GAA wins when it comes to value, stories and quantities
RUGBY and soccer may steal the limelight in the latest batch of sports memorabilia to come on the market.
But in terms of value, stories and sheer quantity, the GAA puts soccer and rugby in the shade – and you’d be surprised at what kind of stuff can fetch extraordinary prices.
Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers achieved €18,000 for an All Ireland medal dating from
Bloody Sunday when Crown forces massacred 14 people at the final. That’s predictably a record-breaking price for a valuable gold medal.
But they also sold a ticket from that same fateful day for an extraordinary price of €9,500, while the ball from the match went for €30,000. It was bought by Louis Fitzgerald and can be seen on display at his An Poitín Stil pub near Rathcoole, Co. Dublin.
‘It’s not just medals or programmes [that] command very high prices, factual ephemeral items and all sorts of memorabilia can be very valuable,’ said auctioneer George Fonsie Mealy
And the more macabre the better apparently. ‘One of the biggest prices for a piece of memorabilia in recent times was the Bloody Sunday ball which we did the sale for in conjunction with another auction house in Dublin.
‘It was initially offered to the GAA museum ... they subsequently bid for it at the auction. In the end it was bought by Louis Fitzgerald. It’s now on display in his Poitín Stil pub – the ball from the actual match of Bloody Sunday,’ said Mr Fonsie Mealy.
A famous medal won by Wexford hurling legend Nicky Rackard – who has a cup named after him – also went under the hammer for an exceptional price of €17,500 in 2014.
It had an estimated value of €5,000 to €7,000 but had attracted strong interest before the Rackard family successfully bid to buy back their heirloom.
All Ireland medals regularly fetch thousands and the more obscure or unlikely the county the better for increasing rarity.
A Roscommon All Ireland winning medal from 1943 fetched €20,000 after a bidding war among Rossie GAA fans for a rare part of their sporting heritage that had originally been valued at one-tenth of that.
Whyte’s sold several lots of GAA medals in 2019, with a Cork senior All Ireland hurling medal going under the hammer for €6,500 – next to a Kerry football championship medal for €5,400.
But a lot more than that was fetched by another item sold by Whytes – a famous one-off ‘virtual’ medal. No, the GAA have not got carried away with the bitcoin craze and started issuing digital medals.
This one dates back to the 1895 All Ireland, then a club competition.
The medal was presented to Peter Clarke of Pierce O’Mahony’s club from Navan for the 1895 AllIreland Senior Football Championship Final, played on
March 15, 1896, the first final to be played in Jones’ Road (later Croke Park). It was also Meath’s first final.
Clarke, a butcher from Trimgate Street, Navan was in the full back line against Tipperary Club Champions, Arravale Rovers, who ‘won’ by 0-4 to 0-3 in highly controversial circumstances.
Dublin referee J.J. Kenny made a mistake when adding the scores and the game should have been drawn. ‘How he managed to do that with so few points I don’t know,’ observed Ian Whyte.
But what the ref lacked in mathematical ability he more than made up for in honesty and honourable behaviour.
He wrote to Central Council pointing out his error and just to make sure they wouldn’t brush it under the carpet, he wrote to national newspapers as well. Wronged Pierce O’Mahony’s, gentlemen all, declared that they would not demand a replay.
And after such supreme acts of sportsmanship, the GAA were not found wanting and minted a second batch of winners’ medals for the Pierce O’Mahony men – the so-called virtual medals.
I wonder what those lads would make of modern football players rolling around after the slightest contact in order to cheat the ref? Not much, I imagine.
To add to this medal’s incredible story, which boosts value, it was lost and then, years later, miraculously found again. ‘The previous owners had dug it up in a ploughed field in the 1920s,’ explained Mr Whyte.
Medals apparently often went missing. ‘Medals in those days were delicate, pretty-looking things made of gold, like jewellery. A lot of players used to put them on a chain to give to their wives and girlfriends,’ said Mr Whyte.
A handy way to show off your medal and impress your other half at the same time!
Not surprisingly, with such stories behind it, the virtual medal went for big money.
‘We were looking for €5,000 and it made nearly double that – €9,500.
‘We had another medal won by a Dublin player who fell on hard times. He pawned it. His club heard about this, felt sorry for him, un-pawned it and gave it back to him. But he went back and pawned it again.
‘They bought it back again but this time put it in a frame in the clubhouse.’