All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1939

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1939


team=Cork
titles=12th
captain=Jimmy Walsh
manager=
munster=Cork
leinster=Kilkenny
ulster=
connacht=
poty=
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1939 was the 53rd edition of Ireland’s premier hurling knockout competition. The championship ran from May to September of that year, culminating with the All-Ireland final, held at Croke Park, Dublin on 3 September. The match was contested by Kilkenny and Cork, with Kilkenny taking the title by 2-7 to 3-3. The ‘thunder and lightning’ final has gone down in history as one of the greatest.

Format

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was run on a provincial basis as usual. All games were played on a knockout basis whereby once a team lost they were eliminated from the championship. The format for the All-Ireland series of games ran as follows:
* The winners of the Munster Championship advanced directly to the All-Ireland final.
* The winners of the Leinster Championship advanced directly to a lone All-Ireland semi-final.
* Galway, a team who faced no competition in Connacht, entered the championship at the All-Ireland semi-final stage where they played the Leinster champions.
* There were no representatives from Ulster in the All-Ireland championship.

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

footballbox
date = August 11
Semi-Final
team1 = Kilkenny
score = 4-15 – 1-10
team2 = Galway
goals1 =
goals2 =
stadium = Roscrea,
County Tipperary

All-Ireland final

Overview

Sunday September 3rd was the date of the 1939 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Cork and Kilkenny. Cork were appearing in their first championship decider since 1931 when they defeated Kilkenny after a three-game saga to take the title. Kilkenny, however, last won the All-Ireland title in 1935 and last appeared in the final in 1936 when they fell to Limerick.

Two days before the final, on September 1st, Germany invaded Poland signaling the start of World War II. For the 39,302 spectators that turned out in Croke Park the fortunes of Cork and Kilkenny were foremost in their minds rather than the fortunes of Adolf Hitler.

Players and supporters awoke to torrential rain on the morning of the game. It continued to fall until the early afternoon but subsided just before the game started. As Jack Lynch and Jimmy Walsh led their respective teams around Croke Park bright sunshine greeted the men in red and the men in black and amber.

Match report

At 3:15pm GAA President Paddy McNamee threw in the sliothar the game was on. Even with the benefit of the wind at their backs the Cork men, who were playing at Croke Park for the first time in eight years, began slowly. Within three minutes the Munster champions were 1-1 to 0-0 in arrears as Jimmy Phelan found the net for the first time in the game with an early assault on the Cork goalmouth. Cork captain Jack Lynch opened the scoring for his team, however, ‘the Rebels’ struggled until half-time when they trailed by 2-4 to 1-1.

The game had just restarted when players and spectators alike were startled by a ferocious clap of thunder. What followed was a thunderstorm of extraordinary proportions with thunder and lightning accompanying a heavy downpour. Conditions were so bad that spectators could not make out the identity of some of the players on the field. The spectators sitting in the open had to seek refuge from the elements at several stages throughout the second thirty minutes of play while the press box situated in the front row of the Cusack Stand also had to find alternative accommodation.

On the field of play the hurlers battled with the elements as well as with each other. So bad were the conditions that the dye from the players’ jerseys ran into their togs. The Cork players found their feet and came storming back into the game. Jack Lynch stood up and played a captain’s role once again when he scored another goal for Cork. Kilkenny’s Paddy Phelan was the star defender of the day as he repelled wave after wave of Cork attacks on goal. As the game neared its conclusion Cork’s Willie Campbell lined up to take a long-range free. He sent the sliothar goal-wards, however, it fell through a number of defenders and hurleys and ended in the Kilkenny net. It was speculated that Ted O’Sullivan might have got a touch on the sliothar; however, regardless of this the sides were level with just two minutes left in the game. Most agreed that a draw was now likely and, given the conditions that the game was played in, a draw would have been appropriate. With time running out Jack Lynch missed a number of points before Paddy Phelan sent a 70-yard free in towards the Cork goalmouth. The sliothar was gobbled up by the defence and cleared, but only as far as Jimmy Kelly who sent it straight over the bar for a one-point lead. Many newspapers credited Terry Leahy with scoring the point, however, Kelly was the hero of the day. Immediately after the puck-out the referee blew the whistle and Kilkenny were the champions on a score line of 2-7 to 3-3.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1939-09-03
15:15 BST
team1=Kilkenny
score=2-7 – 3-3
team2=Cork
report=
goals1=
goals2=
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=39,302
referee= J. Flaherty (Offaly)

References

* Corry, Eoghan, "The GAA Book of Lists" (Hodder Headline Ireland, 2005).
* Donegan, Des, "The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games" (DBA Publications Limited, 2005).
* Horgan, Tim, "Christy Ring: Hurling's Greatest" (The Collins Press, 2007).
* Nolan, Pat, "Flashbacks: A Half Century of Cork Hurling" (The Collins Press, 2000).
* Sweeney, Éamonn, "Munster Hurling Legends" (The O'Brien Press, 2002).

ee also