Gaelic Athletic Association

Gaelic Athletic Association Cumann Lúthchleas Gael
"Nothing beats being there"[1]
Formation	1 November 1884 (1884-11-01)
Type	Sports organisation
Purpose/focus	The management and promotion of Gaelic games, and promotion of Irish culture and language
Headquarters	Croke Park, Dublin
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	1,000,000
Official languages	Irish
President	Liam O'Neill
Staff	Limited full-time staff
Website	http://www.gaa.ie

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, [ˈkʊmˠən̪ˠ ˈl̪ˠuh.xlʲæsˠ ɡeːl̪ˠ] (CLG)) is an Irish and international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders. The GAA also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language.

It has more than 1 million members worldwide, assets in excess of 2.6 billion Euro, and declared total revenues of 94.8 million Euro in 2010 with total gross profit of 78.5 million Euro.^[2][3][4][5]

Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular activities promoted by the organisation, and the most popular sports in the Republic of Ireland in terms of attendances.^[6] Gaelic football is also the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland.^[7] GAA Handball is the Irish governing body for the sport of handball.

The women's version of these games, ladies' Gaelic football and camogie, are organised by the independent but closely linked Ladies' Gaelic Football Association and the Camogie Association of Ireland respectively.

Since its foundation in the late 19th century, the GAA has grown to become a major influence in Irish sporting and cultural life with considerable reach into communities throughout Ireland and among the Irish diaspora.^[8]

Competitions

Internationals

While some units of the GAA outside Ireland participate in Irish competitions, the GAA does not hold internationals played according to the rules of either Gaelic football or hurling. Compromise rules have been reached with two "related sports."

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. In December 2006 the International series between Australia and Ireland was called off due to excessive violence in the matches,^[9] but resumed in October 2008 when Ireland won a two test series in Australia.^[10]

Cultural activities

Through a division of the association known as Scór (Irish for "score") the GAA promotes Irish cultural activities, running competitions in music, singing, dancing and storytelling.

Rule 4 of the Official Guide states:

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.^[11]

The group was formally founded in 1969, and is promoted through various GAA clubs throughout Ireland (as well as some clubs outside of Ireland).

Grounds

Áras Mhic Eiteagáin clubhouse in Gweedore, County Donegal. These grounds resemble the typical clubhouses to be found in rural areas all over Ireland.

The GAA has many stadiums scattered throughout Ireland and beyond. Every county, and nearly all clubs, have grounds on which to play their home games, with varying capacities and utilities.

The hierarchical structure of the GAA is applied to the use of grounds. Clubs play at their own grounds for the early rounds of the club championship, while the latter rounds from quarter-finals to finals are usually held at a county ground, i.e. the ground where inter-county games take place or where the county board is based.

The provincial championship finals are usually played at the same venue every year. However, there have been exceptions such as in Ulster, where 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 the traditional venue of St Tiernach's Park, Clones.

Croke Park

Croke Park is the GAA's flagship venue and is known colloquially as Croker or Headquarters, since the venue doubles as the GAA's base. With a capacity of 82,300, it ranks among the top five stadiums in Europe by capacity, having undergone extensive renovations for most of the 1990s and early 21st century. Every September, Croke Park hosts the All-Ireland inter-county Hurling and Football Finals as the conclusion to the summer championships. Croke Park holds the All-Ireland club football and hurling finals on every St. Patrick's Day.

Other grounds

The next three biggest grounds are all in Munster: Semple Stadium in Thurles, County Tipperary, with a capacity of 53,000, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, which holds 50,000, and Páirc Uí Chaoimh, County Cork, which can accommodate 43,500.

Other notable grounds include:

• Fitzgerald Stadium, in Killarney, a capacity of 43,180.
• McHale Park in Castlebar, the largest stadium in Connacht (and in the northern half of the country), a capacity of 42,000.
• St Tiernach's Park in Clones, County Monaghan, hosts most Ulster finals, a capacity of 36,000.
• Breffni Park, in Cavan Town, County Cavan, which hosted International rules football series games in 2013, a capacity of 32,000.
• Casement Park, in Belfast, a capacity of 32,600.
• O'Moore Park, in Portlaoise, County Laoise, a capacity of 27,000.
• Healy Park, in Omagh, County Tyrone, a capacity of 26,500.
• Pearse Stadium in Galway, which has hosted International rules football series games, a capacity of 26,197.
• St Conleth's Park in Newbridge, County Kildare, a capacity of 6,200.

Nationalism and community relations

Cross-community outreach in Ulster

The GAA points out the role of members of minority religions in the association throughout its history. For example the Protestant Jack Boothman was president of the organisation from 1993 to 1997, while Sam Maguire was a Church of Ireland member. Nonetheless, to address concerns of unionists, the GAA's Ulster Council has embarked on a number of initiatives aimed at making the association and Gaelic games more accessible to northern Protestants. In November 2008 the council launched a Community Development Unit which is responsible for "Diversity and Community Outreach initiatives".^[12] The Cúchulainn Initiative is a cross-community program aimed at establishing teams consisting of Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren with no prior playing experience.^[13] Cross-community teams such as the Belfast Cuchulainn under-16 hurling team have been established and gone on to compete at the Continental Youth Championship in America.^[13] Similar hurling and Gaelic football teams have since emerged in Armagh, Fermanagh, Limavady.^[14] Professor David Hassan from the University of Ulster has written quite widely on the cross community work of the GAA, and other sporting bodies in Ulster, and highlighted the positive work being done in this field.

The 'Game of three-halves' cross-community coaching initiative was established in predominantly Protestant east Belfast in 2006. Organised through Knock Presbyterian Church, this scheme brings GAA coaches to work alongside their soccer and rugby counterparts to involve primary school children at summer coaching camps.^[15][16] The Ulster Council is also establishing cross-community football and hurling teams in schools and is developing links with the Ulster-Scots Agency and the Church of Ireland.^[16] The Council has also undertaken a series of meetings with political parties and community groups who would have traditionally have had no involvement in the GAA.^[16]

Other community outreach

In January 2011 President Mary McAleese announced the launch of an island-wide project called the GAA Social Initiative. This aims to address the problem of isolation in rural areas where older people have limited engagement with the community.^[17] The initiative was later expanded by teaming up with the Irish Farmers Association to integrate that organisation's volunteers into the initiative.^[18]

Winter training ban

To address concerns about player burnout, the GAA adopted a rule in 2007 that prohibited collective training for inter-county players for a period of two months every winter.^[19] This has proven to be controversial in that it is difficult to enforce, and in the drive to stay competitive, managers have found ways to get around it such as organising informal 'athletic clubs' and other activities which they can use to work on the physical fitness of players without overtly appearing to be training specifically at Gaelic games.^[20]

See also

• List of Gaelic Athletic Association stadiums
• GAA GPA All Stars Awards
• Michael Cusack
• Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh
• Micheál Ó Hehir
• Féile na nGael
• Sport in Ireland
• List of All-Ireland Senior Football Championship finals
• List of All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship finals

Television

• The Sunday Game
• Up for the Match
• Top 20 GAA Moments

References

External links

• GAA official website
• GAA TV website
• GAA Roll of Honour