Collecting memorabilia is a passion of many GAA fans. Brendan Cummins admits to being a card carrying member of the club. One of the GAA's greatest assets is the passion of it's followers. They support their teams at both club and county level with an enthusiasm that has to be the envy of other sporting organisations. And it can be said that a fair percentage of those supporters simply 'eat and sleep football and hurling.' There are, of course, different types of supporter. Most wear their hearts on their sleeves and their county colours on their heads or around their necks. The attendance figures however, suggest that the majority are of the 'championship' variety. Not for them the cold, wet Sunday afternoons of the National Leagues. You can't help suspecting that summertime hype is part of the attraction. Still, they are vital to the well-being of the association. There is another type of enthusiast and not only does he 'sleep and eat football and hurling', he breathes it as well. Truly it can be said that the games are his oxygen. Into this category falls the memorabilia man and the programme collector. With due respect, he is something of a freak. Trainspotters will understand as will all other assorted 'anoraks'. His appetite for all things GAA knows no bounds and he is just as capable of boring his workmates to death as any stamp collector or accountant. He is usually, but not inevitably, a quiz buff. He will, quite often, find himself in trouble at home. There may not always be appropriate space for his collection. The chances are that his family may not share his passion ... at least not to the same extent and disputes over tidiness and the 'filing system' can often lead to marital discord. The collection will increase regardless ... the lithmus test of a genuine 'freak'. It's confession time ... yours truly is a card-carrying member of the group in question ... one whose only regret is that his passion for assorted memorabilia was only discovered when his teen and twenty years were but a distant memory. Would that he had the good sense to commence his collection on the occasion of his very first trip to Croke Park for the 1954 Leinster Final! Meath defeated Offaly on that occasion and went on to win the All-Ireland but the clearest memory of the event was that Meath wore All-White jersies, there was a lengthy delay when midfielder Tom Duff sustained a broken leg and the entire family watched from the canal end where there was ample space to run around despite it being the province's big day! And the really good news! Over forty years later I acquired the match programme! The names bring back some magical memories for a young Meath supporter ... Paddy O'Brien, Michael O'Beien, Kevin McConnell, Brian Smyth, Mattie McDonnell, Paddy Connell and Paddy Meegan. Peter McDermott was among the substitutes. They were all heroes in Meath having brought the first All-Ireland SF title to the county five years previous. The programme itself was a one sheet production, printed on both sides and doubled over to make four pages! It cost 3d or three very old pennies! Martin O'Neill was the Leinster Council secretary at the time and his signature on the front page made it official. There's a great deal of nostalgia attached to the said programme ... it is probably the most cherished in my collection and it brings back memories of a family outing to the 'Holy of Holies' ... Croke Park was certainly the great national shrine and the fact that we could run up and down the steps at the canal end added greatly to the fun and the sense of 'outing'. The programme collection should have started there and then but youthful innocence deemed otherwise. The 1954 Leinster Final Programme is not the oldest in the still burgeoning collection. The 1939 All-Ireland final has that honour and it also has a special place because of the a family connection with that famous Kerry-Meath game. How times have changed! The price of the 1939 souvenir was 2p ... Padraig O Caoimh's imprimatur was on the front page and the words of some notable ballads were the main feature. 'The Harp that once thro' Tara's Halls' was obviously the Meath anthem while printed underneath it was 'Killarney', 'Amhran Na Bhfiann' was then known as 'Amhran na Laoch' or 'An T-Amhran Naisiunta'. Other songs too were of a patriotic nature ... 'Step Together', 'Ireland Boys Hurrah' and 'Kelly the Boy from Killan'. The teams were listed on the centre-pages but there was no reference to the clubs. There was no reference to previous appearances in finals nor to how they reached the final. No heights, weights, occupations or achievements. Incredibly, there is no mention of a referee ... J Flaherty of Offaly was hard done by! Improvement in the standard of match programmes was slow. The next All-Ireland final programme in my collection is for the 1944 decider between Kerry and Roscommon. There are advertisements for Clerys Restaurant (fully licensed) and also for 'Sweet Afton' described as 'The Cigarette of National Preference because of it's exceptionally high quality.' By 1946 a standard cover had been developed ... in colour. Michael Cusack's portrait was the centre-piece. Inside there was an unsigned 'editorial' of sorts. It re-stated the fundamental aim of the Gaelic Athletic Association ... 'a team in every village, or at least in every parish and went on to encourage the realisation of Padraic Pearse's ambition ... 'Ireland Gaelic and Free' within our time. The advertisers included 'Lemons Pure Sweets,' 'Merville Cream Ices', and 'Hallidays football boots' which were made in Dundalk. The programme for the 1946 replay saw the first genuinely interesting articles including the memories of an 'Old-Timer who had attended All-Ireland finals in Clonturk Park, Jones's Road, Cork, Tipperary Town, Athy and Thurles before the finals were fixed for Croke Park by the 1909 Congress. There was also a report on the first final between Limerick Commercials and Dundalk Young Irelands. The improvements continued and by 1949, (The next All-Ireland Final Programme in the collection), there were pen pictures of each of the players and substitutes. At last, the clubs which produced the players were getting some recognition. The 1949 programme also contained several useful snippets or 'items of interest' as they were headed. The rate of improvement between 1939 and 1949 had been quite remarkable. In those days there were genuine efforts to promote the use of the Irish language at matches. Common phrases such as 'well played', 'catch and kick', 'time is almost up' and 'it's a fine game' were translated into the native tongue in the hope that they would become part of the conversation. It was also interesting that Mr Denis Guiney was thanked for allowing the Sam Maguire and Tom Markham cups to be displayed in Clery's window in O'Connell Street in the build-up to the finals. The 'Vital Statistics' of players, (age, height and weight), appear in the programme for the 1954 final which also included Brian McMahon's poem, ' The Ballad of the Fourth Green Field'. For Meath supporters there was the rare opportunity of learning the words of one of the county's best known ballads 'Paud O Donoghue.' The programme cover for the 1955 final was predominantly sky blue in deference to Dublin's return to the big day. At 24 pages it was the biggest, and the best, to date. Sigerson Clifford's 'The Ghost Train to Croke Park' was featured and for the first time, there were photographs of the rival captains, John Dowling of Kerry and Denis O'Mahony of Dublin. Incredibly, there were two versions of Amhran Na Bhfiann ... one of which was written phonetically! In keeping with the great worldwide changes of the 1960s the GAA also changed. The All-Ireland final programme grew bigger and more colourful. The number of advertisements increased and although the reading content left a lot to be desired, the producers were heading in the right direction. The provincial councils were now issuing programmes for all championship games even if they only consisted of team lists. The reading content increased in the 1970s as did the overall quality ... in fact there are those who maintain that the programmes were better in the 1970s and 1980s because there was less advertising. The programmes for the centenary year finals, particularly the hurling in Thurles, are genuine collectors items and even to this day they make for good reading. The greatest change came in 1995 when the programmes moved from A5 to A4 ... a move that certainly didn't take collectors into consideration. The 'new' style programmes are bulky and difficult to store but one presumes that commercial interests are the key factor. There is no doubt that the standard of GAA match programmes is top quality, especially when compared with their soccer counterparts which are invariably low on interesting material but high on hype and artificiality. Programmes for international rugby games are of the highest quality in all aspects. County Final Programmes are especially interesting. Collectors will already know most of the statistics and details in their own counties but it is always refreshing to read about former greats and club details from other counties. The programmes for the All-Ireland club finals are arguably the best of all. Perhaps it's the fact that the championships are so embedded in the association's Raison D'etre ... or perhaps it's because the games throw up so much information about previously 'anonymous' teams. The most recent All-Ireland final programmes cost 4 euro which is quite expensive on top of the cost of the match ticket. Collectors will not however be complaining. My collection includes almost all of the game's great names. Of the 'Hurling Team of the Millennium' only Paddy Phelan, Lory Meagher and Mick Mackey are missing while of the corresponding football team all are present and correct in some game or other. There are several programmes of games featuring Christy Ring, mostly from his Railway Cup career. They are part of me and of my interest in gaelic games, should they go up in smoke or be robbed, it would be comparable with the loss of a limb. They bring back memories of each decade of my existence ... in most cases I can recall where I was sitting or standing at a particular game. Now, if only I could lay my hands on those that were left in the back of cars, on buses, on trains or in pubs! They would complete a really top-class collection. Tweet

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