CLARE GAA IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP: 1887 – 2023

This extensive volume appeals to both avid GAA fans and casual observers, serving as a testament to Clare’s rich Gaelic games heritage and reflecting the broader social and cultural journey of the people in the west of Ireland.

Clare GAA In The Championship 1887-2023 is a self-published 1,200-page plus offering that chronicles every senior inter-county hurling and football championship game played by Clare GAA sides- from the initial campaign in 1887, right up to the 2023 season.

Inside the book’s meticulously researched 1214 pages, over 400 championship games are featured in detail. Each game, in both codes, includes a match report, team line-out, and accompanying photographic support in what is the first book of its kind in the county.

But this tome is much more than a chronicle of Clare’s inter-county participation. Included here are the background issues that arose like the club v county divisions, the role politics has played down through the years, the often divisive inter-parish rivalrIes as well as the county’s early formative years and its battle to remain a solely sporting entity.

The divisive Parnell Split is also chronicled that led to a near fatal division locally and nationally. The ban on British forces playing Gaelic games at the turn of the 20th century also features, as does the ban on the playing of “Foreign Games” by GAA members.

The creation of rival County Boards in 1923 due to the political divisions of the time is chronicled in detail. In this turbulent period, the County Board Secretary Paddy Hennessy was executed by Free State forces at Limerick Jail as County Board Chairman Canon Michael Hamilton attempted to keep the games to the fore in a bitterly divided local environment.

This book will appeal to hardcore gaels as well as those with only a passing interest in our national games – both within the Banner county and outside it. This is a study of a county with a rich heritage in Gaelic games and shows how far we have come in a sporting sense ,but also as a people in the west of Ireland.