Sam Maguire

Samuel "Sam" Maguire (1877 – 6 February 1927), an Irish republican and Gaelic footballer, is chiefly remembered as the eponym of the Sam Maguire Cup, given to the All-Ireland Senior Champions of Gaelic football.

Early life

He was born in the townland of Mallabraca near the town of Dunmanway in West Cork on March 12th, 1877and was a member of the Church of Ireland

He had four brothers and two sisters. Willie was the eldest then Mary, Jack, Dick, Paul (who married a Roman Catholic and whose son became a Roman Catholic priest), Sam and Elizabeth. The Maguires farmed 200 acres (0.81 km²) of land. However this figure is misleading as only approximately 80 acres were arable land. The translation of the townland Mallabraca is "land of the little hillocks", Today, 2016, most of the land is devoted to forestry. In Ireland, forestry is usually planted on less fertile land.

He went to school in the Model School in the local town Dunmanway and then to the national school in Ardfield.This school run by Master madden specialised in preparing its pupils for the UK Civil Service and Post Office examinations. Madden was part of a long tradition of Irish nationalism and he had a field next to the school where pupils could play Gaelic football. The school was very successful and became known as the "University of the Mountains" because the place name Arfdield can be literally translated as the "place on the high ground". At the age of 20 Maguire passed the exams for the UK Post Office