Gaelic Athletic Association History
In 1884 the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was formed to promote traditional Irish games such as Irish hurling, Gaelic football, camogie, rounders and Gaelic handball. Today the organisation is the largest in Ireland with over 800,000 members.
During 1800’s Ireland there had been a major decrease in Irish traditions due to a direct impact of England’s traditions including sports that were played. Some of the more common English sports being played in Ireland included soccer, polo and cricket.
It was believed that the Irish culture, customs and traditions came very close to extinction; this included the Irish language and even Irish traditional sports. This problem was very worrying for some and so Michael Cusack decided to form the Gaelic Athletic Association to help save traditional Irish sports.
As an organisation to promote Gaelic Games the goals of the GAA had been:
- To foster and promote 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
To further strengthen Irish culture & traditions two rules first drawn up were:
Games to be played on Sunday. This would give the working class a chance to participate in games but this would be seen as offensive to many Protestants as Sunday was a day of Sabbath.
Members of the GAA could not participate in other games that were not part of the GAA. This was seen as essential to help the survival of Gaelic games.
The Gaelic Athletic Association found it difficult not to get mixed up in politics, after all Ireland was going through political mayhem for many years. As a pro Irish organisation many members had been involved with the IRB and it was believed some members became involved with the 1916 Easter rebellion. By 1918 the GAA was banned by the English, but this wouldn’t stop Irish people playing their traditional sports.
The GAA quickly learned to keep sports and politics apart in order for the organisation and Galiec games to survive although it still needed to keep rules in place to preserve its purpose, to promote native Irish pastimes.
