Dublin Senior Hurling Championship

The game of hurling has been played in Dublin long since before the foundation of the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship and the GAA. According to Irish historian James Ware (1594–1666), it was customary in the 13th century for the inhabitants of Dublin to organise hurling matches on festive days. On Easter Monday 1209, hundreds of Dublin citizens left the safety of the city walls and descended on the woods near Cullenswood, now Ranelagh, for a hurling match. Tragically, the hurlers and spectators were ambushed by rival clans who had come down from the Wicklow Mountains. Over three hundred Dubliners (including women and children) were slaughtered in the 1209 Cullenswood massacre. This day was commemorated by the citizens of Dublin for many centuries afterwards and became known as Black Monday.[1][2]

Other early written accounts of hurling matches in Dublin include several 18th century newspaper reports. According to these reports, the most popular hurling venues in Dublin at that time were the Crumlin Commons, Irishtown Green and Phoenix Park. One such account recalls a match which took place on the Crumlin Commons in May 1748, where a selection of hurlers from Leinster defeated 20 hurlers from Munster. In a re-match a month later, the Leinster hurlers proved their worth by beating the Munster selection for a second time.[3] Another report describes a hurling match which took place on Irishtown Green in 1757. The game was held between married men and bachelors for a wager of 50 guineas a side.[4] The tradition of a 'married versus singles' hurling match is still staged by many Dublin hurling clubs on St. Stephen's Day.[5] In 1778, police officers dispersed a crowd on Summerhill that had assembled in the fields there every Sunday during the summer for the purpose of playing football and hurling. It is believed that this was the exact spot where Croke Park now stands. According to the Freeman's Journal, in August of 1779, there was a bet between the penny boys of Smithfield, who had arranged a bull bait for the Fifteen Acres, that they would draw a bigger crowd than "the hurlers of the Phoenix Park". An account from 1792 describes a hurling match which took place in Phoenix Park in front of what was described as a vast concourse of spectators. The report claims that the game had to be abandoned before full-time because the spectators forced their way onto the playing ground.[6]

The game of hurling illustrated by the Dublin Metropolitan Hurling Club in 1884.

The organisation of hurling clubs in Dublin also predates the foundation of the GAA. In 1882, Michael Cusack attended the first meeting of the 'Dublin Hurling Club', formed "for the purpose of taking steps to re-establish the national game of hurling". In September 1883, Cusack began to organise hurling practices in Phoenix Park on Saturday afternoons. The game had long been lost to the city and to most of the remaining parts of the country as well. As a consequence, just four men turned up on that first Saturday. Slowly the numbers grew, with intrigued spectators joining in. Eventually, Cusack had sufficient numbers to found 'Cusack's Academy Hurling Club' which, in turn, led to the establishment of the Metropolitan Hurling Club. Cusack then established a hurling club in his school on Gardiner Place in October 1883. Immediately, the two clubs began to play matches against each other. A report, written by Cusack, records a game’ played in December 1883: "During the third and fourth quarters the hurling became so fast and furious, the goals were so threatened on the one hand and defended on the other, that spectators expected to be called on after each charge to help the disabled to Steevens Hospital." On Easter Monday 1884, the Metropolitans played Killimor, in Galway. The game had to be stopped on numerous occasions as the two teams were playing to different rules. It was this clash of styles that convinced Cusack that not only did the rules of the games need to be standardised, but that a body must be established to govern Irish sports.[7][8]

On Saturday, 1 November 1884, the GAA was founded in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary.[9] Michael Cusack was among the founding members present that day. From then on, Gaelic games adopted a more structured approach and were governed in each county by a separate body known as the county board. The Dublin County Board was set up in 1886 and within a year had organised a hurling competition known today as the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship. In 1887, the first Dublin Senior Hurling Championship was played out and was won by the Metropolitans, previously formed by Cusack in 1883.[10]