None of the
College players had yet achieved even interprovincial honours, whilst Trinity
included Van Druten, soon to be capped by South Africa, and Irish internationals in
Cussel1, Sugden, Crichton, Owens, Gillespie, Thompson and Clinch. "We were
hardly the better team and we probably won because we played in a crusading spirit
which Trinity saw no profound reason to emulate." Connoisseurs of Hospitals' Cup
matches down the years will be quite familiar with the David and Goliath syndrome.
In 1924, the ultimate success was achieved when College won the Leinster
Senior Cup for the first time. Years later, in the Golden Jubilee Programme Sarsfield
Hogan summed up the Cup season: "The issue was largely decided in the second
rOlll1d when we beat Trinity by a goal and two tries to two tries. This was a game of
high quality, all five tries being scored from con1bined back play. Memory lingers on
the College winning try - Frank Russell, the left wing, an Intervarsity boxing
champion, handing off Bingham on his way to the line."
The IRISH TIMES reported the final very fully:
University College's Firsts win match in a snowstorm
University College 12,
Monkstown 3.
"Rarely, if ever, can the final of the Leinster Senior Cup, or any football
match, have been played under worse conditions than those which prevailed on
Saturday, when University College and Monkstown met to decide which of their
names should be inscribed on the trophy for the season just ending. Everybody had
been hoping - and the players especially - that rain would fall prior to the match, so
that the ground which had become dangerously hard, would be in suitable order, but
nobody bargained for the deluge that actually did happen, and which was at its worst
during the course of the game.
11
"Although the form of a 'National' in the Cup ties and during the season
pointed to them as the more than likely winners, there were evidently a great number
who saw possibilities about the Monkstown team, and with the prospects of, at least,
watching a keen and open game a fine crowd turned up. The elements, however,
intervel1ed, and with a regular blizzard sweeping the ground from the beginning to the
end of the game it was absolutely ruined from the spectacular point of view, and in
the second half things became almost farcical.
"Instead of being a test of football ability it devolved into a question of which
side would overcome the very adverse conditions the better, and on the day's play
there was no doubt whatsoever who that was, and the score of four tries to a penalty
goal let Monkstown down very lightly. On the form displayed during the game,
moreover, it is very doubtful whether the losers, under any conditions, would have
succeeded in reversing tIle result ...
"To attempt to criticise the players, having regard to the conditions they had to
contend with, would serve no useful purpose, but tIle most prominent of the College
team were O'Sullivan (whose fielding and anticipation were remarkably good in the
circunlstances), Russell, E. Davy and MacGowan (backs), and Cullen, Courtney,
Liddy and Spain (forwards) ....
"It was a very popular victory for the University College students, whose third
appearance it was in the final in the last four years, and apart from their football
ability, for their keeness and consistency alone, they now become very worthy
winners of the Cup and for the first time in their career.
"'National' had to face the wind alld sleet in the first half, but setting a very
hot pace from the start they never allowed Monkstown any chance of settling down ..
. . a pass from Clarke to Barnett went very much astray, and with both Ganly and
O'Brien failing to gather the ball, E. Davy picked up and ran up to Davies before
sending Silke away. The wing man, with his start, just got to the line before Davies
tackled him, but he managed to push the ball over and E. Davy made a great attempt
to convert from near the touchline.
"Monkstown improved in the subsequent play and by forward work and touch
finding gained a footing in the College 25 .... 'National' were several times
penalised and Hogan, once being caught offside almost ill front of his own posts,
Pickeman levelled up the scores by placing a goal. The students soon regained their
lead however, as following a good cut-through by E. Davy, Silke cross kicked into the
centre, alld with the forwards bringing the ball along, V. Davy picked up and raced
over for a good try which E. Davy failed to convert ....
"The conditiollS had been getting gradually worse as the game progressed and
when the second half commenced the ground was like a skating rink, and heavy rain
and sleet was accompanied by a biting wind, whicll Monkstown had to face ... For
practically the whole of the period 'National' were the attacking side and Monkstown
very rarely got over the half-way line.
"For some time the College failed to increase their score, but at length a loose
rush saw man after man on the MOnkstOW1l side missing the ball, and in the end
Russell was able to have a good look at the ball before he decided to touch it down ..
. . Davies, in attempting to clear, sent the ball into touch near his own line, and Silke
throwing in the ball quickly to Spain, the latter, unmarked, fell over the line at the
comer. This ended the scoring and both players and spectators were glad when tIle
final whistle sounded."
The Victorious College team was: J.M.O'Sullivan, J.Silke, S.Hogan, V.Davy,