Pat Nally

Patrick (Pat) William Nally (13 March 1857 – November 1891) was a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and well known Connacht athlete from Balla, County Mayo. It was Nally who suggested to Michael Cusack the idea for what would become the Gaelic Athletic Association. In 1881, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in Mountjoy Jail, Dublin, for what became known as the 'Crossmolina Conspiracy' where he was subjected to harsh treatment.[1] Nally died in prison in November 1891, and the resultant Nally G. A. A. Club in Dublin would be closely associated with working class Fenians in the 1890s.[2]

Irish Republican Brotherhood

Nally was the eldest son and one of six brothers, of a prosperous farmer of 'advanced' nationalist views. Nally from an early age had been a Fenian, and by the late 1870s was a leading organiser of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was also present at the founding meeting in August 1879, of the Land League of Mayo, later becoming the Land League. Nally was elected a joint secretary. By 1880, Nally had become a member of the IRB's Supreme Council.[3]

Sport

Nally became well known in Ireland for organising athletics meetings which were open to all members of the public, where previously athletics meetings had been limited to entrants from the Protestant Ascendancy (the ruling classes).

In 1879, Michael Cusack met Nally, who had in 1877 attempted to start a nationalist athletics association but it never got off the ground. Cusack found that Nally's views on the influence of British landlordism on Irish athletics were the same as his.[4] Cusack would recall how both Nally and himself while walking through the Phoenix Park in Dublin seeing only a handful of people playing sports in the park so depressed them that they agreed it was time to "make an effort to preserve the physical strength of our race."[5] Nally organised a National Athletics Sports meeting in County Mayo in September 1879 which was a success, with Cusack organising a similar event which was open to 'artisans' in Dublin the following April.[4]

Nally as a member of the Irish Fenian movement, was rumoured to have ultimately been the cause of the end of his athletics career, as he was believed to have gone on the run to avoid arrest by the British authorities.

Nally was captured by the British in 1882, and was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for plotting the murder of land agents.

Pat Nally died in Mountjoy Prison on 9 November 1891. His funeral was organised by James Boland, with whom he had conspired in Manchester.

Legacy

One of the stands in Croke Park is named after Nally, and is unique for being the only stand in the stadium named after a person who had no connection to the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ D. J. Hickey, J. E. Doherty (2003). A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800. Gill & Macmillan Ltd. p. 328. ISBN 0-7171-2520-3.
  2. ↑ Kelly, M. J. (2006). The Fenian Ideal and Irish Nationalism. The Boydell Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-84383-445-8.
  3. ↑ Mandle, W. F. (1987). The Gaelic Athletic Association & Irish Nationalist Politics 1884 – 1924. Gill & Macmillan Ltd. p. 12. ISBN 0-7470-2200-3.
  4. 1 2 Mandle, W. F. (1987). The Gaelic Athletic Association & Irish Nationalist Politics 1884 – 1924. Gill & Macmillan Ltd. pp. 1–2. ISBN 0-7470-2200-3.
  5. ↑ de Búrca, Marcus (1980). The GAA a History. Cumann Lúthchleas Gael. p. 12. ISBN 0-9502722-1-3.
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