50 years of Cumann na mBunscol celebrated:
A book marking the first 50 years of Cumann na mBunscol, the organisation promoting Gaelic games in primary schools in all 32 counties of Ireland, was launched in Croke Park last Friday night by Brian Cody, former Kilkenny manager.
“Brian was a primary teacher himself for his entire working life and trained teams for Cumann na mBunscol activities so he was a natural choice to launch the book,” explained Joe Lyons, National Chairman of Cumann na mBunscol and co-author of the book along with Ciarán Crowe.
Cumann na mBunscol was founded in 1971 as a national organisation promoting Gaelic games in primary schools. It was intended to have a book on the shelves in 2021 to mark half a century of activity but Covid, and the enormity of the task, set things back a couple of years. The Cumann na mBunscol 50th anniversary book, ‘Cumann na mBunscol, 50 Bliain ag Fás’, covers the story of the organisation’s first fifty years. It includes a chapter on the evolution of primary school games in each of the 32 counties, in each province and on the national scene as well as features on the INTO Mini Sevens, Handball, Rounders and other areas.
Ciarán Crowe and Joe Lyons have previously written two books on Limerick hurling, ‘At Last’ in 2018 and ’20/20 Vision, Hurling and Limerick’ in 2019. They have also produced a magazine, ‘The Green and White’, in Limerick since 1996.
“In compiling this book we met marvellous, visionary people,” said Lyons. “Each county is deserving of a book of its own. With difficulty, we stopped at 840 pages!”
Where and when did it all start?
“Players attending schools in Limerick city and Dublin played a challenge game in football, hurling and handball in 1971. Afterwards, the officers of both counties thought that there was potential to arrange similar events on a countrywide basis and the germ of an idea was conceived. An invitation was issued to interested teachers from other counties to meet in Dublin on the weekend of the All-Ireland football final and the rest is history. The first Secretary of the new Committee was Tom Garry, a native of Castleconnell, who was teaching in Dublin. Tom went on to serve as an officer from 1971 to 1992.”
As well as chronicling the first fifty years of the organisation, the book is a celebration of the volunteers who have given of their time and expertise for decades. It also celebrates the joy children experience playing Gaelic games with their friends. Contributors include Michael Darragh McAulay, Shane Horgan, Séamus Callanan, Alan Dillon T.D., Benny Tierney, Síofra O’Shea, Anne Dalton and Aoife Neary. Away from the world of sporting personalities, authors Donal Ryan and Dave Hannigan, Danny O’Reilly of the Coronas, and racing journalist Donn McClean are among those who fondly recall playing Gaelic games in primary school.
Brian Cody performed the official launch of Cumann na mBunscol, 50 Bliain ag Fás.
In the course of his address, a few points made by Brian stood out.
“I have obviously first-hand experience of seeing the operation of the whole thing, being a primary teacher all of my working life, and what’s always struck me about teaching and teachers and the work you do with promoting Gaelic games….the word that I always zone in on and that matters to me massively is volunteering,” said Cody. “The volunteers and the work that they do as volunteers and of course that’s at the very core of the GAA.”
“It’s so, so important to give them (children) the opportunity to get out and enjoy sport. And that’s the big thing about it, to enjoy sport, to get to love the games.
“My experience in my old school, you know, the teachers who will never feature anywhere and will never become known but they just bring the children out to play. (They would just say)‘Bring your hurleys in tomorrow, we’ll go out and go into the pitch and we’ll play a bit of hurling.’”
“I also had the privilege of watching outstanding (young) hurlers who had gone to become outstanding hurlers in Kilkenny playing from the time they were seven or eight in their own schools, growing up with that love of hurling which was imbued in them by their primary school teachers and watching them develop (so it) was easy to be the guy who picked them later on for teams because sure I saw them playing years ago for school teams and they were deadly…why wouldn’t you pick them?
“It was great to have that opportunity, just to watch that development, it was terrific to see it. And, of course, you know, the players who you see develop at their various ages. But all inspired by the love of the game and I couldn’t have emphasised that enough.”
The official launch of Cumann na mBunscol 50 Bliain ag Fás took place in the Hogan Mezzanine in Croke Park on Friday November 24th. The book can be published on line from www.omahonys.ie