New book tells the history and stories of Markievicz Park
A NEW book chronicling the history of Sligo GAA’s main county ground, Markievicz Park, as well as recording many stories and memories about it, has just been published.
The ‘History of Markievicz Park 1950 – 2020’ is described as capturing “the rich history and culture of Markievicz Park through the stories and memoirs of those involved and many action photographs”.
“There is a strong emphasis on the many hours of voluntary work that was carried out by so many selfless people to purchase, build and maintain the park, with the love of community and the GAA the main motivating factor.
“The Countess Markievicz GAA Memorial Park has been given to Sligo by a group of men whose unselfish labours and unwavering devotion to an ideal, have made the project possible.
“From the first inaugural meeting in 1950, they have combined their efforts and directed them with courage and initiative towards success.”
The book is the work of the Sligo GAA Historical Markievicz Park Committee, whose members are John Leyden (chairperson), Tim Hynes (secretary), Pat Clifford, Terence Marren, Jim Owens, Bart Barrins (County Board PRO) Bernardine McGauran (County Board secretary), Brendan Leonard and Jimmy Harney.
John Leyden told the Sligo Weekender that the book was to be have been launched last year but was postponed when Covid struck.
He said that the initial intention had been to just chart the history of the grounds.
“We felt that if we don’t do it now the files would probably be gone and no one would have a record of the development of Markievicz Park.”
He said that it had been thought that it might be made available to people at the reading room at the GAA museum in Croke Park.
But he said that the committee’s PRO Pat Clifford then suggested that they should publish a book.
And he said that as far as they were aware this was the first such history of a GAA county ground to be produced in the country.
The book covers the 70 years from 1950 to 2020.
Although the opening of the park did not take placed until 1955, the story began in Janaury 1950 when at a meeting in the Town Hall in Sligo a decision was taken to identify a site in the town to develop a county grounds for Sligo GAA.
At the time the county team played matches at different venues, including a couple of times at the Showgrounds, home of Sligo Rovers. One of those matches was a national league quarter-final against Kerry back in 1948. It wasn’t an easy time to be taking on a big project like that. There wasn’t a lot of money about with the national economy in poor shape and there were high levels of emigration as young people struggled to find work at home.
Initially there was an offer from Sligo Corporation for the GAA to buy land at what is now Doorly Park for £2,000 but that didn’t work out. A more suitable site near to St Anne’s church was also considered but that did not work out either. Eventually, the present site of the grounds was identified. What was known as Ward’s Field made up most of the land required but to get a rectangular site negotiations had to take place with some neighbouring landowners as well to get other bits of land necessary.
Then, with the site secured, a major fundraising campaign began. Leading that fundraising campaign was Sean Forde, a Leitrim native, who had come to live and work in Sligo. All sorts of events were held, some big and some small. One of the biggest, and unusal at the time, was a draw for a Ford Anglia car.
But finally all the hard work paid off when the new pitch, called after Countess Markievicz, was officially opened on May 22, 1955.
John Leydon told the Weekender that the official opening was “almost a state occasion”, with an official message from the government and attended by many dignatories and there was a special reception at the Town Hall to mark the event.
The opening matches at the venue were a football challenge game between Sligo and Mayo, which Mayo won by 1-7 to 0-6 and a hurling challenge match between All-Ireland
champions Cork and Galway, which Galway won by 7-8 to 3-12.
One of the big attractions of the day for many people was the chance to see in the flesh legendary Cork hurler Christy Ring, who was regarded as the greatest hurler of all time.
However, although the famous forward from Cloyne was there on the day he wasn’t able to play because of injury. But it was recorded that his appearance was still greeted with a huge fanfare.
The price of admission on the day was 1 shilling.
Although not now a provincial ground, Markievicz Park has in the past hosted four Connacht finals and an All-Ireland U-21 final between Tyrone and Mayo.
It is, of course the venue for home games for Sligo county teams, as well as club championship matches, Cumann na mBunscol primary schools finals and has hosted Community Games.
However, one of its more unusual events was a Westlife concert in July, 2003.
Apart from covering the history of the grounds, the book contains a number of very interesting articles from different people about their memories of Markieivicz Park and what it means to them.
Among those who have contributed pieces are Tommy Breheny, the last man to manage Sligo to a Connacht title, Bernard Mulhern, a former county player and now very involved in Cumann na mBunscol and that schools’ association also features in a piece by another teacher, John Hughes.
Former county player Eamonn O’Hara writes of his times at Markievicz Park, while Jimmy Harney looks at the history of hurling in the county. John Lee recalls his memory of the official opening of the pitch and tells how he went on the day with his father to act as a steward but ended up playing in goals for Sligo.
There is an another unusual tale from a former county player Brendan McCauley about the convulated way in which a native of Tuam ended up as a Sligo player. And Sligo’s top scorer and rated by many as the county’s best ever player, Mickey Kearins, writes about his time in the Sligo jersey and his experiences at Markivicz. The ‘History of Markievicz Park 1950–2020’ book is now available for sale for €20 through all GAA clubs in the county, at selected local newsagents, the Sligo GAA Centre of Excellence at Scarden and online on the Sligo GAA website.