crokepark

I read one time that before that match some of the dignitaries including Collins had a bit of a puck around and that he (Colins) showed great skill at doubling on the ball overhead and seemed to be a proficient hurler. Doubling is the art of striking the ball in mid flight to drive it further on or to potentially score without catching or slowing the ball down and takes great skill and hand to eye coordination! Do you see the Kilkenny player on his mobile phone telling the folks back home that he has met the "Big Fella"?

Swordscookie A good story anyway (about the doubling)! Everyone I've shown this photo to has laughed about the Kilkenny player on "his mobile"... :)

I wonder if he actually played wearing those sock suspenders.

philip ward It is very odd. All of his team mates have proper thick knee length socks. Do you think he got on the train or bus to Dublin without his playing socks and had to wear his normal ones?

Given how difficult it was to travel in those days and the risks that were still there it may be that he was a former player who was pressganged into the role. It would not have been uncommon for less well off people to play in their street clothes and I saw matches in the 50's where guys in shirts, trousers and football boots played full games!

Wow , fantastic

History in the making and here we are almost 100 years later having come almost fully about 180 degrees with the Queen coming and remembering all of the dead. Well done once again NLI, this is a beauty. I remember Jervis Street hospital when a lot of it was as it is in this picture.

Swordscookie "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"...

wow, thanks for the info on the photo and the preceding events!

Tammy No problem, some photos can happily exist on their own, but I think some really need context...

It looks like Killkenny Beat Tipperary 4-2 to 2-6 though the date I see is 9 Sept. but the reliabilty is suspect (from Wikipedia as the GAA website is awful). Wikipedia seems to be calling it the 1922 Championship but played in 1923 (as I first looked up the 1923 Champioship which they say was played in 1924 - arghhh).

murphman61 Arghh, indeed! Now you see why I gave up in all the confusion. Oddly though, our metadata says that Kilkenny were at Croker to play Dublin - would you say that's wildly inaccurate? Dating, etc. usually pretty good on these W.D. Hogan photos.

That might be at the Leinster Final. Wiki, again, shows Kilkenny winning Leinster in both 1922 and 1923 with Dublin shown as runner-up the same years. The Kilkenny website has them winning All-Ireland in 1922 (maybe Wiki WAS right after-all in saying the 1922 Final was held in 1923 - doesn't make much sense but maybe the whole set-up was much different) Wow, I had no idea it was so difficult just to find a good list of champions and Finals. The GAA needs to find a good website developer.

murphman61 Wondering if 1922 Final may well have been played in 1923 because of Irish Civil War??

If memory serves me right (No! I was not around then) from reading about All Ireland's in the past the World War, the Troubles(?) and the Civil War had thrown things out of kilter around that time. So it is logical to think that the finals were delayed. There was also the small matter of Bloody Sunday which would not have helped?