UCG Sigerson Cup Champions, 1933-4.
Item
Format
JPEG
Title
UCG Sigerson Cup Champions, 1933-4.
Identifier
VHS0001
Depiction
18 men standing, in three rows, in front of a large doorway, with photographs of two other men inset.
Description
This was the UCG team which won the Sigerson Cup, the annual Gaelic Football Championship for the Irish Universities, in 1933-4, for the third time; the previous triumphs were in 1911-2 and1921-2. This started a glorious run of success: eight out of nine titles between 1933-4 and 1941-2, and a record, still standing, of six in a row between 1936-7 and 1941-2. The competition was hosted by UCG that year, and all the games were played over a weekend in the Sports Ground. In the semi-final, on 9 December 1933, they beat QUB by 4-7 to 1-6, with their captain, Mick Higgins, in bed with a cold; and in the final, on 10 December 1933, they beat UCD (victors over UCC in the other semi-final) by 5-6 to 2-3, thereby foiling UCD's bid for six successive titles.
Several of this team won All-Ireland medals with Galway or Mayo in the years immediately thereafter, with Mick Higgins captaining the Galway champions of 1934 and Séamus O'Malley captaining the Mayo champions of 1936.. Donal McAnallen says that 'they built probably the greatest legacy of any University Gaelic football side through Sigerson Cup and county championship successes, their part in Galway's All-Ireland SFC glories of 1934 and 1938, and their part in Mayo's All-Ireland win of 1936 - including the Mayo captain, Séamus O'Malley - and, in the amazing run of seven NFL titles (sc. for Mayo) in eight years (1933-41)'.
That team's role in the adoption of the present Galway team colours should also be mentioned. Jim Carney writes that 'on September 15th 1934, eight days before the All-Ireland SFC final between Galway & Dublin, it was announced that Galway would be changing their colours from green & white to maroon & white. The change was influenced by UCG's Sigerson Cup victory in the 1933-34 season & they were also the reigning county senior football champions. UCG's colours were maroon & white. The man who captained UCG to those two titles was also the Galway captain, Kilkerrrin's Mick Higgins. The switch to maroon brought luck with it, Galway defeated Dublin in the 1934 All-Ireland SFC final. The Galway county hurlers also switched from green & white to maroon & white. From then on, Maroon & White became the famous colours associated with Galway GAA.'
Several of this team won All-Ireland medals with Galway or Mayo in the years immediately thereafter, with Mick Higgins captaining the Galway champions of 1934 and Séamus O'Malley captaining the Mayo champions of 1936.. Donal McAnallen says that 'they built probably the greatest legacy of any University Gaelic football side through Sigerson Cup and county championship successes, their part in Galway's All-Ireland SFC glories of 1934 and 1938, and their part in Mayo's All-Ireland win of 1936 - including the Mayo captain, Séamus O'Malley - and, in the amazing run of seven NFL titles (sc. for Mayo) in eight years (1933-41)'.
That team's role in the adoption of the present Galway team colours should also be mentioned. Jim Carney writes that 'on September 15th 1934, eight days before the All-Ireland SFC final between Galway & Dublin, it was announced that Galway would be changing their colours from green & white to maroon & white. The change was influenced by UCG's Sigerson Cup victory in the 1933-34 season & they were also the reigning county senior football champions. UCG's colours were maroon & white. The man who captained UCG to those two titles was also the Galway captain, Kilkerrrin's Mick Higgins. The switch to maroon brought luck with it, Galway defeated Dublin in the 1934 All-Ireland SFC final. The Galway county hurlers also switched from green & white to maroon & white. From then on, Maroon & White became the famous colours associated with Galway GAA.'
People
(Back row) John Vincent McDarby (Seán Mac Diarmuide) (Galway), Séamus O'Malley (Mayo), S. Mac Dónaill (James McDonnell). (Third row) Éamonn 'Ned' Murphy, P. Colleran, Patrick Quinn, Micheál Conneely (Micheál Mac Confhaolaidh) (Galway), Eoin Ó Gairbheith, an tOllamh Eoghan Mac Cionnáith (trénálaí). (Second row) Anthony O'Regan, Michael Raftery, Seán Ó Laoghaire (Clare), Michael (Mick) Higgins (Galway) (Captaen), Michael Ferriter (Micheál Firtéar) (Kerry), James Laffey (Mayo), Vincent Kelly (Mayo). (At front) Brian Scanlon, James Patrick ('Tot') McGowan (Mayo). Absent from the photo (according to the UCG Annual) were Dinny O'Sullivan (Galway), Brendan Nestor (Galway) and John Cummins (Mayo). It is not known which two of those three appear in the individual photos inset subsequently at the top of this image.
References
Donal McAnallen, The Cups That Cheered: a History of the Sigerson, Fitzgibbon and Higher Education Gaelic Games (Collins Press, 2013).
Jim Carney, Tuam Herald, quoted in the Galway Footballers Homepage on Facebook, accessed on August 4, 2023.
Jim Carney, Tuam Herald, quoted in the Galway Footballers Homepage on Facebook, accessed on August 4, 2023.
Contributor
Bibliographic Citation
S. Mac Mathúna, 'UCG Sigerson Cup Champions, 1933-4', Visual History Retired Staff Collection, University of Galway Digital Collections, Asset Id 13843, Archival Record Id VHRS
Spatial Coverage
Temporal Coverage
Period
1930s
Category
b&w
group
outdoors
group
outdoors
Language
English
Publisher
University of Galway Library
Rights
This image may be used for non-commercial purposes under CC BY-NC-SA see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
Provenance
An official photograph in the archives of Oifig an Rúnaí, retrieved and scanned by Séamus Mac Mathúna for the Visual History Retired Staff Collection in 2023