A man passed her as she made her way ever-closer to the grounds. "Woman, I wouldn't go any nearer that place. There's been quite a few shots fired." She took the advice and waited at her home in the East Wall all evening, presuming the worst for her husband Pat who had lined out for Dublin in that day's football challenge against Tipperary.

It was nearing 10 o'clock when the door of her house opened and in walked her husband, along with Tommy O'Connor and Tommy Ryan, both still in their Tipperary gear. Relief meant she would never completely take in that day's event.

It all began that morning when Michael Collins gave the go-ahead for the assassination of British agents known as the 'Cairo Gang'.

The group received the name from the Cairo Cafe in Grafton Street and due to a Wo rld Wa r I p a s t many had spent in the north African City. By the time members of Collins' 'Squad' had finished their work across inner-city Dublin, 14 had been murdered.

The British assumed the match in Croke Park that afternoon to be a cover, believing that those who had come from Tipperary were behind the slaughter.

A committee met to discuss calling off the match, but went against IRA advice, believing if they did abandon it, the GAA would be further implicated. Tony Synnott, son of the late Pat and Molly recalls the events of that afternoon, as told to him by his father.

"The match had started and he told me they all looked up and saw a small [spotter] plane flying from the Dollymount Strand direction in over the ground. They must have been aware of the morning's events and a few of the players would have known what was coming because they had military experience on the Irish side of things.

"It was a small aircraft that flashed a light as a signal to those Auxiliaries waiting around Croke Park.

The next thing the Auxiliaries came in through the Canal gate and just started firing all over the place, vo lley after volley. With that, most of the players, he said, just dropped to the ground.

My father was p laying fullforward down at the Hill 16 end and was near enough to Michae l Hogan , who was playing right full-back.

"Hogan made his way over towards my father while Tommy Ryan and Frank Burke [who marked Hogan] were close by as well. Hogan got three bullets. My father always said, given the proximity, but for the grace of God he could have got those bullets.

"When the shooting stopped they made their escape at the Canal End.

Some of the Tipperary players were arrested and brought back to the dressing rooms. Josie Synnott, who was also playing for Dublin, said there was a Tipp player who was with him and he was in a terrible state because he had a gun with his clothes in the dressing room. He brought it up for protection. I don't know how he survived, or how they didn't find the gun because when they went back to the dressing room all their money and watches were gone. Everything worth anything had been taken.

"But this Tipperary player told Josie he thought he was going to be shot. Truth be told they all were set to be shot because a lot of the Auxiliaries were drunk and their commanding officer was drunk. Then a British officer came in and said there was enough murder this day.

This officer said he wanted no more and took the Tipp players back to Dublin Castle. He soon let them go."

It was late that same night when O'Connor, Ryan and Pat Synno tt were stay ing in the latter's house in 72 Russell Avenue when they heard a ringing in the distance. At the time the Black and Tans travelled in tenders, an open-backed truck which had a bell over the cabin. As they neared, the bell was heard and all three escaped out the back of the house and into a field . Three doors down, a family were brought out into the street and shot.

O'Toole's dominated Dub lin football at that time and it was a member of that same club, Jack Kavanagh, who gave 50 pounds to help get the Tipperary team home the following day.

However it wasn't until the Wednesday that O'Connor and Ryan left. Within days they would all meet again, this time in Grangemockler, Tipperary, where local hero Hogan was buried. His teammates that day placed him in the ground, his coffin covered in a tricolour, his body covered in his Tipperary kit.

GAA MEDALS WITHDRAWN FROM CROKE PARK MUSEUM OVER PLAYING OF 'GOD SAVE THE QUEEN', NEWS, PAGE 3