Wolfe Tones, County Football Champions, 1936

by Tom Kenny

Now that GAA club games are being played again, we thought to show you the County Champions of 1936, Wolfe Tones. They were a city based team who also won the championship in 1941 but after that they seemed to fade out.

Another city team of the period, Galway Gaels who were champions in 1930 also faded out in the 1940’s. Maybe some of the members of both clubs joined Father Griffins which was founded in 1948.

This Wolfe Tones team beat Corofin in the 1936 final which was played at Parkmore near Tuam. On the day this photograph was taken, they had won the city league. It was taken in the yard behind The Old Malt Pub. In the background is a building in Middle Street which was later demolished and rebuilt as Molloy’s Warehouse.

The team is, back row, left to right; Tom Coll, J. Downing, Paddy Higgins, J. Burke, Tommy Clarke, J. Lovett, Hugh Hogan.
Middle row; George Ryder, M. O’Flaherty, Dinny O’Sullivan, G. Tierney, Danny Gillespie, -- O’Connor.
Front row; S. Lally, Ned Walsh, Mick Higgins, -- Higgins, Johnny Cotter.

Kneeling are Paddy Walsh and ‘Go Go’ O’Donnell. ‘Ginger’ Slattery was late for the taking of the photograph and so was not included.

Two members of this team had won All-Ireland medals with Galway in 1934, Mick Higgins and Dinny O’Sullivan. In addition, four club members were on the 1938 Galway All-Ireland team, Bobby Beggs, Jackie Flavin, Mick Higgins and Ned Mulholland.

Our thanks to Brother Niall Coll for this photograph.

Galway City Museum have opened two small exhibitions upstairs in addition to their main show, and all are well worth seeing. The two new collections are titled “The Corrib; Myth, Legend and Folklore” and “The Irish Revolution, 1913 – 1923” and each includes material not seen in public before. Admission is free but you need to book because of Covid. Highly recommended.