Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield Explained

The Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield is the oldest and longest consecutively run club cross-country event in Ireland, and one of the oldest in the world.[1]

History

It was first held in 1896, for members of the then-new Donore Harriers Club,[2] when a Dublin jeweller by the name of Mr. Samuel Waterhouse, presented the Donore Harriers club with a silver shield for a 10-mile handicap cross-country race. The shield was known as the 'Donore Harriers Waterhouse Challenge Shield'.

This race, now known as the Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield, has been competed for every year on St. Stephen's Day (26th December), with the exception of 1916. It was because so many Donore members were away in the trenches of World War I that the 1916 race wasn’t held. Another factor was the proximity of the course to the Magazine Fort, which was then an ammunitions depot and the scene of one of the first casualties the Easter Rising Rebellion earlier that year. However, the race was held during the most part of World War I, and continued on during the Spanish flu, the Irish Civil War, World War II, the Tuberculosis epidemic, outbreaks of Foot and Mouth disease, and the severe weather conditions of 1962 and 2010 in Ireland. During the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 1967, the race was held on the road. Athletes that year ran five laps of the 'Eagle Lap'. The quicker road times overall that year are not counted for shield race records. History will also show that the 2020 and 2021 versions of the race survived the COVID-19 pandemic. The race starts and finishes every year at the same tree beside the Dog Pond on the horse gallop in the Phoenix Park, Dublin.

The shield has to be won three times by the same person in order for the trophy to be claimed as the property of any one individual. In 1918, Paddy Byrne, after winning the trophy three times, re-presented the trophy to the club, and the same thing happened when Davie Baird, a man who had been seriously wounded at the Somme, similarly had three victories. But he managed to return to win in 1920, 1921, and again in 1937, to become immortalised in the event’s title as it currently stands.

Leo Uhlemann has also won the trophy three times overall, but two of those occasions occurred after Davie Baird added his name to the trophy; thereby resetting the clock for all other previous winners. They had to begin again from scratch in their quest to win it three times in order to get their names added to the ’shield title’.

The closest finish was in 1962, when Leo Lynch got to finish less than one yard ahead of the fast finishing scratch man Mick Neville. Earlier that year in January & February Neville became the only athlete ever to win all four individual Irish Cross Country Championships: AAU and IAAB Senior and Junior/Intermediate.

No winner, however, was to be more celebrated than Frank Cahill. Born in 1900, he made his race debut in 1923. There then followed perhaps the most heroic series of failures in the history of athletics, because for the next 52 years he competed without success. In 1974, he was only 200 yards from the finish line when victory was snatched from his grasp. In 1975 he missed a race for the first time, due to a training accident but he returned in 1976 to finally triumph. Legend has it that “scratch athlete” – Eamonn Coghlan – was still finishing breakfast at home in Ranelagh when Cahill started out on the first of his five, two-mile laps. Within sight of the finish, he fell over; and had he accepted the help offered by concerned onlookers, he might have been disqualified. Luckily, he managed to get to his feet again unaided, and make it to the finish line without being caught and on to glory. His heroics made the front page of The Irish Times, where Peter Byrne noted that Irish sport had just been deprived of its “most illustrious loser”. As Byrne added, Cahill’s attempts to win had spanned the political careers of two Cosgraves, WT and Liam. But a year later, Liam Cosgrave was no longer taoiseach, and Cahill was still going strong. Proving that it’s never too late to start winning; Cahill retained the Shield in 1977: breaking his own record – which still stands – as the shield’s oldest winner at the age of 77! In contrast, the youngest winner of the Shield was Willie Smith in 1958, aged 15 years.

Past winners

Shield Trivia

Fastest Times Leaderboard

Evolution of the Shield Name

(3 wins are required for a name to be added to the Shield)

1896-1918: The Donore Harriers Waterhouse Challenge Shield

Two-time Winner

Three-time Winner

Paddy Byrne, after winning the trophy three times, re-presented the shield to the club and it henceforth became known as 'The Waterhouse Byrne Shield'

1919-1938: The Waterhouse Byrne Shield

Two-time Winner

Three-time Winner

Davie Baird, after winning the trophy three times, re-presented the shield to the club and it henceforth became known as 'The Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield'

Since 1938: The Waterhouse Byrne Baird Shield

Two-time Winners

Other Donore Harrier Trophies

The Faugh-a-Ballagh Challenge Cup

The Faugh-a-Ballagh Cup is contested by club runners from the men's section of Donore Harriers annually over 6 Miles traditionally in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. It is the Donore Harriers Club Cross Country Championships Cup. Since 2017, Donore women compete on the same day for the Jim McNamara Cup.The course traditionally takes in the horse gallop trail, which runs adjacent to Chesterfield Avenue in the Phoenix Park. It turns close to the stone wall, which is in the clearing at the end of the gallop & with the Pope's Cross in view. It turns back entering the inside part of the tress at the top of the Kyber before emerging through the open ground with its numerous dips, heading in the direction of the Civil Service Pavilion; where loops around again to the Horse Gallop.

The Faugh-a-Ballagh Cup which was first awarded in 1907 to the senior men's winner, is one of the oldest trophies in Donore Harriers; and club trophies in Ireland. It was presented by the 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers in 1907 as a perpetual trophy for the men's club cross country championship over 6 miles.

The first running of the cup took place in Meadowbrook, Dundrum. A report from the time stated that there was "a big gathering of spectators,including many old associates of the club foregathered to witness what turned out to be a very interesting event..." It goes on to give at length to give details of the race, including that, '"V.P. McDonagh, Hon. Secretary sent the 13 competitors on their journey to a capital start"

Previous winners of the cup include well known Irish International and Donore Harriers Athletes: Bertie Messitt, Tom O’Riordan and Jim McNamara.

L.Kelly was the first winner of the cup. Since then there have been three '4 time' winners of the cup:

However, the most prolific winner was Bertie Messitt with six wins in 1953, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1964.

Other notable winners of the cup were :

Other Donore Harriers Internationals to win the Cup were:

Faugh-a-Ballagh Cup Previous Winners

Jim McNamara Cup Previous Winners

Faugh-a-Ballagh and the Donore Connection with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers

The club along with many members of Donore Harriers has a strong connection with the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. Davie Baird joined the 10th Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers and was badly wounded at the Battle of Ancre in 1916. He made a full recovery and went on to win, most famously the Waterhouse Byrne Shield over three occasions to add his name to that trophy.

There is also an amazing connection and coincidence between 6-time winner of the cup Bertie Messitt and the Fusiliers and the Faugh-a-Ballagh Cup. Years before he joined Donore Harriers, due to lack of work he joined the British Army in 1946, aged 18. His regiment, the Royal Irish Fusiliers were known worldwide as the 'Faughs'. Bertie wrote poetry, and he wrote this short poem about his time in the Regiment:

FAUGH-A-BALLAGH

I wore a hackle in my hat,

and marched behind a band.

Carried a Lee Enfield rifle,

and served in foreign lands.

They were the best days of my life,

I cherish those golden years.

When I was a proud member of

the Irish Fusiliers.

Strahan-Cahill Cup

The Strahan Cahill Cup is a Donore Harriers Club Cross-Country Handicap race run over 6 Miles traditionally in the Phoenix Park alongside the Faugh-a-Ballagh Cup.[11]

References

External sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: History of Donore Harriers . Sebastien . Locteau . 26 January 2009 . runireland.com . 16 June 2019 .
  2. Web site: In the Park, mid-winter . 2023-08-28 . The Irish Times . en.
  3. 27 December 1964, The Irish Times, Athletics Article titled: 'Redican Best in Donore Race'
  4. January 2015, Irish Runner Magazine, Article titled: 'Great Day for Redicans'
  5. 4 January 2018, The Echo, Athletics Article titled: 'O’Neill records historic win in Donore’s long-running Shield race'
  6. 17 February 1963, Sunday Independent, Athletics Article titled: 'Neville keeps his title'
  7. 10 March 1969, Irish Independent, Athletics Article titled: 'O'Riordan - easily’
  8. 8 March 1970, Sunday Independent, Athletics Article titled: 'Donore Race for Spillane'
  9. 29 March 1971, Irish Independent, Athletics Article titled: 'Eddie Spillane retains title'
  10. 29 March 1971, The Irish Times, Cross Country Athletics Article titled: 'Eddie Spillane is Champion'
  11. 20 February 1966, Sunday Independent, Athletics Article titled: 'McNamara Field Day'

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