The 1923 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final was the 36th All-Ireland Final and the deciding match of the 1923 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, an inter-county Gaelic football tournament for the top teams in Ireland.
Pre-game The Irish Civil War cast a shadow on the match — Kerry initially considered refusing to play in protest at the imprisonment of County Board chairman and republican Austin Stack. The Kerry team played a selection match between pro- and anti-Treaty players.
Match Summary Dublin won the final by two points, with a goal by P. J. Kirwan.High Ball magazine, issue #6, 1998. Kerry had led 1–2 to 0–1 at half-time, with a goal from Brosnan, but failed to score again in the game.
Joe Stynes, granduncle of Australian rules footballer Jim Stynes, played on the winning Dublin team that day.
It was the third of three All-Ireland SFC titles won by Dublin in the 1920s, which made them joint "team of the decade" with Kerry, also winner of three.
Details
Dublin 1 Johnny McDonnell 2 Jack O'Reilly 3 Paddy McDonnell (c) 4 John Murphy 5 Joe Norris 6 Joe Synnott 7 Paddy Carey 8 Paddy Kirwan 9 Joe Stynes 10 Frank Burke 11 John Synnott 12 Martin Shanahan 13 Jack Sherlock 14 P. O'Beirne 15 Larry Stanley
Kerry 1 Jack Sheehy (goal) 2 Phil O'Sullivan (c) 3 Joe Barrett 4 Eugene Moriarty 5 John Russell 6 Toss Kelleher 7 Jerry Moriarty 8 Con Brosnan 9 Pat McKenna 10 John Ryan 11 Redmond Prendiville 12 J. J. Sheehy 13 John Bailey 14 Jimmy Bailey 15 Bill Landers
Subs 16 Denis O'Donoghue 17 Jack McCarthy 18 Moss Galvin 19 Bob Stack 20 Michael Murphy 21 Tom O'Mahony 22 Denis Hurley
Post-match The 1923 final marked the end of the initial era of the Dublin–Kerry Gaelic football rivalry. Dublin would not beat Kerry in the championship again until the 1976 final. An attendance of 25,000 people was reported at the 1923 final. Dublin would not win another All-Ireland SFC title until 1942, the county's 19-year barren spell rivalled only by their team of the late 1990s and 2000s.
References