{"id":1764,"date":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","date_gmt":"2014-08-23T11:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=1764"},"modified":"2025-10-29T18:15:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T18:15:36","slug":"naas-man-at-kerry-g-a-a-jubilee-joe-rafferty-on-football-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/naas-man-at-kerry-g-a-a-jubilee-joe-rafferty-on-football-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"NAAS MAN AT KERRY G.A.A. JUBILEE. JOE RAFFERTY ON FOOTBALL DECLINE"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER LEADER<\/em> 2 JANUARY 1954<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Mr. Joe Rafferty, Naas, the veteran Kildare Gael represented the country and was amongst the 200 guests at the recent Kerry G.A.A. jubilee celebrations held at Killarney. The occasion was to commemorate Kerry\u2019s first senior football All-Ireland victory in the 1903 championship over Kildare, then captained by Joe Raffety, after two drawn games.<\/p>\n

Mr. Rafferty, replying to the toast of \u201cOur Guests\u201d at the banquet, thanked the Kerry County Board for their invitation and expressed the belief that the 1903 games saw the rebirth of Gaelic football. He had played football for eight years before, but there was football in [sic]. Since 1930 he thought the game had gone down a little bit, and he wished the Gaels of Kerry would help to do away with that \u201crotten practice of hand to toe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in \u201cThe Kerryman\u201d on \u201cSome young old boys get together,\u201d Maurice O\u2019Leary, dealing with the celebrations, writes; – \u201cMy next encounter was with the great Joe Rafferty himself. A man small in height when compared with the long Jack Myers, who stood beside him, he possesses the lean and trim figure of a former footballer, and his 74 years sit lightly upon him. His red head is no more and grey hairs now mark what used to be the danger signal to Rody Kirwan.<\/p>\n

GAMES REMEMBERED<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe was captain of the Kildare team against which Kerry played in 1905 for the 1903 final.\u00a0\u201cWe first clashed in Tipperary town,\u201d he said, \u201cand it finished over a disputed goal.\u201d He then recalled the two games in Cork. \u201cThe first of these saw Kerry leading with a margin of three points, and with a few minutes to go, Joy Conlon got a goal for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we met for the third time the day was blustery, wild and wet, and this did not suit us at all. We were beaten by 8 points to 2. Joe played at centerfield, but I was a bit of a roamer and moved about to help the other fellows.” Paying tribute to Kerry, he said \u201cKerry were very fair footballers and gave it and took it the same as ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe claimed that the games of 1905 between Kerry and Kildare marked a turning point in the history of the Association, as they raised the standard of play. \u201cI had been playing football since 1895,\u201d he said, \u201cand I did not know what it was until I played against Kerry. Before that the game was very rough.\u201d<\/p>\n

TRIBUTE TO KILDARE<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cP.F.\u201d also writes in \u201cThe Kerryman\u201d: – \u201cIt is hard to get the old players approach the \u2018mike\u2019 but when Joe Rafferty was forced to do so the appearance of Kildare\u2019s 1903 captain was greeted with round after round of applause. \u201cOf all counties we ever encountered on the Gaelic field, there is a specially warm corner in all Kerrys hearts for the men of Kildare. It is felt here that Kildare with Kerry combined to place the G.A.A. on its feet and lay the foundations for the Association\u2019s present greatness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn his brief address, Joe said how privileged he was to be invited and how proud he was to come, \u2018Kerry and Kildare, he said put the game on its feet’. Gaelic football was improving until 1930 but after that it started to decline. He asked Kerrymen to do all they could to do away with hand-to-toe tactics. These, too, are the Kerry \u2018sentiments.’\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LEINSTER LEADER 2 JANUARY 1954\u00a0 Mr. Joe Rafferty, Naas, the veteran Kildare Gael represented the country and was amongst the 200 guests at the recent Kerry G.A.A. jubilee celebrations held at Killarney. The occasion was to commemorate Kerry\u2019s first senior football All-Ireland victory in the 1903 championship over Kildare, then captained by Joe Raffety, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1764"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8157,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1764\/revisions\/8157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}