The Greatest Gaelic Match in Roscommon football
‘The Greatest Gaelic Match in Roscommon Football: The President’s Cup 1889/90’ was launched at the weekend.
A new booklet entitled ‘The Greatest Gaelic Match in Roscommon Football: The President’s Cup 1889/90’ will be launched at the weekend as part of Heritage Week.
In a year when Roscommon had its first county championship, the President’s Cup was beyond a secondary competition and the interest of 34 clubs greatly surpassed that of the championship, which had just 16 clubs that year.
Author Steve Dolan will host an online launch and lecture this Saturday, August 16th from 10.30 a.m. to 11 a.m. providing fascinating details of the competition which he researched through the archives of the Roscommon Herald.
The booklet outlines that at this time, in addition to being county president of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and a highly-regarded politician, Jasper Tully was also editor of the Roscommon Herald and the newspaper was hugely supportive of the new organisation.
In 1889, Tully organised ‘The President’s Cup’. The booklet details how the coverage provided by the Roscommon Herald in 1889/90 was unparalleled in terms of the quality of the match reports. The Herald’s sister-paper, the Roscommon Journal, as well as the Roscommon Messenger and the Roscommon Constitutionalist also provided limited coverage, but the Herald’s reporting was truly outstanding.
Twenty-three of the thirty-three President’s Cup matches were completed. 13-64 was scored, 77 scores in total. In this era, matches were decided by the greater number of goals. Only when the amount of goals were even, were matches decided by the greater number of points.
The final was eventually decided between Strokestown St. Patricks’ and Cootehall Wolfe Tones with top-scorers Saint Patrick’s emerging as the eventual cup winners.
The lecture and launch offers a great opportunity to take a trip through the annals of the county’s sporting history.
To register your interest log onto https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/the-presidents-cup-1889-90
You can also log onto https://us04web.zoom.us/j/71596142126?pwd=1ddtd26AJg9d34uXxOprB5TLG6hTb0.1
