GAA fans splash out at sale of sporting history
Wednesday March 21 2007
The lifelong obsession of the late Brendan Brennan, the son of TD Tom Brennan, a founding member of Fianna Fail, fetched thousands for his family as his collection of rare tickets, programmes and posters went under the hammer.
Mealy Auctioneers, who were behind the auction of over 900 lots, said they believed interest was sparked in the medal for Roscommon's 1943 All-Ireland Senior Football Title, which was expected to fetch ?3,000, as top GAA wins were rare in the county.
The auction in Dublin's Tara Towers Hotel contained lots from the Brennan family, of Co Wicklow, as well as Irish coins and medals owned by the late Englishman Mervyn Clapham.
A ticket for the Tipperary v Dublin match on Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, was sold for ?7,500.
From behind a table packed with rare programmes, auctioneer George Mealy said the ticket for the Bloody Sunday game, which had been sold by another family, had its own story to tell.
Mr Mealy revealed that on the reverse of the pink ticket was a handwritten note permitting a woman to collect money from match-goers for the Irish Republican Prisoners Dependents Fund.
Mr Mealy said: "Interest is soaring in these kind of items, there are people here who have travelled from Roscommon. A lot of collectors or programmes will be here trying to fill in their missing years in their collections."
A signed first edition of the 1916 'The Story of the GAA - the First History of the Great Organisation', by Thomas O'Sullivan, fetched ?1,800.
A set of four gold All-Ireland Senior Football medals from 1915 to 1918, won by Jim Byrne during Wexford's four-in-a-row, went for ?24,000.
A rare coin, the 1553 Queen Mary shilling, was sold for ?4,200, while an Irish international tug-of-war medal from 1893 went for ?2,000.
LOUISE HOGAN
