Réamhrá

      “The Quest for Little Norah,” the story of the South-West junior A football championship from 1949 to 1996 was published in 2015 and this book “Early Days,” goes back in time to record the story of that championship before 1949. The new SW Board was set up in 1925 and each junior A football championship between 1925 and 1948, is recorded here.

    Unfortunately, official records of the championships in those years no longer exist, so we had to depend almost completely on the files of the “Southern Star” newspaper and the “Cork Examiner” for details. Newspaper coverage of games in those days was nowhere near as comprehensive as it is now, so details of many games could not be found. We were lucky to find reports of nearly all the finals between 1925 and 1948 but some were very short and some didn’t contain the names of the players involved.

      Photographs of those early years, 1925 to 1948 are scarce and some of those available are poor quality. Our thanks to those who contributed team photos. Hopefully, in this digital age, hard copies of photos won’t be lost and with that in mind we are delighted to see that the Carbery board is in the process of building a photo library that will be available to all clubs.

     The Carbery Board celebrates its centenary in 2025 and a very worthwhile project of getting all clubs in the division to collect their history in written or digital form is being encouraged. A lot of our West Cork GAA history has been lost and this project should preserve what is left.

     Researching the history of the GAA in West Cork may seem a daunting task but is a most enjoyable one and, hopefully, the various books involved will all see the light of day in print some day. A few generous sponsors would certainly help the cause.

      The GAA in West Cork has a rich and proud past and it is only right and proper that we preserve what we can as a monument to the thousands of men and women who gave of their time and efforts to keep it alive and thriving down the years. Their great work in so many ways must never be forgotten and truly we say - Míle Buíochas daoibh go léir.

Tom Lyons