Honouring ‘Nenagh’s GAA Pioneer’

Plaques are to be erected at three locations in Nenagh this May Bank Holiday Monday in memory Frank R Maloney, key player in the foundation of the GAA and a notable figure of the town’s history.

One of the plaques will be erected at MacDonagh Park - home of the Nenagh GAA club that Maloney co-founded - to coincide with the much-anticipated unveiling of Éire Óg’s community walkway. Another plaque is to be placed at No 35 Pearse St - formerly the Castle Hotel - where Maloney lived and where initial national council meetings of the GAA were held. Significantly, this is one of the two OPW-owned buildings that were for years the subject of calls from some local quarters to demolish and make way for a new entrance to Nenagh Castle. A third plaque is to be installed at Maloney’s final resting place at Lisboney.

Frank R Maloney (1865-1941) was described by the late Nancy Murphy as “one of Nenagh’s most fascinating personalities of the past”. Profiling him in the Tipperary Historical Journal (1997), the local historian described Maloney as “Nenagh’s GAA Pioneer”.

It has been strongly suggested that he was present at the foundation of the GAA in Thurles in 1884, but that he was not listed among those in attendance because he was a noted member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Many years later, Michael Cusack wrote in the Nenagh News that Maloney was along with him one of the founding members in Thurles at the 1884 meeting. Whether he did or did not attend that inaugural meeting, we will never know but his contribution to developing the organisation in its early years was immense.

Maloney was aged just 19 at that time. Born in New Zealand (his father was an officer in the British military), he had returned with his family to Tipperary to demonstrate remarkable prowess in the development of Gaelic games. He became one of the forefathers of Nenagh Hurling Club (forerunner to Éire Óg) and was elected first chairman of the club at its inaugural meeting in November 1884. The following March, he organised and refereed the first hurling match to be played in North Tipperary under the auspices of the new GAA (between Nenagh and Silvermines; the game ended in a scoreless draw).

In February 1886 - when he was 21 years of age - Maloney was appointed Vice President of the GAA. Cusack proposed him for the position in a motion seconded by JK Bracken.

Maloney was the following month elected one of the first joint secretaries of the North Tipperary ‘Branch’ of the fledgling association. Later that year, he was elected first Hon Treasurer of the Tipperary GAA County Board at its inaugural meeting in the Nenagh Literary Institute on Silver St.

Maloney would go on to referee the first All-Ireland Senior Hurling Semi-Final (where Tipperary beat Kilkenny) in Urlingford in October 1887. He served as Nenagh Hurling Club Secretary in the early 1900s, Secretary of the North Board (1907) and Chairman of the Tipperary County Board (1907-09).

MAN ABOUT TOWN

Aside from sport, Maloney was a prominent businessman in Nenagh, owner of corn and wool stores, publican, hotelier, farmer and auctioneer. He was also elected a Town Commissioner. In 1885 - at the age of 20 - he purchased the Castle Hotel at what is now 35 Pearse St. He lived there with his wife Mary Anne Gleeson, whom he married in 1887 (JK Bracken was Best Man at the wedding) and two younger brothers, Robert and Ambrose, along with an adopted son, William Chumney.

In 1891, Maloney was elected to the position of Town Clerk by his fellow commissioners. He remained that position until 1922, overseeing the replacement of the commission by Nenagh Urban District Council and a number of notable projects in Nenagh, including the town’s first piped water and sewerage schemes, and also the first council housing scheme on what is today Ormond St.

Among many other achievements of note, Maloney was appointed (Crown) Justice of the Peace in 1913.

FAMILY LEGACY

Maloney’s adopted son William Chumney (later Maloney) is credited with bringing electricity and cinema to Nenagh. He saw to it that the Town Hall became the first place in town to boast an electric light bulb in 1915. Maloney was renting the hall as a place to screen silent films. In 1922 he built Nenagh’s first picture house, the Ormond Cinema.

Like so many others in the Maloney family, William was an accomplished sportsman, who continued his father’s legacy playing hurling and football. William’s son Noel - at 6’2” and 14 stone - was a star player with Nenagh Ormond RFC and winner of the Triple Crown of Munster trophies (1947-’48).

William’s grandson Frank - who recently retired as proprietor of the well-known Dapp Inn - is an avid angler, who also played multiple sports, as did Frank’s siblings Billy (Nenagh Ormond and Shannon RFC) and Gail (international tennis).

Rounding off almost a century and a half of Frank R Maloney’s promotion of the ‘Camán’ and ‘Peil’, his great-great grandchildren Noel and Hugh (All-Ireland senior hurling winner, 2010) of Nenagh Éire Óg and Maeve of Duharra all played on Tipperary county teams.

The Maloney family and friends welcome all to join with them in celebrating the legacy of Frank R Maloney at MacDonagh Park in Nenagh this Bank Holiday Monday. A number of special guests will be in attendance, among them Ger Ryan of the GAA Munster Council, Jimmy Minogue, County Board Chairman and Damian White, Chairman of the GAA Historical Committee. The plaque at MacDonagh Park is to be unveiled at 3.15pm.