Sporting research online during the COVID-19 crisis
Sporting research online during the COVID-19 crisis
by Pat Bracken
If there are any positives which can be taken from the COVID-19 crisis, perhaps one might be is that it gives sports clubs an opportunity to attend to work on perhaps updating club websites, image galleries or club histories.
These sorts of tasks typically take a back seat when the long evenings come in and items are put aside for a later date. But in the midst of the current crisis there are also some excellent free online resources which may help in this respect, though most of these relate to GAA clubs and activities.
From the perspective of Tipperary, all the Tipperary GAA Yearbooks up to 2016 are available to view online on the Tipperary Studies digital archive http://tipperarystudies.ie/sport/
The website also has a large collection of county final match programmes in hurling and football, with the hurling programmes going back to 1949 (69 in total) and the football collection back to 1971 (50 in total).
There are also final match programmes from the four Tipperary divisions in hurling and football, though with several gaps on the site. From the north division there are 44 senior hurling final programmes, with the earliest programme going back to 1964. There are 44 hurling final programmes from the mid-Tipp division with one football final programme also. From the south division there are 30 senior hurling final programmes and 26 from the football finals. Finally, in the west division there are 37 senior hurling final programmes and 14 from the senior football finals.
All in all there are 315 match final programmes in the GAA collection and with many clubs across Tipperary involved there is much there to interest many people. At the moment there is only one camogie programme uploaded. All the above are available as PDF downloads. For many of the divisional finals there are also contemporary reports of each final from the local Tipperary press.
The site also includes three athletics programmes from the 1980s as well as a wide range of historical and genealogical information.
Another source available on the Tipperary Studies website which gives a snapshot of sport in the county during another emergency, that of World War II, are the Irish Tourist Association Reports 1942-45.
These are individual to each town or village throughout Tipperary and there are 53 files in the collection. In each collection there are records for ‘Sports and Games’. There are a wide range of sporting activities covered throughout so there may be something in there for everyone. These files also include much information on local history and archaeology, so there is a lot of material of interest there for clubs, communities and individuals all over the county. This collection can be viewed at the following link http://tipperarystudies.ie/digitisation-project/irish-tourist-association-reports-1942-45/
From Co. Limerick, the local studies department in Limerick City has much of the wonderful Séamus Ó Ceallaigh GAA collection digitised. There are a broad range of publications here, in which there is much detail for all GAA supporters. A summary of what is there include An Camán (1931-34); An Gaedheal (1934-37); Gaelic Echo (1941-58); Gaelic News (1969-70); Gaelic Quarterly Review (1936-37); Gaelic Sport (1958-88); Gaelic Weekly News (1968-69); Cuchulainn Annual (1957-75) and some 1934 GAA jubilee special publications. The site also contains a range of books on the early history of the GAA, a series on great Limerick sportsmen and files on GAA clubs in Limerick. So thanks to Séamus there is much there for GAA aficionados to occupy themselves with many hours browsing and reading online. See the collection here at http://www.limerickcity.ie/library/localstudies/
For followers of athletics there are many excellent articles on Tipperary athletes compiled by Michael O’Dwyer which can be read on the Tipperary Athletics website http://www.tipperaryathletics.com/ The links on the right hand side of the homepage will also take you to Michael’s articles on Olympians who were born in Tipperary or have a connection with the county. From the perspective of Nenagh and its hinterland, the triumvirate of Matt McGrath, Bob Tisdall and Johnny Hayes feature in this collection of 86 Olympians, as do Gary Ryan, Percy Allman-Smith and Sidney Dagg.
Mindful that 2020 was to be the year of the Tokyo Olympics the LA84 Foundation digital archive is a wonderful resource on Olympic history. There are a wide range of articles, papers and photographs on many sports of the Olympic movement which can be browsed at https://digital.la84.org/ While much of the material is of American interest there are still items in it which may appeal to followers of the Olympics locally.
From the other side of the world there is the Trove online resource from the National Library of Australia. This is a truly wonderful site, with its newspaper collection a fabulous resource. While there are many newspapers digitised there are many references to Tipperary sport throughout their pages. It is also a great resource for genealogy. It is very easy to get hooked on to the site, so those jobs that you put on the long finger, might have to wait for another day if it pulls you in like it pulled in me some years ago. The site can be reached at the following link https://trove.nla.gov.au/
In closing, just to remember the online newspapers could not happen without the original print edition. Keep supporting your local press such as the Nenagh Guardian so that in time to come your children and your children’s children will have similar resources from our era to read through. Happy browsing and stay safe everyone.