GAA 125 refers to several events which took place during the 125th year of theGaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 2009. The organisation was founded atHayes' Hotel inThurles,County Tipperary on 1 November 1884.[1][2]
TheIrish Film Institute showed a film series to commemorate the occasion.[3] A special exhibition was also held.[4]
The Late Late Show hosted a special episode dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the GAA. The episode, presented byPat Kenny, was aired onRTÉ One on 9 January 2009 and was planned well in advance as soon as the 2008Toy Show had ended.[3] TheAthlone Advertiser said the show was "a shocker. A genuine shocker. So much of the show lacked élan andpanache that it became very difficult to stop switching the bloody thing off".[5]
TheEvening Herald put together a list of "125 New Year Resolutions" for the GAA in January 2009.[6]
Events were launched atCroke Park,Dublin, with the opening match of theNational Football League 2009 betweenDublin andTyrone on 31 January 2009. It was also only the second football match to take place under floodlights, following its predecessor in February 2008.[3] The event included a fireworks display as well as commentary fromMícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, with the festivities being hosted byHector Ó hEochagáin.[7] A soundtrack of Irish music featuring bands such asThe Cranberries andSnow Patrol was put together byLarry Mullen Jr. for the fireworks display, whilstMundy andSharon Shannon performed during half-time.[8][9] The match ended with a victory for Tyrone by a score of 1–18 to 1–16.[8]
President of IrelandMary McAleese gave the Ó Fiaich Lecture in March 2009, speaking about the significance of the organisation's history.[3] On 17 March 2009 (Saint Patrick's Day), the GAA was a central feature of the Dublin parade.[9]
A conference occurred in Croke Park one day in April.[3] 24 April 2009 was designated GAA 125 Schools Day and those of school-going age were encouraged to wear costumes related to the GAA.[9]
In May, two matches were held inGrangemockler,County Tipperary, to rememberMichael Hogan who was shot dead by authorities while on the field of play.[3] At least 400,000 people from around the world took part in events held forLá na gClub on 10 May 2009.[9][10]
Avondale's Parnell Summer School examined the connections between sport and society in August.[3] A conference titled "The birth of Croke Park in the Ballyhoura mountains" took place that month in honour ofFrank Dineen, a unique man in that he was a former president and secretary of the Gaelic Athletic Association.[11]
RTÉ Radio 1 broadcast original commentary from its archive footage ofAll-Ireland Football Finals andAll-Ireland Hurling Finals on Sunday mornings between June and September.[12]Guinness, a major sponsor ofhurling and itself celebrating its own250th anniversary in 2009, donated €250 per goal scored during the2009 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, which led to nearly €25,000.[13]
The GAA 125 Quiz Final took place in Croke Park's Museum on 18 September 2009.Jimmy Magee was quizmaster on the night.[14] The winner received a prize of a trophy, dinner, overnight stay in a hotel and tickets to the2009 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on the night of which they were also to appear onThe Sunday Game television highlights package onRTÉ One.[14][15] A qualifying round previously took place at the same venue three weeks earlier on 28 August 2009.[16] Irish language television channelTG4 also conducted a similar quiz on its website in association with Jimmy Magee.[17]
A special book dedicated to the 125th year of the GAA will be released in November.[3][9] It is titledThe GAA—A People’s History.[18][19][20] The book includes journal entries and photographs from the 125-year period of the GAA's existence.[21]
On the anniversary on 1 November there was aMass atThurles Cathedral, a ceremony atThurles'sDr Croke monument, celebrations at the GAA Museum in Croke Park and a day of GAA television programming on TG4.[2]
Next month the anniversary year begins with two major events. On 9 January the GAA will be the exclusive focus of RTÉ'sLate Late Show. According to Burns this will mark the start of the year's events. "The Late Late Show reaches into many thousands of homes in Ireland and that will be the throw-in event for us." Larry Masterson, the programme's executive producer, who attended the announcement, said: "It (the programme's 2009 schedule) will kick off with a Late Late Show special, which we can kick into full-time now that the toy show is over. It will be a big show." [...] At the end of the month the 2009 National Football League opens with the meeting of Leinster champions Dublin and All-Ireland champions Tyrone under lights at Croke Park, a revisiting of the first – and to date only – scheduled floodlit intercounty match at the venue, which took place in February of last year. [...] Other events lined up include the publication in November of the 125th anniversary book, the first release of the GAA Oral History Project and in May two Michael Hogan memorial matches in his home club of Grangemockler in Tipperary. The football match between Tipperary and Dublin will commemorate the 1920 challenge match on Bloody Sunday when Hogan was among those killed. [...] The Irish Film Institute will be screening a series of films celebrating the anniversary. In March the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese will deliver the Ó Fiaich Lecture on the subject of the importance of the GAA in the past 125 years. In April a one-day history conference will be held in Croke Park. Then in August, the Parnell Summer School in Avondale will look at the history and contemporary relevance of sport in Irish society.
The GAA tonight celebrated its 125th anniversary with a spectacular lights and fireworks show in Croke Park following a closely fought game between Dublin and Tyrone that the visitors won by 1-18 to 1-16. An "Iconic moments" show, featuring GAA highlights, over the years was screened, as part of the 125 Spectacle Event, and this was followed by a 20-minute lighting and fireworks extravaganza that saw the stadium bathed in a range of colours to a musical accompaniment. U2 drummer Larry Mullen produced the soundtrack for the lighting and fireworks display, which included tracks from, among others, U2, Snow Patrol, the Cranberries, and the Waterboys. A bilingual tribute to the GAA was provided by commentator Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh, and at one point an extract from former US president John F. Kennedy's speech to the Dáil was played over the PA system. [...] Half-time entertainment came from Sharon Shannon and Mundy.
As part of long-term hurling championship sponsor Guinness's 250th anniversary, the company offered as recognition of the GAA's 125 celebrations to contribute €250 for every goal scored in this year's championship, a total that raised nearly €25,000. Central Council accepted a proposal to spend the money on a symposium to consider the future of the game, which will be attended by officials and players from all counties.
RTÉ television would usually have broadcast the draws but on this occasion is unable to tie in with the GAA's date. Instead the business will go ahead in Croke Park next Tuesday on the same evening as the official launch by association president Christy Cooney of the 125 anniversary publication,The GAA—A People's History.
Take this journal entry from a 1926 publication by Thomas J Kenny,Tour of the Tipperary Hurling Team in America, 1926: "Saturday May 15th: 'Not much sleep last night when Nealon and Kennedy called on their rounds with notebook and pencil, asked if we jazzed with the Germans, thereby suspending ourselves from the GAA and if we took the meat sandwiches, thereby excommunicating ourselves from the Catholic Church'."