1920s Galway dual star who delivered on the big stage

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

NOW and again, you may see a reference to former 1920s Galway dual star Leonard McGrath in the GAA annals. One of the first to win All-Ireland senior hurling and football titles with his county, he was also a talented rugby player – which resulted in his expulsion from the GAA – athlete and, in later life, a golfer.

Yet for all that, relatively little is known of McGrath and it has only been through the likes of well-known GAA personality Jim Carney (former Sports Editor of the Tuam Herald) and Marian Lyons – who penned a super article in the 1993 Galway GAA annual – that the memory of a great Gael has been preserved.

In many conversations with Carney on the subject of McGrath, the former Sunday Games host believed: “He is an under-researched character. There should be a lot more known about him. He is interesting in that he was involved in both football and hurling All-Ireland wins in the ‘20s. An incredible achievement.

“There is a certain amount about him in Canon Lee books, which I would have been into over the years, but not an awful lot else. Certainly not enough. However, he was hugely talented at football and hurling along with rugby, which would certainly add up with his Australian background,” he added.

So, began Leonard McGrath’s story. Born to Irish parents ‘Down Under’ before the turn of the 20th century, McGrath’s father James hailed from Northern Ireland while his mother Julia Porter was from Woodford.

According to Marian Lyons’ feature, the McGrath family had fallen on difficult times and Julia and her three children, Leonard, James and Mary (Cissie), had returned to her father’s home in Galway a number of years later.

After attending Shragh National School and later “The Pines” secondary school in Ballinasloe, McGrath qualified as a teacher from St. Patrick’s College in Drumcondra in 1918. He subsequent secured his first appointment at Loughrea National School and later Cappataggle NS.

In various clippings from the Irish Newspapers Archives – including his obituaries – it was noted, from an early age, he showed “signs of genius as a scholar and an athlete” and this made him “one of the most brilliantly versatile men of his or any generation” and “a really great all-rounder”.

In 1922, Leonard was selected on the Galway senior hurling XV, going on to win a Connacht championship medal in that year before starring at full forward in Galway’s first All-Ireland victory when defeating Limerick in the 1923 decider.

In the semi-final, the Tribesmen defeated Leinster champions Kilkenny on a 5-4 to 2-0 scoreline and McGrath, according to one national newspaper report, was said to be in sparkling form that day – as it said he had been with University College Galway’s Fitzgibbon Cup team the previous weekend.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.