Obituary of Tom Woulfe (2015)

In this obituary, which appeared in the Irish Times on May 8, 2015, Tom Woulfe and his role in ending the “ban” in the GAA are remembered. For many years, the Gaelic Athletic Association banned anyone from competing who also competed in a non-Irish sport, such as soccer. Woulfe’s efforts helped repeal that rule and, many people think, save the league.

Death of Tom Woulfe—one of the GAA’s most influential figures

Tireless campaigner was instrumental in ending the ‘ban on foreign games’

The death has taken place in his 100th year of Tom Woulfe, one of the most influential figures in the GAA’s history. A Kerryman, who lived most of his life in Dublin, he was a founder member of the Civil Service club and a well-known administrator within the association.

But it was for his campaigning work that he was best known. With his club, Woulfe drove the early attempts to repeal the GAA’s controversial rule prohibiting members from playing and attending rival sports—soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket—the notorious ‘ban on foreign games’. He also contributed to other debates within the organisation throughout his life and was a frequent correspondent with the letters page of this newspaper.

A public servant, he was the first chair of the Adoption Board in the 1950s and recounted how while serving in the army during the second World War he had met men whose sporting preferences weren’t Gaelic games and felt that their Irishness was unfairly impugned by some within the GAA.

The idea of dropping the relevant provision, then Rule 27, was first floated by Woulfe and the club in 1959 but it would be another 12 years before the rule was finally deleted at the annual congress of 1971 in Belfast.

At the congresses of 1962, ’65 and ’68—motions needing one third of the delegates’ support to be raised more than once every three years—the motion to delete attracted rising levels of support, seven, 52 and 88.

What secured the success of the campaign was a proposal from Mayo, accepted in 1968, that the GAA examine the reasons behind the prohibition. Included in the motion was provision for a plebiscite of all club members, which ultimately spelt the end of the ban.

Civil Service club-mate the late Eamonn Mongey, the Mayo All-Ireland winner, barrister and columnist who also campaigned on the issue, was anxious to make the point that Tom Woulfe’s contribution to Gaelic games far exceeded his highest-profile achievement.

“Tom Woulfe’s great drawback is that he has come to be known as the man who got rid of Rule 27, the famous ‘Ban’. The drawback arises from the fact that his successful campaign has overshadowed all his other achievements on behalf of the GAA in general and the Civil Service Football Club in particular.”

Tom Woulfe passed away yesterday, aged 99, in Dublin’s Mater Hospital after a short illness and was predeceased by his wife Cáit and daughter Siobhán. He is survived by children Eithne SSL, Tom, Gemma (Hensey), Úna (Nolan), and Muiris.

Top of the page: the GAA at Croke Park, Dublin