It’s fair to say that 2021 has been a great disappointment for everyone who inched through the travails of last year under the illusion that we would be out the gap by now.
Of course when the end of the year stopped being a point on the horizon and actually arrived, we knew better. By late autumn, the GAA were acknowledging that 2021 would probably be every bit as challenging – a year like no other, apart from the previous one.
One familiar trend that pops up yet again in the foothills of a decade is the disproportionate eventfulness of years ending in one. This time around, we’re already in danger of the national league having to be severely truncated or even dropped and the championship again abbreviated.
There has already been a remotely hosted congress. Although the intention was to avoid anything too contentious, some of the motions passed were seismic: endorsement of the split season, which will bring the first All-Ireland final in July since 1911, and taking on cynical fouling in hurling.
When everything settles the landscape is going to be quite different. Looking back through the decades, there’s nothing unusual in such a departure.
Trying to find threads that link something as random as a year-ending digit can run the risk of getting tendentious but for the GAA that hasn’t been necessary and there is a strong case that years ending in one have consistently provided watershed moments for the association.
This year will be disrupted but it won't be on a par with 1921, as the country melted into the endgame of a war of independence that was about to mutate into a civil war
Already the 50th anniversary of 1971 has consumed a lot of column inches and unsurprisingly, given that it is one of the most significant GAA years on record.
It featured the official inauguration of two hugely successful projects, the All Stars scheme and the All-Ireland club championships – the first debuting with the presentation of the first awards in December and the second holding its first final a month earlier.
It also saw the publication of the McNamee Commission report whose recommendations shaped GAA administration for decades. Most notably the April congress was the platform at which the old ban on foreign games was laid to rest.
To establish a trend, however, you need more than a couple of standout years at the beginning of a decade and that is the reality, looking back as far as a century.
This year will be disrupted but it won’t be on a par with 1921, as the country melted into the endgame of a war of independence that was about to mutate into a civil war. Although the world of Gaelic games was concerned 12 months ago that 2020 might turn out to be the only year apart from 1888 to have no All-Ireland championships, the last time that there was no All-Ireland final played was in 1921, as both the hurling and football were deferred until 1923 – the last time that championships ran two years behind.
One of only two years that bears comparison with 1971 in respect of long-term influence is 1991 (the other is 1913), 30 years ago.
The most influential development within the GAA in that time has been the rebuilding of Croke Park. The stadium symbolised the modernising of the association and earned such plaudits that the 2005 report of a GAA marketing sub-committee worried that the strength of the venue’s brand was overshadowing the whole association.
As a project, it began in 1991 with the acquisition of the property needed to expand the stadium and the publication of architectural plans. By last year and before business at Croke Park collapsed because of the pandemic, the stadium had repaid the GAA in 14 years, nearly €120 million in dividends.
The 1991 congress accepted a motion from Dublin, calling for the embrace of sponsorship, including on jerseys.
On the field there was the four-match epic between Dublin and Meath that has been credited with powering the GAA’s riposte to the challenge of the summer of Italia ’90.
The broadcasting of the conclusive contest proved that the GAA could have live coverage of non-All-Ireland matches without affecting attendances and that Saturday matches could, in the right circumstances, fill Croke Park.
The most enduring legacy of the year on the field, however, was the introduction of the All-Ireland qualifiers into the football championship
Otherwise the story of the summer was the re-emergence of Ulster football. Down’s championship began with a non-descript win against Armagh and ended with the team banking enough during its dominant phases of the All-Ireland final to ride out the inevitable comeback of a Meath team playing its 10th championship match.
That victory was the first time in 23 years that a county from outside Munster or Leinster had taken home the Sam Maguire; in the 20 years since, half of the All-Irelands have made their way back to Ulster or Connacht.
Even 20 years ago, a special congress got rid of the ban on members of the Northern security forces from playing Gaelic games. It was timely given the imminent recruitment campaign for the PSNI.
Public crisis also had to be negotiated with the arrival in early 2001 of foot-and-mouth disease, which nearly derailed the national leagues and caused the club finals to be played a month later.
The most enduring legacy of the year on the field, however, was the introduction of the All-Ireland qualifiers into the football championship. The novel sequence of fixtures, frequently between counties who had never met in summer competition, and the new phenomenon of All-Ireland quarter-finals redefined the championship for both football and hurling, which followed suit a year later, and saw Galway win Sam Maguire having lost in their province.
There is more: 1961 saw the attendance record for Croke Park established when 90,556 attended the Down-Offaly All-Ireland football final; Kerry’s modern four-in-a-row landed in 1981 and as the west of Ireland is all too aware, Mayo’s most recent All-Ireland was won in 1951.
One may be a small digit but it’s the start of a lot of things.
smoran@irishtimes.com
