100 years of the Anglo Celt Cup

By Niall Gartland

IT’S one of the most iconic trophies in the game. The Anglo Celt Cup.

The Ulster Championship trophy been raised to the skies by a litany of famous captains down the years – Peter Canavan, Kieran McGeeney, Michael Murphy, Henry Downey, we could go on, and on, and on, and apologies for the slight recency bias on our part.

This happens to be the 100th anniversary of the Anglo Celt Cup, though not in its present guise.

Back in 1925, the cup was donated by the O’Hanlon family in Cavan to the Ulster Council to be presented annually to the winners of the Ulster Championship.

The original was a fair bit smaller and rather less distinctive, than the trophy we’ve come to know and love, which was first presented back in 1963.

The first Anglo Celt Cup is now on permanent display in the ‘Breffni Gallery’ on site at Kingspan Breffni, the home of Cavan football.

George Cartright, former Cavan County chairman and a respected historian and author, explains how the Anglo Celt Trophy first came to be all those years ago.

“This generous gesture came about because of the close relationship between John F O’Hanlon, the managing director of the Anglo Celt, and Cavan man BC Fay who was secretary of the Ulster Council.

“John F O’Hanlon was one of the four men, all in Cavan town, who reorganised the GAA in Cavan in 1903 and really put it on its proper footing. There were a lot of teething problems, the same in every county that was getting it off the ground, and he played a big part in re-establishing Cavan GAA.”

Back in the early days of the GAA, it was common for newspaper men like O’Hanlon to be at the coalface of things. Indeed, the GAA’s founder members were journalists.

“Michael Cusack was a supreme example, founding his own newspaper to promote the GAA, and of course Maurice Davin was. Those men had education at the time. I suppose that was a bonus. They were able to converse, write and maybe motivate. Communications were very primitive when we look back on them, but they were used to it. There were a lot of journalists and teachers, it was very much a combination and sometimes they doubled up.”

Cavan were the inaugural winners, defeating Antrim in an Ulster final replay which was played in Belturbet, after the teams had drawn in the first game in Monaghan. The wonderfully named Standish O’Grady was the first Cavan captain to be presented with the Cup.

The cup continued to be presented to the winners annually until 1963 when it was decommissioned and the directors of The Anglo-Celt donated a beautiful new cup to the Ulster Council. This new cup was first presented to George Lavery, the captain of the Down team, which defeated Donegal in the 1963 Ulster final.

Cartright said: “The old cup is actually quite small but I suppose money wasn’t plentiful in those days.

“The new version is more impressive in that sense, and it was first presented to George Lavery at the last Ulster final that was played in Breffni Park, back in 1963.

“From a Cavan perspective, Jim McDonnell was the last Cavan man to be presented with the old cup in 1962. He had another honour when he became the first Cavan man to be presented with the new cup in 1964, when Cavan beat Down who were defending champions. He’s still alive and goes to all the games – he celebrates his 90th birthday in May.”