TIMES PAST: Liverpool FC Legend: ‘Honest’ John McKenna
Jonathan Smyth's latest Times Past column examines another Monaghan link to an English football club. This time it is Liverpool and 'Honest' John McKenna.
At Liverpool FC, names like Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Jürgen Klopp are considered immortal. In July 1997, in the company of our eldest son, my wife and I went to see Anfield stadium for the first time. I had lived not too far from it in the 1990s but never had got around to entering through its hallowed gates.
That day we were given a tour, and they even allowed us to freely walk around. A man was driving a machine up and down the field giving the grass an even clipping. The summer sun shone brightly, and the club's Liver-bird logo stared approvingly down at the visitors.
No kidding!
One of the founding members of Liverpool Football Club who became the first manager, was named ‘Honest’ John McKenna (Seán Mac Cionnaoith). He was born in County Monaghan on January 3, 1855, to Patrick McKenna and Jane McCrudden McKenna who lived in Donagh, Co Monaghan.
The parish with its proud connections to St Patrick has an old story about a thief who stole and ate one of two goats belonging to the saint. Apparently, the culprit when questioned could not stop the creature bleating from inside his belly. From that day on, St Patrick said the guilty man's descendants would be followed by goats and they say many of the clan's menfolk wore goatee beards.
Cavan born St Dympna from the parish of Lavey is associated with Donagh too where the Bachall Damhnait, that is, the St Dympna pilgrim staff was kept in the care of a family named Lamb. With John McKenna, there was certainly no ‘goating around'. He was straight-laced and honest.
Everything but Everton
When Everton FC turned professional, they made Anfield their home ground even though they did not own it. The site was rough when they secured its use, and the footballers, along with the fans came together with picks and shovels to make the pitch. In the beginning Everton’s rent of Anfield was settled in the form of an annual donation to Stanley Hospital.
In the 1870s, as a young man, John McKenna emigrated to England in search of work. Liverpool was the destination he arrived at, and in those days, it was only considered to be a town. But it was a port town with wealthy traders whose fortunes were made on the back of slavery, cotton and the tobacco trade. But it was also a place of huge poverty with many overcrowded streets and illness. Liverpool officially became a city in 1880 and was home to countless thousands of Irish people who escaped Ireland's Great Hunger in the 1840s as well as others in search of a new life and work.
For John, his favourite sports were rugby and shooting, that was, until he became friends with a brewer named John Houlding who one day went on to be the Mayor of Liverpool and a giant of the football world. At Houlding’s invitation, McKenna watched his friend’s football team, Everton, play on their home ground at Anfield. Soon after, McKenna was invited to join the board at Everton and helped to develop the club and make it much bigger. He earned the name ‘Honest’ John because of his fearless and outspoken nature and an ability to get results.
Unhappy feet
However, difficulties emerged when John Houlding, the club’s president, bought the grounds at Anfield and started asking for higher rent. He justified this demand based on Everton’s successes. They won a championship in 1890 to 1891 (winning First Division) and the crowds attending matches at Anfield were reaching figures in the 20,000s.
In January 1892, Everton had an option to buy Mere Green Field which they did, and they were to transform the site into Goodison Park. When Everton, likely with great reluctance, decided to depart from Anfield, it was Monaghan’s ‘Honest’ John McKenna who got things moving in the direction of establishing a new team. Houlding was keen to have keep a club at Anfield and, with McKenna’s help, Liverpool Football Club was born on June 3, 1892.
John McKenna was a peaceful and positive force during his almost fifty years of "football administration". One English newspaper recalled at the time of his death, how "he played a leading part in the recent dispute between the Football League and the Pools Association".
A different issue settled by McKenna in 1934 was to do with footballers playing matches on Saturdays for the international tournament. English players with clubs like Arsenal and others refused to play on Saturdays unless they were playing for an English team. Having matches arranged, keeping the board and the teams content and the fans on side was half the battle. McKenna's innate decency helped him resolve the matter. He earned the respect of organisers, footballers, and the fans no doubt.
United in grief
John McKenna was 82 years old when he died on March 22, 1936. Accounts say the rain fell heavily along the streets as the funeral cortège passed by. Poignantly, three of Liverpool’s players, along with three members of the Everton team stood shoulder to shoulder to carry McKenna's coffin.
On March 27, 1936, the Nottingham Journal noted that they laid the legend to rest "within a stone's throw of the ground of Liverpool FC" of which he was a founder. Every team in the Football League sent a wreath each to the funeral as a mark of respect to the man who, from 1916, had served 25 years as president of the Football League. He had also served from 1928 as vice-chairman of the Football Association.
On May 30, 1936, the Western Morning News published details of McKenna's will, which showed the estate he had left was valued at £11,182. To both his trustees he bequeathed £100 each. Those trustees were William Charles Cuff, chairman of the Everton Football Club, and R.L. Martindale, a director of Liverpool Football Club.
Other bequests went to his housekeeper and her daughter, and to the Lancashire & Wyass Benevolent Institute he gave £1,000 to create the John McKenna annuity, which was to be associated with the Liverpool Sincerity Lodge of Freemasons.
A further account of John McKenna's life and career can be found on Monaghan County Museum’s website where much can be discovered about him.
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