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1844 An Irish Picnic |
Although it is not generally appreciated as such, Australian Rules is the oldest organised code of football in the world.
Rugby in various forms had been played in British schools and universities for centuries, but with each institution playing with its own rules. As with the Association Rules (soccer) and Gaelic football, the formalization of rugby was still some years away when Australian Rules was organized and the first rules laid down in May, 1859.
Histories of the game commonly refer to a match between Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and Scotch College in Yarra Park on August 7, 1858 as the first game of Australian football. In reality, there are records of several earlier matches, including a match between Scotch College and St. Kilda Grammar some two months prior to the game in Yarra Park.
The first mention of football in the remaining documentation of Melbourne's early history comes in 1844, and is often referred to by authors who have not done the hard yards as at "an Irish picnic". But just what were the circumstances of this "picnic"?
From the first settlement in 1838 until the early 1840s, there was a flood of Irish immigrants to Melbourne. By 1842, one estimate places the number of Irish born, or those with at least one Irish parent, as high in one in four. Many of them had come to escape the sporadic outbreaks of violence in their homeland between the largely Catholic north, and the Orangemen, the Protestant southern Irish. Their leaders, preferring to think of Australia as a new beginning, largely kept the rivalry between the two in Melbourne under control.
Early in July, 1844, the Melbourne Morning Herald (the forerunner of todays Sun Herald) published details of a secretive Loyal Orange Association of Melbourne, and revealed that they were planning to hold a special march through Melbourne's streets on July 12 to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne, a savage encounter in 1621 between the northerners and the south, supported by English and Dutch troops.
The Northern Irish (the Greens) demanded that the Superintendent of Melbourne ban the march, but, perhaps preferring not to inflame what may have been an over-emphasised situation, he refused.
The Greens responded by announcing that they would hold a grand hurling match at a picnic on the same day. Hurling is a traditional Irish game, a cross between the hockey and lacrosse of today, and had the additional advantage for the Greens in that it allowed them to carry a 'hurlie', little more than a heavy wooden club!
After a savage interchange between the editors of The Melbourne Morning Herald (strongly sympathizing with the Greens) and the Port Phillip Patriot (for the Orange), the Superintendent was forced into drastic action.
"The Hurling Match and Picnic was attended by about 200 persons each carrying a shillelagh of formidable proportions. Sixty special constables were sworn in on the morning, duly furnished with batons and authorised to quell any outbreaks that might arise." (Port Phillip Gazette, July 13, 1844)
"The Chronicles of Early Melbourne" is a massive publication of nearly 1,000 pages documenting much of the life of Melbourne between the first settlement in 1832 and 1852. The original Chronicles were published in 1888 under the pen-name of "Garryowen", a non de plume used by Edmund Finn, a reporter who worked with The Morning Herald for most of the period. "Garryowen" recalled :
"The Special and Regular constabulary were accordingly stationed on the ground near the present Spencer Street Railway Station, but they enjoyed a pleasant sinecure simply as "lookers on," for there were no casualties to report beyond a few barked shins accidentally occurring … the hurlers had a glorious days fun and footballing was for the first time introduced as an afterpiece."
The Orange Association held over their march until after the hurling match and football was completed, their procession going ahead at nightfall and remaining peaceful until the Orangeman reached their favourite watering-hole, where it appears that at some stage, their celebrations were interrupted by two drunken Scotsmen.
The Morning Herald reported that after a quick "how do", the two Scots were forcibly ejected through an open window, but that "as the window was only three feet above the ground, no harm was done."
No less tension surrounded the hurling match the following year, which was …
"… ostensibly for the purpose of playing a hurling or shinty match, but virtually to form a riotous combination to assail with bludgeons and if possible put down any procession which the Orangemen might attempt to get up in commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne." (Port Phillip Patriot, July 13, 1845)
"Shinty" was the Scottish version of the game, supposedly so-named because a cry of "Shin ye" went up when a score was made. A Caledonian Shinty Club of Australia Felix" was formed in 1843 as one of Melbourne's earliest sporting organisations.
Batman's Hill was the area on the southern side of where Spencer Street Station now stands. The hill drew its name from John Batman, popularly regarded as Melbourne's first settler, who built his house on the southern slope of the hill overlooking the Yarra. The peak of the original hill was levelled when railway yards were established in 1863 and the Station and adjoining Railway Administrative buildings were subsequently developed.
The area was the early playground of Melbourne when the Yarra was much shallower than today and had a tendency to flood the lower parts of the city, especially around Elizabeth Street which became a running stream and a swamp at the southern end in most wet seasons.
The Hill hosted Melbourne's first racecourse, very popular with the sporting set before moving a few years later to a hill and flats next to the Saltwater River where Flemington now stands. The area was also the site of the first Melbourne Cricket Ground before the cricket club obtained a ground on the southern side of the Yarra behind where the Crown Casino hotel now stands.
Some historical accounts, (depending purely on the limit of the writer's imagination rather than any factual material remaining), contend the Irish game was played for a barrel of porter (a heavy beer popular at the time), but this account appears to confuse this match with one during the 1850 Melboune Gymnastic Games, where one of the organisers, Dalmahoy Campbell is documented as contributing a barrel for the players.
Some even suggest that the
"rules" for the so-called picnic were laid down by a gentleman called
Rafferty; hence "Rafferty's Rules" to describe anything where no rules
apply! 