ONE member of the 1953 cup-winning York Irish GAA team has been located.
Earlier this year, the York Irish Association reached out to The Irish Post for help to find the families of the 1953 team.
The Association said York’s new GAA team are looking for the relatives from the 1950s team to come along as they join the Yorkshire GAA for the first time.
York Éireannach, the new team for men and women, are due to have their first home game at their pitch in York in the coming months and would like to track down the family of the 1953 winners.
Jacob Murphy from the York Irish Association told The Irish Post: “We received a photo of the York GAA team who won the cup final in 1953.
“We’re hoping to get members and relatives of the players to attend out first game as part of a reunion with drinks at a local pub afterwards.”
Now, one of the men in the photo, M Boggan, second from right in the top row, has been identified.
Peter Boggan, above, is the nephew of Martin Boggan.His grand-niece, Amanda Boggan from Vancouver, Canada, told The Irish Post that Martin Boggan, born in 1893 but now deceased, was the son of a Mayo man and had been a masseur for the GAA team.
"Martin Boggan was my dad's uncle, and worked at a mineral factory in York. He was a bottler and a labeller and also the team's masseur and was very active in St. George's Church in York.
"He was brother to my dad's father whose name was Joseph Boggan born in 1898 in York. Joseph Boggan was also a founder of what I believe was called the Irish League in York," Ms Boggan added.
Ms Boggan also said her father Peter Boggan remembers Reverend Breen as having "a great sense of humour."
The names of the players who have yet to be identified are, back row (left to right), J Dunne, T Langan, W O’Reilly, J Sayers, Rev Bro Baptist D Breen, A Frankish, J Gaines, J Ring, P Moynagh, M Tangney, and front row, T Smythe, M Walsh, R O’Cahain, E Keane, M Keane, J Moran, C Murtagh, A Gargan, J Gargan.
