Liam MacCarthy: The man, his life and the trophy
Liam MacCarthy gave his life to Gaelic games and his name is forever linked with hurling
ON March 4, 1923 at Croke Park, Limerick’s Bob McConkey became the first captain to lift the Liam MacCarthy Perpetual Cup on behalf of the All-Ireland hurling champions. The Shannonsiders had just beaten Dublin in the final of the 1921 Championship, which was delayed because of the Civil War.
Over the subsequent decades, the name of Liam MacCarthy became one of the most famous in Irish sport. But as for the man who paid the princely sum of £50 to Edmund Johnson – a jeweller based on Dublin’s Grafton Street – to design and manufacture a trophy for the All-Ireland hurling champions, he faded slightly into obscurity. Which was a shame, as MacCarthy spent a life, dedicated to the service of others.
The man who is eternally associated with the Hurling Championship was many things. He spent more than a decade on the borough council of North Peckham, juggling that with his duties in the GAA where he was the first treasurer of the London County Board and served two early stints as chairman. He also balanced a successful career in business with commitments to both the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and was closely associated with Pádraig Pearse, Michael Collins and Sam Maguire in the years before the Easter Rising.
His parents, Eoghan MacCarthy from Ballygarvan, Co Cork, and Brigid Dineen, a champion Irish dancer from Bruff, Co Limerick, had moved to England in 1851. Unusually for the time, Brigid was older than her husband – by eight years.
Like Irish emigrants of the time, MacCarthy senior worked on the railways (his son would follow suit) and, spending his time socialising with other Irishmen, never saw fit to learn English despite remaining in London for the rest of his life. A powerful man, Eoghan MacCarthy earned the nickname MacCarthy Capall (MacCarthy the Horse).
Liam MacCarthy was born in 1854 and christened William, although he was rarely referred to by that name. He inherited his father’s size, growing to more than six feet tall and weighing just over 18 stone. His mother ensured that he knew about ancient Celtic folklore and mythology in his formative years as well as the history of her home place.
Indeed, it is claimed that when he made a pilgrimage back to Bruff after his mother’s death in the 1880s, he was able to find his way around from the detailed descriptions passed on in his childhood.
Following a short spell as a blacksmith’s apprentice, he followed his father into employment on the railways, working as a signal fitter. It was there he met Alice Padbury – daughter of a successful local businessman – whom he married in 1875.
He would then work in his father-in-law’s cardboard box business as a supervisor, eventually setting up his own business – William MacCarthy & Sons in Peckham – naming the factory St Brigid’s Works in honour of his mother who passed away in 1877.
Although he was not an accomplished athlete, he was keen to establish Gaelic games in London as a manifestation of Irish culture. He was a founding member of Erins in Exile, one of the first GAA clubs in the English capital, which came into existence in 1886.
Ten years later, he was present at the first meeting of London County Board at Kensal Rise in north west London. At 43 years of age, he was elected as the county’s first treasurer as well as acting as the most prominent hurling referee in the city for the next 12 years.
In 1898, he was elected as chairman of the county board, serving in the role until 1907 when he was succeeded by Sam Maguire, who would give his name to the Football Championship trophy. He returned to the post two years later when Maguire left the role.
As chairman, MacCarthy made a speech at the official dinner for the 1901 All-Ireland hurling final which was won by London. The final, played two years later as was the trend of the time, was a chance for him to explain the difficulties experienced in keeping Gaelic games alive across the Irish Sea.
‘I am pleased at the progress the Association is making in Ireland but those in this country have no conception of the great difficulty they had in London to push the organisation,’ MacCarthy said.
On his many trips back to Ireland, he would always return to London with a bag of hurleys, often offering them as prizes for weekend tournaments he ran around the city. As a GAA official, he fostered a reputation as being fierce in debate and dogmatic in his beliefs which earned him the nickname ‘Fighting Mac.’
In the 1910s, he moved more towards the cause of republicanism rather than Gaelic games. He became a close associate of Michael Collins, who succeeded him as treasurer of London GAA. It is claimed that he kept two sets of books in the office of his successful cardboard box business – one as the firm’s official ledger and a second for the monies he siphoned off to projects dealing with the fight for Irish freedom.
Not only did he put much of his money into the IRB but also into ensuring that London GAA had a solid foundation. Fittingly, given that his name is commemorated by one of the most famous cups in Irish sport, he personally paid for medals and trophies for club games in London. He was also a big financial supporter of Pádraig Pearse’s Irish language school St Enda’s and sent his son Eugene over to Dublin for a year to study there.
MacCarthy’s home in Peckham was also a meeting point for Irish republicans and emigrants who had moved from Ireland. As the GAA in London developed a solid footing, he devoted the rest of his life to the cultural and political revival in Ireland.
However, his passion for Gaelic games, and
hurling in particular, never dimmed. It was at the suggestion of his friend Dan Fraher (Fraher Field is named in his honour) from Dungarvan, Co Waterford that he decided to invest in an All-Ireland hurling trophy in 1922 to further promote the game.
He had purchased five loan certificates off Michael Collins, Minister for Finance in the first Daíl.
When MacCarthy redeemed the loans, he decided to heed Fraher’s advice and used the money to commission a trophy for the AllIreland Hurling Championship.
Liam MacCarthy passed away in 1928 but as the result of his enterprise, his name has been kept alive by dint of that unique cup, one of the most famous pieces of silverware in Irish sport.