Words: John Morgan // Maoilmordha
History and stories. Love of place and identity.
Cities and towns full of fun and music. Beautiful coastlines and mountains, and too much rain. Madly passionate sports fans.
Ireland? The Basque Country?
Yes and Yes. Bai eta Bai.
Irish and Basque. Practically cousins, according to Diarmuid Gavin in the fascinating TV series, Blood of the Irish.
The Basques love sport, like rowing, basketball, hiking and cycling. As do Irish people, where Gaelic football, hurling and National Hunt racing, in particular, get us off our seats.
We both agree on football and rugby.
In fact, the Basque Country football selection, Euskadiko Selekzioa, which played its last game during the Spanish Civil War in 1938, could hardly have imagined that it would have to wait forty years for a Basque representative side to take the field again in a formally recognised fixture, against a League of Ireland selection in Athletic Bilbao’s San Mames stadium on 16 August 1979.
The Basque Selection that faced the Irish side in San Mames , 1979.
Photo Credit: medium.com
Throughout history, Ireland and the Basque Country have been impacted by social and political events which have had profound effects on those who live there.
While the Spanish Basque Country, or Hegoalde in the Basque language, was not directly impacted by the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, the war cast its dark shadow over the French Basque Country, Iparralde, which lies to the north across the Pyrenees.
From Urrugne, north along the Atlantic coast to Bayonne and Biarritz, and eastward to the Irati forest (which traditionally provided wood to build Napoleon’s naval fleet) in the Basque province of Soule, or Xiberoa, predominantly young men marched out of the rural Basque valleys to a war they could scarcely imagine. Many of them were so unused to the sights and sounds of large towns and cities that, when the trains stopped over in Bayonne, they thought they had arrived in Paris.
The majority of Basques who fought in World War 1 were with the 49th Infantry Regiment of Bayonne, the 18th Infantry Regiment of Pau and other Aquitaine regiments.
Almost 6,000 Basques died during the Great War, nearly all born in the French Basque Region. The percentage is shocking, with the French Basque region losing 3% of its population.
200,000 people from Ireland went to war. Up to 49,000 lost their lives.
Sportspeople, in particular, paid a very high cost.
Jimmy Rossiter had played inter-county football for Wexford. The highlight was his man of the match performance when Wexford won the 1913 Leinster Senior Football final, beating Louth.
Jimmy went on to fight in France during World War 1. He reportedly wrote in a letter to his family that he felt more nervous before playing an All-Ireland than an attack on the Germans. He took part in the Battle of Loos where he was killed in October 1915.
Irish champion golfer Michael Moran won the Irish Professional Championship five years in a row, from 1909 to 1913. He played in the British Open on several occasions, finishing joint third in 1913. Michael enlisted during World War 1 and died in France in 1918.
Barney Donaghey from Derry played for Manchester United, Burnley, Hibernian, Belfast Celtic, Glentoran and was capped by Ireland. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
Harold Sloan played for Bohemians FC in Dublin, including as team captain, and was an Irish cup winner in 1908. Harold played eight times for Ireland, scoring five goals. He was killed in action at Combles, near the Somme, on 21 January 1917.
Basil Maclear, a rugby centre, was capped 11 times for Ireland and captained Munster when they played the All Blacks in 1905. He was killed in May 1915 during the second Battle of Ypres. His name is remembered on the nearby Menin Gate.
Harold Sloan of Bohemians FC, killed at Combles in January 1917.
Photo Credit: A Bohemian Sporting Life
Basque families shared similar loss and grief.
Marie Jean-Baptiste Joseph Anduran, better known as Joé Anduran, was a French Rugby Union international from Bayonne in the French Basque Country. He died at Bois-Bernard in the Pas-de-Calais on 2 October 1914.
Emmanuel François Iguiniz, also from Bayonne, represented France and was killed in action at Craonne on 20 September 1914.
Léon Larribau, too, was a French rugby union player from Anglet in the French Basque Country. He was killed in action near Verdun on 31 December 1916.
Fighting alongside thousands of others at the Battle of Passchendaele was David Gallaher. Born in Ireland, at Ramelton in County Donegal, his family emigrated to New Zealand where Dave excelled as a rugby player and represented New Zealand.
Gallaher is regarded as the first captain of the All Blacks. He captained what were known as the ‘Original All Blacks’, the 1905–06 New Zealand team who were the first representative New Zealand side to tour the British Isles.
Under Gallaher’s leadership, the Originals won 34 out of 35 matches over the course of tour, including in France.
In 1916, Dave enlisted in the army and joined the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment, within the New Zealand division. After seeing action at the Battle of Messines, which is near the present location of the Ireland Peace Tower, he was killed on 4 October 1917. He was 43.
Dave Gallaher and Basil Maclear, who were opponents on that All Blacks 1905 tour, were reunited in remembrance when both were later inducted into the IRB Rugby Hall of Fame.
On 3rd April 2021, Real Sociedad, from the Basque City of San Sebastian, won the Copa Del Rey final, beating their traditional Basque rivals, Athletic de Bilbao, 1–0 in a final which had been delayed from the previous year due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
It was only the third time in the club’s history they had won Spain’s premier Cup competition, the first time being all the way back in 1909.
The 1909 competition was played between the 4th of April and the 8th of April 1909, with all games, including the final, being held in Madrid.
Playing under the name Club Ciclista de San Sebastián, they won the trophy with a 3–1 victory in the final over Español Madrid.
Club Ciclista de San Sebastián is the predecessor of Real Sociedad. After winning the cup, the players of Club Ciclista founded a new club in San Sebastián, called Vasconia, which later changed its name to Real Sociedad. The 1909 Copa del Rey trophy is now in the Real Sociedad museum at their Anoeta stadium in San Sebastian.
The hero of their 1909 win was George McGuinness, born in Liverpool of Irish heritage on 6 October 1887.
In the first round, George scored a hat-trick against Athletic de Bilbao. He also scored both goals in a 2–0 semi-final win versus Galicia FC and then scored the opening goal in San Sebastian’s 3–1 win in the final.
George finished as leading scorer in the Copa del Rey tournament with an impressive 6 goals.
George McGuinness (right) pictured with a Real Sociedad teammate.
Photo Credit: atotxa.org