of the GAA players those chronicled in these pages were all international sportsmen. I know my selection may generate debate and if you have any observations or extra detail about the men please feel free to contact me on Twitter @IrelandsCall15.
Over the past two years many people from a wide variety of sporting bodies have all helped me put this book together.
My journey into the world of Irish cricket began with a phone call to Robin Walsh, a former BBC Northern Ireland controller who has been a leading light in Irish cricket for many years. He put me in touch with Edward Liddle, John Boomer and Barry Chambers, who were a great help.
My investigations into the archives of Irish rugby were aided by Willow Murray, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of past players and events. I am also grateful to Shane Logan, Claire McAuley, Neil Brittan and Clodagh Miskelly at Ulster Rugby. Declan Meade and Declan O’Brien at the IRFU and Gerry Hegarty and Henry Tighe at Monkstown Rugby Club were also very keen to help this project.
Peter Jackson pointed me in lots of good directions as I tried to track down photos and details of Irish hockey players, and Marshall Gillespie did a similar job with Irish football stars who fought in the Great War.
Donal McAnallan shared his vast knowledge of all things GAA and his project into the background of players who fought in the Great War was of enormous help. Martin Brennan was also a great source of detail relating to sporting figures in the mid-Ulster area. The distinguished journalist Dermot Gilleece was generous with sharing his research into Michael Moran and he helped me source some fantastic photographs.
My understanding of the rich history of Irish athletics was vastly improved when I made contact with Cyril Smith and Colm Murphy, and both men provided many important facts and figures. Conversations and emails with Niall Leinster, Ross O’Carroll, Joel Taggart, Mike Cronin, Paul Rouse, Ken Kinsella, Ronan Kelly, Alex Gordon, Padraig Coyle, Richard Grayson, Ciaran Priestley, Greg Denieffe, Trevor Temple, Andrew Conn, Paul Treanor, William Blair, Ryan Feeney, Gerard Lawlor and Richard McElligot also proved helpful.
In Cork, information on the life of Vincent McNamara was kindly provided by Mike Holland, Catriona Mulcahy and Val Murphy, who unearthed some wonderful images of rugby players and teams from a century ago.
In Belfast, Keith Haines kept me right on Campbell College’s role in the war and I am grateful for the support of staff including the headmaster, Robert Robinson, and Cathy Law. At the Public Records Office in Belfast I was ably assisted by Stephen Scarth and Ian Montgomery.
At Royal School Dungannon, Paul Kerr shared much information and at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Neil Morton put me in touch with Robert and Hannah Northridge, who kindly supplied details about Robert Balderston Burgess. At Bedford School, both Richard Garrett and Gina Worboys always remained cheerful every time I rang up with another question about the life of Basil Maclear.
I am grateful to Ben Blackmore for spending hours of his time chasing down key information at the National Archives in London. Other personal data and key newspaper articles were traced by Nigel Henderson, who is a first-class Great War researcher. As with my previous books, much of this work was written at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan. It is a wonderful setting, and every time I go there I am bowled over by the atmosphere and the kindness of all the staff.
My family and close friends have put up with the distraction of Ireland’s Call over the past two years, and my father, brothers, Matthew and Geoff, and sister, Kate, were very supportive. My children, Grace, Jack and Gabriel were also very tolerant when our weekends and holidays were consumed with tales of sportsmen and soldiers from a bygone age. Without the blessing, love and encouragement of my wife this project would not have seen the light of day.
I wrote this book, but Katrin made it happen.
Stephen Walker, County Down, July 2015 Twitter @IrelandsCall15
List of Plates
PLATE SECTION 1
2.After he made his International debut in 1905 Basil Maclear was described as the ‘greatest discovery in modern times’. (Picture courtesy Maclear family archives and Bedford School)
3.An All-Ireland champion athlete Paddy Roche ran in the London Olympics in 1908. (Picture courtesy Colm Murphy) See also page 36.
4.Frank Browning, pictured with his trademark hat and cigarette, played a leading role in Irish cricket and rugby. (Picture courtesy IRFU archives)
5.During the Great War hundreds of sportsmen enlisted and many used Lansdowne Road to train and drill. (Picture courtesy Henry Hanna and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Archive) See also page 54.
6.Vincent McNamara and Harry Jack were referred to as ‘Macky and Jack’. They played together at University College Cork, for Munster and for Ireland. Vincent McNamara was killed at Gallipoli in November 1915 whilst Harry Jack survived the war. (Picture courtesy University College Cork archives) See also page 116.
7.Irish rugby international Jasper Brett played alongside Vincent McNamara in the famous 'Battle of Balmoral’, which is regarded as the most violent game ever played between Ireland and Wales. He died in February 1917. (Picture courtesy IRFU archives)
8.Michael Moran was the finest Irish golfer of his generation. He was the first Irish player to win prize money at the Open. (Picture courtesy Irish Life magazine) See also page 136.
9.Robert Gregory was a celebrated airman, artist and cricketer. After he died in 1918 W.B. Yeats wrote a number of poems in his honour. (Picture courtesy Cricket Ireland / Cricket Europe) See also page 95.
10.GAA player Patrick Corey played county football for Tyrone. A member of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, he died in 1915. (Picture courtesy Annie Bell)
11.Belfast man William Manning (back row, far right) was a member of the Antrim team that played in 1912 All-Ireland Final. He was killed in March 1918. (Picture courtesy CardinalTomás Ó Fiaich Library & Archive) See also page 73.
12.Wexford GAA team featuring Jimmy Rossiter (Middle row, far left ) who played in the 1914 All-Ireland Final. In 1915 he joined the Irish Guards and he saw action at the Battle of Loos. He wrote home saying he felt 'more nervous playing an All Ireland than an attack on the Germans'. He was killed in October 1915. (Picture courtesy Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Library & Archive)
13.Irish cricketer Joseph Lynch was a member of the Yorkshire Regiment and died in 1915. (Picture courtesy Margaret Doyle, archivist, Clongowes Wood College)
14.Dick Moore was an Irish football international who helped Linfield become one of the best teams in Ireland in the 1890s. He died in Greece in 1918. (Picture Belfast Evening Telegraph archives)
15.The 1910 Edinburgh University cricket team featured two Campbell College old boys who died in the Great War. In the middle row (far right) is John George Anderson who would play hockey for Scotland. He died in March 1918. Beside him is Alfred Squire Taylor who would become an Irish rugby international. He was killed in July 1917. (Picture courtesy Edinburgh University archives)
