The following article appears in the archive of Castleisland District Heritage. It was written for publication in 1994 on the twentieth anniversary of the 1974 victory by John Galvin, formerly of the committee of Castleisland District Heritage.
Cross Country Quiz was a weekly quiz programme which featured competing Macra na Feirme clubs from around Ireland. Peter Murphy (1923-2011) set the questions and presented the programme for RTE for the first three-and-a-half years of its run. Its final broadcast on RTE was on 19 March 1979.[1]
Kerry’s All Ireland Cross-Country Quiz Victory 1974
by John Galvin
Question time has always been a very pleasant part of the social activities of Macra na Feire down through the years. Any quiz invariably offers a challenge and a team quiz further strengthens that challenge because there are more involved, and obviously this adds to the excitement both from the participants and audience point of view. Even if one has never participated in an individual or team quiz, most people watching quizzes on TV rise to pit their wits against those appearing on the box and one gets a certain amount of satisfaction from doing this, particularly when doing so from the comfort of your own fireside, and being totally relaxed as well.
Quizzes too are educational, we can find out for ourselves how much we know, or indeed maybe how much we don’t know, so once again that’s where the challenge element comes in and many people love a challenge.
The Beginning
Question time teams have represented Kerry Macra na Feirme in National Question Time finals for a long number of years, with reasonable success. It was not however until 1974 that an All-Ireland Question Time title came to the Kingdom. In early September 1973, a written examination to select the 1973 Kerry Cross Country Quiz Team was held at the Causeway Comprehensive School.
Following that test five people were selected to represent Kerry in the televised series of Cross Country Quiz the following spring. The five selected were Sean O’Sullivan, Lissivigeen, Killarney (Spa Branch), Michael O’Sullivan, Ballyhar (Currow Branch), Helen Casey, Causeway (Causeway Branch) and John Galvin, Scartaglin (Currow Branch). Matt Keane (brother of the bould rugby star, Moss) of Currow was the official substitute.[2]
The following month preliminary tests were staged at various locations throughout the country. The Cork team topped the scores in this preliminary test, with Kerry finishing in sixth position. Michael O’Sullivan of Kerry finished third in the country in the preliminary test with a score of 78 marks. The top score was 186, recorded by Vincent Tighe of Ballyrush, Co Sligo with Con Cashman of Rathdrum, Co Wicklow finishing second with 184 marks.
Intense Training Schedule
Kerries man, John Joe O’Donnell was appointed to coach the Kerry team and no better man than the gallant John Joe.[3]
This man trained the first ever Cross Country Quiz team in 1962, and has an immense store of knowledge and experience of quizzes himself. He has given generously of his time in coaching Question Time teams for many years at this stage, and he is still ‘a quare hawk’ to meet on any quiz team even today.
During the winter months the Kerry team met twice weekly for training sessions with John Joe, often meeting at Farranfore Airport, or maybe the Brandon or Grand Hotel in Tralee. Practice quizzes were arranged with other Macra clubs in the county at national level. After a pretty intense training campaign over the winter of 1973, Kerry appeared to be well prepared and ready for their first big test.
Facing the Music and the Cameras
On January 8th 1974 at the Marion Hall, Tipperary, Kerry met Waterford in the opening round of the televised Cross Country Quiz 1974 – sixteen county teams in all qualified for the series. Kerry got off to a flying start defeating Waterford on a score of 76 marks to 58. The first hurdle had been cleared but a long road beckoned.
The Scout Hall, Nenagh was the venue for the quarter finals and Kerry’s opponents here were Laois, and the teams met to do battle on Tuesday March 5th. The Leinster team had to give best to Kerry but it was a close call – the final score being 48-44.
Concluding Stages
Cork-Kerry rivalry is legendary, and the clash of these two neighbouring counties always brings out the very best in each other. Excitement then began to run high when Kerry met Cork in its first semi-final at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire on Tuesday March 26th.
Cork are always difficult to beat and indeed Cork had won the 1973 Cross Country Quiz title, so once again they were going to face some battling in this contest and they were favourites to do so. In this thrilling clash the marks swayed to and fro from team to team with Kerry leading the first round, Cork winning the second and third rounds and in its fourth round Kerry came to the front again. So the final round Cork caught up with Kerry and at one stage only two marks separated the teams, but in the last few minutes Kerry pulled ahead to win on a score of 94 marks to 86 after a titanic tussle with their old rivals.
This was the highest score in its entire scores that year. For Kerry it was truly ‘the Great Escape’ but we were in the final and that was all that mattered that evening in Dun Laoghaire.
The Grand Finale
Tuesday 23rd April 1974 will stick in our memory for a long, long time. It was on that date that Kerry met Wicklow in the final of the All-Ireland Cross Country Quiz series. It was the first final to be screened ‘live’ by RTE and it was all happening in Studio 1 in Donnybrook.
A large Kerry contingent travelled to support their team and there was fair tension in the studio that evening as the teams were put through rehearsals, make-up, etc. The minutes ticked over so slowly to commencement time when Liam Devally, Quiz Master, would make his entrance.[4] When he did, we were ‘on live,’ it was make or break time, now or never.
After a few easy introductory questions, we settled down a little and the nerves seemed to abate somewhat. We had a clear first round and that was a good start. After that, we held our own with Wicklow and after a great contest, when the siren went we had emerged victorious, winning by 82 marks to 70.
Kerry cheers rung round Studio 1 like they never did before and if ever there was a happy man that night it was one John Joe O’Donnell. His hour had finally come, and the Farmers’ Journal Cup was on its way to Kerry for the very first time.
A Sweet Victory
There were joyous scenes when National President Tom Sheahan presented the cup to our Captain Seán O’Sullivan. Justice had been done. It had been a long haul but everyone loves a winner, and it’s always nice to win no matter what. For Kerry, it was a deserving memorable and sweet victory, and few could argue with that.
Celebrations went on all night at Barry’s Hotel, and bonfires blazed in Killarney the following night when we returned home. Receptions and parades followed in various locations around the county and full marks to all those who went to the trouble of giving us a great welcome home twenty years ago after our historic victory.
For my part, it was a pleasure to be a member of a truly great quiz team that beat the brains of the nation, and our victory that year and my engagement to Sheila made it one of the happiest years of my life.
We are still indebted to our coach John Joe for his unfailing dedication, interest, encouragement and consideration. Not alone was he a wonderful motivator and coach, he is also a perfect gentleman. Thanks John Joe. It’s twenty years ago since Kerry’s first Cross Country Quiz victory and the memories will stay with us hopefully long into old age. It’s a great privilege to represent one’s county and we were all very proud to represent Macra in Kerry back in 1974. Let’s hope another team from the Kingdom brings home the cup in the very near future.
Congratulations to Kerry Macra on their Golden Jubilee, your Trojan efforts have in no small way improved the quality of rural life down the decades. Keep up the great work. Go mba fada buan sibh!
The Prize
It was originally intended that the winners in the competition would attend a trip to the EEC centres in Brussels sponsored by the Farmers’ Journal. However, John Galvin, who retired in 2008 after forty years with Kerry County Council, recalls that the prize turned out to be a skiing holiday:
Maybe the original prize was a trip to the EU buildings in Brussels; however, we all found ourselves going on a skiing holiday to Austria. This took place one Easter 1975. On a dreary snowy Good Friday morning, we set off by train to Dublin and flew from there to Zurich Airport, and then travelled through part of Switzerland on to Liechtenstein and then on to San Anton in the Tyrol where we were based. This was a beautiful village but the entire region was covered in a thick blanket of snow, it was up to the top of the roadside fences.
It was all skiing at this location. Every morning when one looked out across the valley, people were heading off with their skis usually carried over their shoulders. It reminded me of nothing else but fellas heading to the bog going cutting turf with a sléan and pike over their shoulder! Sean O’Sullivan did take lessons in skiing. The rest of us just looked on. The air was pure and clear with sunshine and blue skies, and one could actually get sunburned despite being surrounded by glistening and sparkling snow.
The late Michael O’Sullivan took off his sweater one morning near where skiing was taking place and he might have moved a little away from where his sweater was so when he came back the sweater was gone and he never again saw it.
Some of us travelled by train to visit Innsbruck or Vienna which were the nearest cities. The holiday certainly was a new experience for all of us. If you weren’t into skiing however there wasn’t much else to do apart from sunbathing on the verandah. San Anton would appear to have been a lovely village when spring or early summer came around and all the snow had melted. Looking back on that trip it certainly was a holiday with a difference, but one which provided great and happy memories over Easter in 1975.
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[1] An RTÉ Guide article about the series was published on February 16, 1979. [2] John Galvin, now retired and living in Scartaglin, recalls that Sean O’Sullivan was an engineer for Kerry County Council, and went to live in South Africa from where he may have returned to Ireland. Michael O’Sullivan (RIP), farmer, of Ballyhar passed away some years ago. Helen Casey (Twomey) is a retired teacher still living in Causeway, and Matt Keane, retired farmer, resides in Castleisland. [3] John Joe O’Donnell, farmer, of The Kerries, Tralee, Co Kerry passed away on 7 May 2020. [4] Obituary Liam Devally, Irish Independent, 15 April 2018.
