82 years ago today 9 April 1939, the Gaelic Athletic Association voted to permanently remove the name of Irish President Douglas Hyde as a Patron.

Douglas Ross Hyde (Irish: Dubhghlas de híde; 17 January 1860 – 12 July 1949), known as An Craoibhín Aoibhinn (lit. "the pleasant little branch"), was an Irish academic, linguist, scholar of the Irish language, politician and diplomat who served as the first President of Ireland from June 1938 to June 1945. He was a leading figure in the Gaelic revival, and the first President of the Gaelic League, one of the most influential cultural organisations in Ireland at the time. 

Hyde, by 1938, was President of Ireland, and as founder of the Gaelic League, had been a Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) patron for 36 years. Douglas Hyde was the only Irish President to have been featured on a bank note.

Hyde attended the GAA All-Ireland football final between Galway and Kerry in September 1938, the only GAA All-Ireland final he attended in his capacity as President. Michael McDunphy, Secretary to the President, was not pleased with the reception accorded to Hyde by the GAA at Croke Park that day, stating the President’s “arrival passed unnoticed. There was no announcement from the loud speakers, and although the anthem was played its significance was not realised by the spectators”. Alfred “Alfie” Byrne, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, also arrived at the same time as Hyde, further obscuring the head of state’s arrival.

McDunphy believed the President should receive a more fitting welcome by the GAA: his arrival should have been visible to spectators by having his car driven across the field; loudspeakers should herald his arrival in Irish and English; the national anthem should be played; and a separate enclosure should be made available for the President to ensure he was free from any “troublesome attention” that might come his way.

That game between Galway and Kerry ended in a draw. Hyde did not attend the replay in October 1938 as, according to McDunphy, Hyde was not particularly interested in Gaelic football.

On 13 November 1938, just months after Douglas Hyde's inauguration as President of Ireland, Hyde attended an international soccer match between Ireland and Poland at Dalymount Park in Dublin.

An Taoiseach éamon de Valera, President Douglas Hyde and Oscar Traynor watch as Ireland beat Poland by three goals to two in Dalymount Park on 13 November 1938. 

McDunphy was far happier with the reception accorded to Hyde by the Football Association of Ireland at the Ireland-Poland soccer match. Comparing the receptions Hyde received at both events, McDunphy said: “In marked contrast with his reception at the All Ireland Football Final in Croke Park on 25 Sept. 1938 . . . were the arrangements made for the reception of the President at Dalymount Park . . . He was received at the gate by the senior officials of the Football Association. A private room was placed at his disposal. His arrival was announced in Irish and in English. A special box was placed at his disposal, in fact in every way the utmost respect was accorded to him as Head of the State.”

However Hyde's attendance at the soccer match between Ireland and Poland was seen by the Central Council of the GAA as breaching the ban of the on support for "foreign games". This, the GAA Central Council decided, was in contravention of rule 27 of the Association. Rule 27, or “the ban”, prohibited members of the GAA from playing games or attending functions organised by those promoting four named “foreign” sports: rugby, cricket, hockey and association football.

82 years ago today, after several months of controversy, on 9 April 1939, despite Hyde having been a patron of the GAA since 1902, the Annual Congress of the GAA confirmed the Central Council’s decision to temporarily remove Hyde's name from its roll of patrons, and further voted to keep his name off permanently. The GAA did not even invite Hyde to the subsequent All-Ireland final, the hurling match between Kilkenny and Cork, which took place on 3 September 1939. This match would go down in history as the “Thunder and Lightning” final, one that was played under atrocious conditions of thunder, lightning and a severe downpour for the last 20 minutes of the game. Cork captain that day was Jack Lynch, later to become Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland. 

That was also the date on which the second World War began with Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany. Hyde also missed out on the opportunity to be celebrant-in-chief when his home county, Roscommon, had its finest hours of winning back-to-back All-Ireland football titles in 1943 and 1944.

In the short term, the Hyde incident caused division within the GAA, exposed it to embarrassing attacks from outside, and damaged the relationship between the leadership of the Government of the Fianna Fáil party led by éamon de Valera, and the Association. These relations were further strained during the war. In 1942, the GAA unwisely intervened in the political arena when it published a pamphlet entitled National Action, by Joseph Hanley, that advocated replacing parliamentary democracy with a one-party corporatist state. Then, in 1943, Oscar Traynor, the Minister for Defence, altered policies within the army that had not prevented the playing of “foreign” games but had afforded Gaelic games a privileged status.

This situation that was not resolved until 1945 after Hyde had been succeeded by Seán T O’Kelly. Hyde had decided not to seek a second term as president upon completion of his first term in 1945 and was succeeded by O’Kelly. The incumbent GAA president, Séamus Gardiner, decided he should pay a courtesy visit to O’Kelly at áras an Uachtaráin after O’Kelly’s election. He wrote to the office of the President suggesting the visit. This was the first time there had been communication between the President’s office and the GAA since 1938.

Gardiner’s request was denied: he was instead summoned to Government Buildings to meet the Taoiseach, éamon de Valera. At the meeting the GAA was reprimanded for the slight it had imposed on Hyde by removing him as patron. De Valera contended that the President of Ireland was president of all the people of Ireland and would, in future, attend GAA events as well as other sporting events, including those of sporting bodies affected by the GAA’s “foreign game” ban. The GAA completed a U-turn by agreeing with de Valera in principle that the President should be allowed to attend “foreign games” as well as GAA ones.

Based on the meetings between the GAA and de Valera, O’Kelly decided to go to the All-Ireland hurling and football finals of 1945. This was considered by McDunphy as the renewal of friendly relations between the president of the country and the GAA. At the 1945 hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary, O’Kelly had a motorcycle squadron as escort, was greeted with a fanfare of trumpets (Artane Boys’ Band) and then was accorded the “Presidential Salute”.

Hyde was not reinstated as a Patron of the GAA before his death, in July 1949.

Rule 27 was revoked in 1971.