Fascinating tale behind ‘Null and Void’ Minor final
WHEN looking back at previous winners of Louth GAA competitions I was always curious as to the ‘Null and Void’ entries on our Minor Championship Roll of Honour.
These entries occur on three occasions; in 1922, 1929 and most recently in 1949.
Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to do a bit of digging which led me to a discussion with the former Parish Priest of Mellifont Fr Larry Caraher.
The Tallanstown native was quite the sportsman in his youth and represented the Louth Minors in 1948 and 1949, once scoring 3-4 in a Leinster Championship encounter with Wicklow.
He was also eligible for the 1950 Louth Minor side but unfortunately fell foul of the then ‘foreign games ban’ when playing schools rugby with St Marys College Dundalk.
While a boarder at the Marist College he played in three MacRory Cup campaigns and collected Louth Minor Championship medals in 1947 and 1948.
But getting back to the ‘Null and Void’ entry from 1949. Fr Caraher tells of there being a decision taken by the college in 1949 to switch its sporting allegiance away from Gaelic football to Rugby. No team was entered by the college therefore in the 1949 Louth Minor Championship.
As the school contained numerous talented Gaelic footballers, Fr Caraher, with the help of his late brother Kevin, went about entering a minor team from Tallanstown which contained all these great players.
With such a ‘packed team’ they sailed through the qualifying rounds and reached the county decider where they faced Cooley Kickhams.
On the day of the final Fr
Caraher recalls both teams parading hand in hand from the centre of Castlebellingham village to the Grove pitch behind a marching band. He was captain of the Tallanstown outfit, while his friend and colleague from the previous season’s county minor team, Hugh Sheelan, led the Cooley men.
The Tallanstown team also included the great Northern Ireland peace-maker Fr Denis Faul. The game finished in a draw, as indeed did the replay two weeks later.
However with St Mary’s now being a ‘Rugby School’ the college authorities decided that the boarders involved in the final would not be released to play in the second replay.
With such a depleted side Cooley easily won the third game 4-17 to 0-3.
But Tallanstown discovered that Cooley had some illegal players in their ranks from Newry, so they lodged an objection. Cooley then counter-objected as to the make-up of the St Marys outfit, with the result that the 1949 Minor Championship was declared ‘Null and Void’.
My sincere thanks to Fr Caraher for his time and recollections in putting this piece together.
The affable octogenarian is still a very active man and can be spotted on his daily walk in the grounds of Oldbridge Estate at the Battle of the Boyne site.
After joining the Marist Fathers in 1950, he would never get the opportunity to play Gaelic football again.
He kindly furnished me with the accompanying photograph of the Louth Minor panel who defeated Wicklow at Croke Park in 1949.
Two of that team would go on to win the Sam Maguire Cup with Louth eight years later. If circumstances had been different, it could have been three.