Bloody Sunday:
Programme of events to mark centenary of massacre at Croke Park
TIPPERARY man Michael Hogan (24) was the only player who was shot dead during a day of violence which took the lives of over 30 people in Dublin on Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920.
The most horrific day of the War of Independence began with the Irish Republican Army killing 16 men, mostly British army intelligence officers, in the city.
Later that afternoon members of the Auxiliary Division and the RIC retaliated by opening fire at a game between Tipperary and Dublin in Croke Park, claiming the lives of 14 people, including Mr Hogan.
To mark the centenary, the GAA museum at Croke Park will open an exhibition from September commemorating that tragic day which saw 14 lives lost and 60 people injured in Croke Park alone.
The blood-stained glasses of Sligo girl Annie M Burke, who risked her life by running across the pitch to put a coat over one of the bodies, are included in the collection. A match ticket, memorial cards and newspaper reports covering the event will also be on display.
That morning almost 100 years ago, Michael ‘Mick’ Hogan was nervous because he was due to mark a prominent Dublin player in the match. “The Dub player, he was kind of the big star of the day and Mick wanted to swap positions,” said his great-niece Julianne McKeigue.
“He was crawling along the pitch when the shooting started and he was shot in the back on the pitch, he was the only player to have died.”
According to Friends of Tipperary Football, a young Wexford man, Tom Ryan, who tried to whisper an act of contrition into his ear, was also shot dead. A farmer from Grangemockler in Tipperary, Hogan was one of six children – three brothers and three sisters.
Two local priests travelled later that day to tell his mother that her son had died.
“He was the only player to have died so that’s why I suppose he gets a little bit more recognition, but all of the victims – it’s a horrific story, they were just going to a match,” said Julienne.
A series of events to mark the centenary will include talks, tours, a new exhibition and a community programme running from August to November.
Also included in the exhibition will be a specially commissioned Bloody Sunday centenary painting called Transilience by artist David Sweeney, a former Dublin senior hurling captain and the GAA’s eLearning manager at Croke Park.