Inside Track: Bride’s came up with a money-spinner as they bid to raise funds

Next year will be a significant one for three Louth GAA clubs, all of them celebrating their centenary.

St Mary’s and St Bride’s played their first games in 1928 junior competitions, while it was at the end of that year that Dundalk Gaels were founded, lining out for the first time the following season.

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All three are planning to celebrate their one hundredth with a series of events. The publication of histories is on the cards, and without doubt, they’ll include stories of fundraising events, so vital in keeping the clubs afloat and in the upgrading of facilities.

Sure to figure in the St Bride’s book – work on which has been ongoing over the past three years – was a challenge match that took place in 1954. Plans to establish a permanent grounds were in place, and finance was required.

Louth had played Kerry in an All-Ireland semi-final the previous year, a game best remembered for the near-successful Fr Kevin Connolly-inspired Louth comeback in the second half.

Kerry’s win was by a narrow margin, and they went on to beat Armagh in the final. How about a rematch, someone in the Bride’s club asked. It would be a good money-spinner.

Being a club that’s never been a stranger to the GAA’s inner sanctum, permission to have Kerry travel to Dundalk’s Athletic Grounds was always likely to be granted. Kerry were game enough to take up the challenge.

The one-time spiritual home of Louth football was packed to the gills, no space in the stand and on the sidelines available to latecomers. The crowd was given as 5,000, and gate receipts were £410. Bride’s had backed a winner.

Kerry brought several of the ’53 and current teams – the latter beaten by Dublin in the All-Ireland final – along with them, including John Dowling, Seán Murphy, John Joe Sheehan, Jackie Lyne and Bobby Buckley.

The champions, however, came up against a very determined Louth side and were beaten 2-3 to 1-5. Fatigue may have set in. The previous evening, Kerry played Dublin in a tournament match in Croke Park.

The Louth team was: Seán Cullen; Paddy McArdle, Johnny Malone, Mickey Kerley; Mickey McDonnell, Pat Markey, Stephen White; Hubert Reynolds, Jimmy McDonnell; Alf Monk, Kevin Beahan, Peadar Smith; Sean Donagh, Jack Regan, Gerry Bailey.

It can be expected that further coverage of the game and the importance of the money it raised will feature in the Bride’s history.