This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Harry Bolands hurling club in Chicago. The club was founded following the visit of Harry Boland to America in June 1919. Boland accompanied Eamon de Valera and played an exhibition/fundraising hurling match in Chicago with a Chicago selection. It was three years later, in 1922, that Boland, like his friend Michael Collin, was a casualty of the Civil War. In his memory some of the hurlers who played in that match founded a GAA Club in Chicago, The Bolands. Here below are photos that highlight a great story of a great institution - and a club that once boasted a very special member, the late Pat Hennessy, for many year's the Echo's correspondent in Chicago.
The 1974 Harry Bolands.
The 1924 Harry Bolands
