If the cap fits…

There was a short burst of hostilities in Casa Comaskey the day before yesterday. Luckily I had copped the bulging duffle bag planked at the edge of a charity shop consignment. Inside the bag were caps – my caps! In the midst of the row, the teacher came out in Mrs Youcantbeserious and she asked how come I needed 50 caps for only one head!

The long and the short of this wrangle was that I ran and got a hammer and nails and now I have an interesting collection of caps hanging in the shed. The shed comes solely under my jurisdiction!

They look impressive hanging up there, representing some of the many places I have been to across the globe. Strange as it may seem, I never set out to have a collection of caps to impress anybody – and even stranger is the fact that I would not have this collection if I wasn’t always losing my cap. Let me explain, please.

I need the peaky or baseball type cap to protect my finely chiselled face from further sun damage. I leave home to go on my travels usually with two caps, such as an Ireland one and a Westmeath version. Now, there is nothing on this earth that I own that I lose more often than caps! I leave them in restaurants, pubs, toilets and theatres; on buses, trains, planes and parks. And here, my friends is where my cap collection starts. Thankfully these caps are cheap, so I buy one representing the place I am in while suffering the loss of the last one. The last cap that I don’t lose on my travels comes home with me – and is now on a nail in the shed.

When I buy my cap on holiday, I usually go for a maroon colour if they have one, with the result that while my Westmeath cap could be speeding on a CN train somewhere, I can head off to support Westmeath or Galway hurlers in a maroon peaky cap bearing the name (I have just looked at them) Florida, Rhodes, St Kitts West Indies, Cuba and Thompson Golf Club – to mention but a few.

The baseball cap of today is the most popular men’s headgear of all time, even adopted now by army and gardaí. There have been many styles of men’s caps over the centuries. As far back as the 16th century a law was brought in that mandated men to wear a woollen cap on Sundays and holidays. This law, intended to boost the wool trade, didn’t last long, but the influence of the flat cap lived on long after the law. The Lads may get a bit of mileage out of learning that the men’s flat cap was originally known as a ‘bonnet’! Stranger still is the fact that the cap, the working man’s badge, is now a fashionable piece of the Gorl’s attire, usually made from wool or tweed.

Flat caps became strongly associated with the working class during the 19th and early part of the 20th century. The aristocracy later embraced that style of headgear, recognising its practicality and style for outdoor activities. A derivative of the flat cap was the newsboy cap with its more complicated construction. The flat cap became popular in America – and that’s another thing we gave them. It was the Irish immigrants who introduced the flat cap and its variations to America.

We are not looking at hats here. Hats are an entirely different story – which I think we may have covered in a column a long time ago.

Like we said, the flat cap became the trademark of the working man in Ireland and many other countries, but it also has a huge association with Gaelic Games. Look back at old black and white photos of teams and count how many of the players, and all of the officials, who are wearing caps.

The most famous player to be associated with the cap was Peter McDermott, who captained Meath to their first All-Ireland win in 1949. McDermott became known as ‘the man with the cap’.

One of my favourite ‘capped’ players, who didn’t feel fully togged out until he donned his well worn peaky cap, was Phil Reilly, the totally dependable full back on the great Richardstown hurling team. Phil not only took care of his patch, but he ‘minded’ the goalie and his full back line as well. The angle of the cap got shifted depending on the heat of battle. Phil played for Richardstown for 20 years and when he tilted that cap to shade his right ear, the opposing full forward would be happier had he made a good confession the night before!

And some of you thought that a cap was only for keeping the sun or rain off your head?!

Don’t Forget

If you think you can or you can’t, you are right. (Henry Ford)