The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael) is an organisation which is mostly focussed on promoting Gaelic Games - traditional Irish sports, such as hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball, and rounders. The organisation also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language. It is the largest and most popular organisation on the island with some 800,000 members out of the island's population of 5 million.[1]
Gaelic football and Hurling are the main and most popular activities promoted by the organisation. Gaelic football is a contact sport that combines the skills of soccer, basketball, and some of the skills of volleyball in a high-scoring game in which players punch or kick the ball over the crossbar for one point, or kick the ball into a net on the bottom for three points.
Hurling is a stick-and-ball game that combines many of the skills of field hockey, lacrosse, and baseball but pre-dates all three. Players can catch the ball and use a hurley (Irish: camán) to hit a small ball between the goalposts using the same scoring system as in Gaelic football and on the same size of field.
Foundation and aims
The GAA was founded by Michael Cusack from County Clare. Pupils at the Academy he founded were encouraged to get involved in all forms of physical exercise. Cusack, a native Irish speaker, was troubled by declining participation in specifically Irish games.
To remedy this situation and to re-establish hurling as the national pastime, Cusack met with several other enthusiasts, most notably Maurice Davin and the Gaelic Athletic Association was established on Saturday, November 1 1884 in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary. The seven founder members were Michael Cusack, Maurice Davin (who presided) John Wyse Power, John McKay, J. K. Bracken, Joseph O'Ryan and Thomas St. George McCarthy. Also admitted later by Cusack to have been present was Frank Moloney of Nenagh, while the following six names were published as having attended by the more detailed press reports of the time: William Foley, - Dwyer, - Culhane, William Delehunty, John Butler and William Cantwell.
All these were from Thurles except Foley, who was from Carrick-on-Suir, like Davin. Of note, given later controversies about playing of 'foreign games' and the later banning of members of the British armed forces and police from joining, was that Thomas St. George McCarthy, a native of Bansha, County Tipperary, was a capped rugby international player, having played for Ireland against Wales in 1883 and was also a District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). Also J.K. Bracken, a republican, supported the GAA himself, although his son, Brendan Bracken, was a member of Churchill's War Cabinet during World War II and was created Viscount Bracken of Christchurch following the war, before Brendan Bracken's untimely death.
The initial plan was to resurrect the ancient Tailteann Games and establish an independent Irish organisation for promoting athletics, but hurling and Gaelic football eventually predominated. The following goals were set out:
- To foster and promote the native Irish pastimes.
- To open athletics to all social classes.
- To aid in the establishment of hurling and football clubs which would organise matches between counties.
The association's aim today is to be:
A National organisation which has as its basic aim the strengthening of the National Identity of a 32 County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic Games and pastimes.
— [2]
Structure
The GAA is a democratic association consisting of various boards, councils, and committees organised in a structured hierarchy, and the world headquarters are at Croke Park. All of the association's activities are governed by a book called the Official Guide. Each County Board may have its own by-laws, none of which may conflict with the Official Guide. Each Divisional Board may have its own regulations, none of which may duplicate or contradict the Official Guide or county by-laws.
- Annual Congress
- President
- Central Council
- Provincial councils
- County Board
- Divisional Board (in larger counties)
- Sport specific board (in some counties)
- Club Committee
All of these bodies are elected on a democratic basis and staffed by volunteers.
Competitions
Domestic
The GAA organises competitive games in both codes and at all levels from youth all the way up to adult senior.
The highest level of competitions in the GAA are the inter-county All-Ireland Championships where the 32 counties of Ireland Compete to win the Provincial championships, All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Before 1892, the winning club in each county championship contested the All-Ireland championship representing their county. In 1892, Congress granted permission for the winning club in each county championship to use players from other clubs in the county. The Inter County scene of today was thus created.
Internationals
The GAA does not hold internationals played according to the rules of either Gaelic football or hurling, however compromise rules have been reached. Hurlers play an annual fixture against a national Shinty team from Scotland.
International Rules Football matches have taken place between an Irish national team drawn from the ranks of Gaelic footballers, against an Australian national team drawn from the Australian Football League. The venue alternates between Ireland and Australia. As of December 9, 2006 the International series between Australia and Ireland has been called off due to excessive violence in past matches.
Cultural
Competitive field games are not the only activity promoted by the organisation. Scór (English: Score) is a sub-group, and series of annual competitions, as part of the GAA that actively pursues the goals of Rule 4 of the Official Guide;
The Association shall actively support the Irish language, traditional Irish dancing, music, song, and other aspects of Irish culture. It shall foster an awareness and love of the national ideals in the people of Ireland, and assist in promoting a community spirit through its clubs.
— [3]
The group was formally founded in 1969, and is promoted through various GAA clubs throughout Ireland (and amongst Irish fifth columnists in parts of Great Britain).
Achievements
The GAA has grown to become the largest and most popular organisation in Ireland with some 600,000 members out of the island's 5 million people.[4]
It saved the ancient game of hurling from extinction. Both it and Gaelic football were standardised. This standardisation helped to spur the growth of the modern games since they were now being organised on a structured basis.
The GAA is the largest amateur sports association in Ireland. It has more than 2,500 member clubs and runs about 500 grounds throughout the country.[5] The Gaelic Games of hurling and football are also the most popular spectator sports in Ireland; 1,962,769 people attended GAA games in 2003.[6]
Thanks to the success of a policy of having at least one club in every parish, clubs are evenly distributed throughout the country in both urban and rural areas, and the organisation's reach is therefore considerable. This huge presence means that the GAA has become a major player in the sporting and cultural life of Ireland. The association is recognised as a major generator of social capital thanks to its promotion of healthy pastimes, volunteering, and community involvement.[7]
The GAA also provided an all-Ireland structure in which people could participate, both on a sporting and on an organisational level. This has helped to entrench a sense of local identity. For example, the county identities that have been fostered by over a century of local rivalries in the provincial championships are so prominent in society that many people feel emotionally attached to their county.[8] Indeed, the GAA still adheres to the original British-devised county system that no longer coincides with that used by local government, and yet it is the GAA county boundaries that people most identify with.[9]
In the GAA's structures (parish, county, province and national) it created a conduit for national and communal loyalty, an achievement given that the various elements owed their origins to a variety of sources: Catholicism (the parishes), British law (the counties), and Irish history (the provinces and the nation). Its achievement in popularising counties was particularly marked. It made the counties seem a natural sense of local definition. The traditional Irish counties were largely a creation of British law such as County Londonderry (or County Derry, is it is referred to by the GAA), and some owed their origins to ancient Irish regions such as County Tyrone. An attempt in recent years to create North Dublin and South Dublin teams was never implemented. Counties with a history of no success whatsoever in the championships retain their county teams rather than merge with far more successful neighbouring counties.
The GAA in the 20th century
Up to the twentieth century most of the members were farm labourers, small farmers, barmen or shop assistants. But from 1900 onwards a new type of individual — those who were now being influenced by the Celtic Revival (started in 1893) — joined the movement. They tended to be middle-class Roman Catholic clerks, school teachers and civil servants. [citation needed]
In 1918 the GAA was banned by the British government, but the games were still played in defiance of the ban.[10] In 1922 it passed over the job of promoting athletics to the National Athletic and Cycling Association.[11]
In 1984 the GAA celebrated its 100th year in existence. This anniversary was celebrated by the GAA with numerous events throughout the country and the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final was moved to Semple Stadium in Thurles to honour the town in which the GAA was founded.
Modern challenges
Ireland has changed rapidly since the mid 1990s. EU enlargement, combined with the Celtic Tiger economy, has led to a large influx of foreign nationals from the EU's new member states in Eastern Europe. This presents a challenge to an organisation that was previously not geared towards marketing itself to people who have not heard of it or its games, and instead relied on people being brought up playing hurling and Gaelic football often following their parents' example.
Also, maintaining the GAA's activities in the overseas units presents a similar challenge in that, despite the large Irish diaspora, Gaelic games remain largely unknown outside of the Irish ex-patriate community. Initiatives such as full-time development officers and high-profile competitions such as the Continental Youth Championship are helping to bring the games to non-Irish people everywhere [citation needed].
Grounds
The GAA has many stadiums in Ireland and beyond, including most of the more advanced and higher capacity ones in the country. Every county, and nearly all clubs, have a GAA ground on which to play their home games, with varying capacities and utilities.
There is a hierarchical structure used in the playing of matches at grounds. For example, county championship finals (contested by clubs) are usually held at the ground that said county plays its matches (for example, the Tyrone Senior Football Championship final is played at Healy Park, Omagh, where Tyrone play their home games.)
The provincial championship finals are usually played at the same venue every year, however, this trend has been called into question somewhat in Ulster, when in 2004 and 2005, the Ulster Football Finals were played in Croke Park, due to the fact that the anticipated attendance was likely to far exceed the capacity of St. Tiernach's Park, Clones.
Croke Park is the GAA's flagship venue, known colloquially as 'headquarters' owing to the fact that the venue doubles as the GAA's base. With a capacity of 82,500,(not all seater) it ranks among the top stadiums in Europe, having undergone extensive renovations for most of the nineties, and early 21st century. Every September, Croke Park hosts the All-Ireland Hurling and Football Finals, as the conclusion to the summer championship.
The next three biggest grounds are all in Munster - Semple Stadium in Thurles, Co. Tipperary with a capacity of 53,000, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick which holds 50,000 and Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney, Co. Kerry which can accommodate 43,000.
Other notable grounds include:
- Pearse Stadium in Galway, which has hosted International rules football series games;
- Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork is where some Munster Finals are also held;
- Páirc Uí Rinn, also in Cork, a former League of Ireland soccer ground.
Criticism
Accusation of exclusivity
The perception of the GAA in unionist circles in Northern Ireland made its members and clubhouses targets for loyalist terrorists during the Troubles. A number of GAA supporters were killed and clubhouses damaged.[12][13]
The GAA is, despite a perfunctory claim of anti-sectarianism, a virtually all Catholic organisation largely based on political irredentist nationalism/republicanism and the strictures of the Roman Catholic Church. In many parts of Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland, the GAA contributes to the sectarian tensions and athletic apartheid, which remain firmly rooted.
The GAA might, rather unconvincingly, claim that it has always promoted Irish rather than Catholic identity, and has had members of minority religions playing an active role from its inception up to the present day, although there is no record of any non-Catholic playing for the GAA, which Protestants and Unionists regard as loathsome given the GAA's links to Irish republicanism. The GAA Official Guide nominally forbids sectarianism.[14], however its demographics are clear [citation needed] as is the usual reciting of the Rosary in Gaeilge before a game.
Bans on other sports & Rule 42
Until 1971 members were prohibited from playing "foreign" (mainly British) sports or even attending those sports events as spectators, and up until recently, such sports were officially barred from using GAA grounds. Students caught playing football (soccer) could and have been ostracized or expelled from Irish Christian Brothers schools [citation needed]. The ban was applied only to soccer and rugby union [citation needed]. In the 1980s, Croke Park was the venue for an American football game between Notre Dame and Navy.
On 16 April 2005 the GAA's congress voted to suspend its Rule 42 ban on "foreign games" to enable the Football Association of Ireland and the Irish Rugby Football Union to play their international fixtures at Croke Park while the Lansdowne Road stadium is being rebuilt.[15] The GAA's governing Central Council agreed that the first soccer and rugby union games in Croke Park could take place in early 2007. The first such fixture was Ireland's home match of the Six Nations Rugby Union Championship against France which was won by France 20-17.
Bans on security force members - Rule 21
A ban (Rule 21)[16] on members of the British army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary from playing Gaelic games was lifted on 17 November 2001[17] after the creation of the new Police Service of Northern Ireland. The PSNI now fields a GAA team.[18] The rule, instituted in 1886, also bans attending social events with the British military or police personnel. Removal of the ban caused great controversy which is still felt within aspects of the largely insular GAA today,[19] most notably due to the events of the (Bloody Sunday Massacre of 1920).[20]
2006 hunger strike commemoration controversy
In 2006, controversy arose over the use of Casement Park GAA stadium in County Antrim for a republican rally commemorating the 1981 Irish hunger strike, which was addressed by Gerry Adams and other prominent Sinn Féin speakers. The GAA Central Council in Dublin said that the rally was a breach of the organization's rules forbidding political events; however the Antrim county board ignored this ruling and the rally went ahead. Democratic Unionist Party MP Gregory Campbell accused the GAA of politicizing the sport. The organizers of the rally denied this, saying that the rally was not organized by any political party.[21][22] The rally, however, was not addressed by speakers from any party other than Sinn Féin [citation needed].
See also
- Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh
- GAA All Stars Awards
- Micheál Ó Hehir
- Michael Cusack
- The Sunday Game
- Up for the Match
- Top 20 GAA Moments
- Sport in Ireland
- Féile na nGael
Bibliography
- The GAA: A History by Marcus de Burca, Gill & MacMillan, 1984 & 2000, ISBN 0-7171-3109-2
- Illustrated History of the GAA, by Eoghan Corry, Gill & MacMillan, 2005, ISBN 0-7171-3951-4
- The GAA Book of Lists, by Eoghan Corry, Hodder Headline, 2005, ISBN 0-340-89695-7
- The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish Nationalist Politics 1884-1924, by W. F. Mandle (Gill & MacMillan and Christopher Helm 1987). 240pp ISBN 0-7470-2200-3
- Michael Cusack and The GAA by Marcus De Burca, Anvil, 1989, 192pp, ISBN 0-947962-49-2
- Micheal Ciosog, by Liam P. Ó Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1982.
- Croke Of Cashel, by Mark Tierney, Gill And MacMillan, 1976.
- Maurice Davin (1842-1927): First President Of The GAA, by Seamus O'Riain, Geography Publications, 1994, ISBN 0-906602-25-4
- Croke Park, by Tim Carey, Collins Press, 2004, ISBN 1-903464-54-4
- God and the Referee: Unforgettable GAA Quotations, by Eoghan Corry, Hodder Headline, 2005, ISBN 0-340-83976-7
- History of Hurling, by Seamus King, Gill & MacMillan, 2005, ISBN 0-7171-3938-7
- Sceal Na hIomana, by Liam P. Ó Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1980.
- Caman, 2000 Years Of Irish Hurling, by Art Ó Maolfabhail, 1973.
- Gaelic football, by Jack Mahon, Gill & MacMillan, 2002 & 2006, ISBN 0-7171-4038-5
- Bairi Cos in Eirinn by Liam P. Ó Cathnia, Clochomhar Tta, 1984.
- Legends of the Ash, by Brendan Fullam, Wolfhound Press, 1998, ISBN 0-86327-667-9
References
- ^ Go Ireland
- ^ "Aims of the association."|GAA Rules and Constitution
- ^ GAAs Official Guide, book 1
- ^ Go Ireland
- ^ "Organisation of the GAA". Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- ^ "GAA attendance figures" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-11-27.
- ^ "ESRI Report: Social and Economic Value of Sport in Ireland". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
- ^ "GAA joins in drawing boundary battle lines - Munster Express". Retrieved 2006-12-22.
- ^ "County Identity and Social Capital – the View from Cavan" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-12-22.
- ^ "Gaelic football, Hurling are Irish Passions". Retrieved 2006-11-27.
- ^ "The Origins of the GAA" (PDF).
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1991 — Arson attack and statement by the Ulster Freedom Fighters loyalist paramilitary group, 8 February 1991, from the CAIN project at the University of Ulster
- ^ CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1997 — murder of Sean Brown, official of Bellaghy GAC, by the Loyalist Volunteer Force, from the CAIN project at the University of Ulster
- ^ "The Association shall be non-sectarian." — GAA Rules and Constitution
- ^ "Ireland must wait to enjoy Croke craic". Retrieved 2007-02-11.
- ^ "The GAA and Rule 21" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-11-27.
- ^ "Gaelic sport ends forces ban". Retrieved 2006=11-27.
{{cite web}}
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(help) - ^ "A symbolic encounter". Retrieved 2006-11-27.
- ^ "BBC Reporting Such controversy within GAA". Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ "BBC discussions with involved parties citing the 1921 event". Retrieved 2007-03-15.
- ^ GAA accused over rally at ground — BBC News article, 1 August 2006
- ^ Stadium rally 'politicised sport' — BBC News article, 14 August 2006
External links
- GAA official website
- Rules and Regulations Part 1
- Rules and Regulations Part 2
- Hogan Stand
- National GAA Results and Fixtures on Aertel
- Local GAA Results and Fixtures on Aertel
- GAA World by The Irish News
- Index of GAA club sites
- Gaelic Survival - Player Profiles Every Inter County Hurler and Footballer, Fantasy Game
- GAA News Results and Fixtures from Sports.ie
- An Fear Rua: The GAA Unplugged! - analysis, discussion forums, satire and humour on GAA topics.
- GAA Results
- Hurling Blog - News, analysis, stats and opinion on hurling
- Michael Cusack Visitor Centre