For over 66 years, the remains of Thomas St George McCarthy have lain in an unmarked grave near Dublin.

The quiet plot at Deansgrange Cemetery gives no clue as to whose final resting place it holds — let alone the role McCarthy played in changing the course of Irish sporting history.

The former Royal Irish Inspector died at the age of 80 in 1946 when his reduced means meant there was no headstone to mark the grave he bought while a police officer.

McCarthy was one of seven sports enthusiasts who gathered in Thurles's Hayes Hotel in his home county of Tipperary in 1884 for the inaugural meeting of the GAA. While fellow founder Michael Cusack went on to have a Croke Park stand named after him, McCarthy hadn’t so much as a gravestone to prove his legacy — until now.

The accomplished athlete, who two years beforehand won an international cap for the Irish rugby team, believed the new initiative would encourage young men onto the sports field and away from the temptations of hard liquor.

However, ironically, two years later he fell foul of the association's own rules when it instituted the controversial rule 21 that prohibited any member of the British forces from joining.

So while Co Clare man Michael Cusack — who was also at the famous Hayes Hotel meet — has become synonymous with the association's foundation, McCarthy's role has never been heralded to the same extent.

As the GAA marks its 125th anniversary, its chiefs set about righting McCarthy’s legacy by erecting a headstone on the grave to |acknowledge his role in founding the association.

The symbolic gesture comes after a police memorial group in Northern Ireland expressed concern that his contribution to gaelic games had been effectively airbrushed from history.

PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott and Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy have both been invited to a ceremony at Deansgrange Cemetery later this month to officially unveil the new granite memorial.

The RUC’s George Cross |Foundation, which represents the force that succeeded the RIC after partition, maintained McCarthy’s low-key legacy was because of his time in a Crown uniform, during which he was stationed in counties as far apart as Tipperary and Londonderry.

Foundation chair Jim McDonald said he brought up the issue with Jarlath Burns — the former Armagh star who heads the GAA's 125th anniversary organising committee — at a chance meeting in Belfast last year.

“To be fair to Jarlath he took up my challenge and raised the matter with the GAA,” he said.

“They have now produced a fitting tribute to McCarthy which I think gives him the recognition he has always deserved.”

Relations between the GAA and the police north of the border have been steadily improving since the association scrapped Rule 21 in 2001.

In the wake of that move, the George Cross foundation presented the GAA with the McCarthy cup, which is now played for every year by gaelic football teams from the PSNI and Garda.

The ceremony to mark the installation of McCarthy's headstone takes place on November 18.

Background

Thomas St George McCarthy was a sporting all-rounder — an Irish rugby international and founder member of the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1844.

A district inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary, he would have seen the irony of the later GAA ban on members of the British police and armed forces.

Now that the ban has been lifted, it is fitting that the Garda Siochana and PSNI GAA teams compete annually for the Thomas St George McCarthy Cup in his memory.