Gaelic Athletic Association

Gaelic Athletic Association
Cumann Lúthchleas Gael
Motto "Be There All The Way"[1]
Formation 1 November 1884 (1884-11-01)
Type Sports Association
Purpose The management and promotion of Gaelic games, and promotion of Irish culture and language
Headquarters Croke Park, Dublin
Region served
Worldwide
Membership (2014)
500,000+[2]
Official language
Irish
Aogán Ó Fearghaíl
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 association also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language.

It has more than 500,000 members worldwide,[2] assets in excess of €2.6 billion, and declared total revenues of €94.8 million in 2010, with a total gross profit of €78.5 million.[3][4][5][6]

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.[7] Gaelic football is also the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland.[8] (GAA competitions, activities and structures are organised on an all-Ireland basis, without reference to the border drawn in 1921.) 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. GAA Handball is the Irish governing body for the sport of handball, while the other Gaelic sport, rounders, is managed by the GAA Rounders National Council (Irish: Comhairle Cluiche Corr na hÉireann).

Since its foundation in the late 19th century, the association 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.[9]

Foundation and History

On the 1 November 1884, a group of Irishmen gathered in the Hayes' Hotel billiard room to formulate a plan and establish an organisation to foster and preserve Ireland's unique games and athletic pastimes. And so, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded. The architects and founding members were Michael Cusack of County Clare, Maurice Davin, Joseph K. Bracken, Thomas St George McCarthy, P. J. Ryan of Tipperary, John Wise-Power, and John McKay.[10] Maurice Davin was elected President, Cusack, Wyse-Power and McKay were elected Secretaries and it was agreed that Archbishop Croke, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt would be asked to become Patrons.

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 person – those who were now being influenced by the Gaelic League (1893) — joined the movement. They tended to be clerks, school teachers or civil servants. In 1922 it passed over the job of promoting athletics to the National Athletic and Cycling Association.[11]

Competitions

List of countries where GAA sports are played

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Burma
  • Canada
  • China
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Great Britain
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • Japan
  • Malaysia
  • Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Russia
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Africa
  • South Korea
  • Singapore
  • Spain
  • Thailand
  • United States of America
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Vietnam
  • Zimbabwe

Internationals

While some units of the association outside Ireland participate in Irish competitions, the association 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,[12] but resumed in October 2008 when Ireland won a two test series in Australia.[13] Recently, the Irish welcomed the All Australian team at the headquarters of the GAA (Croke park) on 21 November 2015. It was single one-off test match, which led the Irish to reclaim the Cormac McAnallen cup by a score of 56-52.

Cultural activities

The association has had a long history of promoting Irish culture.[14] Through a division of the association known as Scór (Irish for "score"), the association promotes Irish cultural activities, running competitions in music, singing, dancing and storytelling.

Rule 4 of the GAA's 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.[15]

The group was formally founded in 1969, and is promoted through various Association clubs throughout Ireland (as well as some clubs outside 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 association 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, as the anticipated attendance was likely to far exceed the capacity of the traditional venue of St Tiernach's Park, Clones.

Croke Park

Croke Park sports stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The pitch is used for Gaelic football, hurling, and camogie, and has also been used in the past for association football and rugby. It has a capacity of 82,300 people, making it the fourth largest stadium in Europe.

Croke Park is the association's flagship venue and is known colloquially as Croker or Headquarters, since the venue doubles as the association'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. Croke Park is named after the Archbishop Thomas Croke, who was elected as a patron of the GAA during the formation of the GAA in 1884.

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 grounds with capacities above 25,000 include:

Research by former Fermanagh county footballer Niall Cunningham led to the publication in 2016 by his website, gaapitchlocator.net, of a map of 1,748 GAA grounds in Ireland, ranging from 24 grounds in his own county to 171 in Cork.[16][17]

Nationalism and community relations

Nationalism and Protestant and unionist alienation in Northern Ireland

The association has, since its inception, been closely associated with Irish nationalism,[18][19] and this has continued to the present, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland,[20] where the sports are played almost exclusively by members of the mainly Catholic nationalist community, and the Protestant unionist population largely considers itself excluded by the political ethos seen as associated with the GAA.[21][22] According to one sports historian, the GAA "is arguably the most striking example of politics shaping sport in modern history".[23] Another claimed that, upon its foundation, the GAA "relatively quickly succeeded in defining for itself and the games it controlled an identity that interwove the threads of nationalism, Catholicism and rurality".[24] During the Troubles, the GAA's promotion of the broad republicanism and nationalism secured its support amongst the Catholic and nationalist community in Northern Ireland, but encouraged opposition within the unionist community; it also persistently failed to recruit Protestants into its ranks.[21]

Certain GAA practices and rules reinforce a perception within Northern Ireland unionist circles that the GAA is a nationalist or sectarian organisation.[25][26] For example, the flag of the Republic of Ireland is flown and Amhrán na bhFiann, the national anthem of the Republic, is played at matches in Northern Ireland as well as in the Republic. Some GAA grounds, clubs, competitions and trophies are named after nationalists or republicans, such as Sam Maguire, Seán Treacy, Theobald Wolfe Tone, and more recently Kevin Lynch, a convicted member of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA), who died on hunger strike in 1981.[27][28][29][30]

Suspected associations between GAA members and republicans are also said to have deepened mistrust.[31][32] Two incidents of hunger strike commemorations on GAA grounds drew criticism from unionists, even though these incidents violated the GAA's rules.[33][34][35][36] In response to one such incident, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed a motion calling on the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure to ensure that no sports club, which facilitates a commemoration or glorification of terrorism, receives financial support through his Department, either directly or indirectly.[37] Other critics point out that the "parish rule" can appear to align the GAA with the Roman Catholic Church and others point to protectionist rules such as Rule 42 which prohibits competing, chiefly British, sports (referred to by some as "garrison games"[38][39][40] or foreign sports) from GAA grounds. As a result, the GAA became a target for loyalist paramilitaries during the Troubles when a number of GAA supporters were killed and clubhouses damaged.[41][42] As the profile of Gaelic football has been raised in Ulster so too has there been an increase in the number of sectarian attacks on Gaelic clubs in Northern Ireland.[43]

Some of the protectionist rules are as follows:

Rule 42 ban on other sports in GAA grounds

Rule 42 (Rule 5.1 in the 2009 rulebook)[44] prohibits the use of GAA property for games with interests in conflict with the interests of the GAA referred to by some as "garrison games"[38][39][40] or foreign sports. Current rules state that GAA property may only be used for the purpose or in connection with the playing of games controlled by the association. Sports not considered 'in conflict' with the GAA have been permitted.

On 16 April 2005 the GAA's congress voted to temporarily relax Rule 42 and allow international soccer and rugby to be played in the stadium while Lansdowne Road Football Ground was closed for redevelopment.[45] The first soccer and rugby union games permitted in Croke Park took place in early 2007, the first such fixture being Ireland's home match in the Six Nations Rugby Union Championship against France.

In addition to the opening of Croke Park to competing sports, local GAA units have sought to rent their facilities out to other sports organisations for financial reasons in violation of Rule 42.[46][47] The continued existence of Rule 42 has proven to be controversial since the management of Croke Park has been allowed to earn revenue by renting the facility out to competing sports organisations, but local GAA units which own smaller facilities cannot.[46][48] It is also said that it is questionable as to whether or not such rental deals would actually be damaging to the GAA's interests.[46]

The parish rule

Clubs, which are the basic unit of administration in the GAA, may have their catchment areas defined by the local Roman Catholic parish boundaries.[49][50][51][52] A parish is defined as being, subject to county boundaries, "the district under the jurisdiction of a Parish Priest or Administrator." The purpose of the rule is to ensure that local teams are represented by local players, and to prevent players flocking to a more successful club outside of the local area. The rule was not part of the GAA's original rules and today it is applied in some counties and not in others.[53]

Defunct rules

The GAA has had some notable rules in the past which have since been abolished.

Rule 21, instituted in 1897 when it was suspected that Royal Irish Constabulary spies were trying to infiltrate the organization, prohibited members of the British forces from membership of the GAA, and prevented GAA members from attending social events with such people.[54] Support for the ban remained throughout The Troubles, particularly in Northern Ireland where GAA members often felt targeted for harassment and abuse by the RUC and British Army.[55] Nonetheless, at a special congress convened in November 2001 the GAA voted by an overwhelming majority to change the rule and allow members of British security forces to play hurling and football.[56][57]

Rule 27, sometimes referred to as The Ban, banned GAA members from taking part in or watching non Gaelic games. Punishment for violating this rule was expulsion for the organisation and it remained in place from 1901 until 1971. During that time people such as Douglas Hyde, GAA patron and then President of Ireland, was expelled for attending a soccer international.[58] In order to circumvent the ban members such as Moss Keane would commonly adopt a false name.[59] The last person to be suspended from the GAA for violating Rule 27 was Liam Madden, an architect and member of Longford GAA in 1969 [60]

Cross-community outreach in Ulster

The association points out the role of members of minority religions in the membership 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 association'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".[61] The Cúchulainn Initiative is a cross-community program aimed at establishing teams consisting of Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren with no prior playing experience.[62] 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 the USA.[62] Similar hurling and Gaelic football teams have since emerged in Armagh, Fermanagh, Limavady.[63] Professor David Hassan from the University of Ulster has written quite widely on the cross community work of the association 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 Association coaches to work alongside their soccer and rugby counterparts to involve primary school children at summer coaching camps.[64][65] 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.[65] 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 association.[65]

Other community outreach

In January 2011, the then President of Ireland, 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.[66] The initiative was later expanded by teaming up with the Irish Farmers Association to integrate that organisation's volunteers into the initiative.[67]

Winter training ban

To address concerns about player burnout, the association adopted a rule in 2007 that prohibited collective training for inter-county players for a period of two months every winter.[68] 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 that they can use to work on the physical fitness of players without overtly appearing to be training specifically at Gaelic games.[69]

See also

Television

References

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  2. 1 2 "Membership". Gaelic Athletic Association. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
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  16. http://www.gaapitchlocator.net/
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  21. 1 2 Cronin, M. (2000), "Catholics and Sport in Northern Ireland: Exclusiveness or Inclusiveness?", International Sports Studies, Volume 22, Number 1, 2000, p.33-34. Available at .
  22. Cronin, M. (2000), "Catholics and Sport in Northern Ireland: Exclusiveness or Inclusiveness?", International Sports Studies, Volume 22, Number 1, 2000, p.26. Available at . Viewed 18-09-2009.
  23. R. Holt (1992), Sport and the British: a modern history, p. 240, Oxford. Cited in Garnham, N: Association Football and society in pre-partition Ireland, page 135. Ulster Historical Foundation, 2004
  24. Garnham, N: Association Football and society in pre-partition Ireland, page 134. Ulster Historical Foundation, 2004
  25. John Sugden and Scott Harvie (1995). "Sport and Community Relations in Northern Ireland". Centre for the Study of Conflict. Retrieved 2008-07-28.
  26. "The GAA is perceived by the Unionist community as a sectarian organisation ...", Sugden, J. (1995) "Sport, Community Relations and Community Conflict in Northern Ireland", p.203, in Seamus Dunn (ed) Facets of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. London: McMillan Press Ltd. Cited in Northern Ireland Assembly Research Paper 26/01 (2001), Sectarianism and Sport in Northern Ireland. Available at http://archive.niassembly.gov.uk/research_papers/research/2601.pdf. Retrieved 18-09-2009.
  27. Sugden, 1995, p.203
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  31. Dr Martin Melaugh. "Sugden Harvie report". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
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  39. 1 2 Paul Ward (2004), Britishness since 1870. p. 79, London: Routledge
  40. 1 2 Tim Pat Coogan (2000), Wherever the Green Is Worn, p.179. New York:Palgrave.
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  47. Donnchadh Boyle (2010-12-09). "Facilities for GAA use only: Cooney". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
  48. O'Rourke, Colm (March 13, 2011). "There is no more room for vanity projects in the GAA". Sunday Independent. Retrieved March 14, 2011.
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  50. Garnham, N: Association Football and society in pre-partition Ireland, page 134. Ulster Historical Foundation, 2004.
  51. "... the GAA's great strength is that it is by and large based on the parish unit, as players go out to represent their families, their parish and their club.", Dungarvan Observer
  52. "And they're games that were incredibly well suited to rural Ireland at that time, because the GAA's master stroke was basing the organisation of the games around the local parishes.", Mike Cronin, speaking on "Irish Sport & Nationalism", The Sports Factor, Radio National [Australia], 19/01/01. Available here.
  53. "Parish or ‘Perish’ Rule?". An Fear Rua. 26 September 2005. Retrieved March 11, 2011.
  54. "GAA delegates vote to allow cops, soldiers". Irish Echo. 2001-08-15. Retrieved 2011-02-28.
  55. "Battle of the Ban". 2001-11-03. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  56. "Rule 21 is ‘history’ says GAA president – Northern Ireland News". 4ni.co.uk. 2001-11-19. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-18.
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  58. "The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) – A Governing Body". Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  59. "Farming: Still Keane". Retrieved 2011-03-10.
  60. http://www.thephoenix.ie/phoenix/subscriber/library/volume-29/issue-15/contents.pdf
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  62. 1 2 "Ulster GAA annual report published". Archived from the original on 13 July 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  63. "McAleese honours GAA team". UTV. 25 October 2010. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  64. "Ulster GAA Club & Community Development Conference – 15 November 2008". 15 November 2008. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  65. 1 2 3 "Council making plans". The Irish News. 21 October 2008. p. 44. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  66. John O'Brien (20 February 2011). "No more hiding places in the battle against rural isolation". Irish Independent. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  67. "GAA Social Initiative to Expand with Stronger Links Between IFA and GAA". Irish Farmers Association. 2 March 2011. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  68. William Nestor (3 December 2010). "The winter training ban, player expenses and burn-out". JOE.ie. Archived from the original on 13 December 2010. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  69. Eugene McGee (3 January 2011). "Eugene McGee: Stop driving players away – scrap winter training ban". Irish Independent. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
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