Cumann Lúthchleas Gael | |
 | |
| Formation | 1 November 1884; 140 years ago (1884-11-01) inThurles,County Tipperary,Ireland |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Hayes' Hotel,Thurles |
| Type | Sports association |
| Purpose | The management and promotion ofGaelic games, and promotion ofIrish culture andlanguage |
| Headquarters | Croke Park |
| Location | |
Region served | Worldwide |
| Membership | approx. 500,000[1] (2014) |
Official language | Irish |
| Jarlath Burns | |
Main organ | Central Council |
| Staff | Limited full-time staff |
| Website | gaa.ie |
TheGaelic Athletic Association (GAA;Irish:Cumann Lúthchleas Gael[ˈkʊmˠən̪ˠˈl̪ˠuːˌçlʲasˠˈɡeːlˠ];CLG) is an Irish internationalamateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenousGaelic games and pastimes,[2] which include the traditional Irish sports ofhurling,camogie,Gaelic football,Gaelic handball, andGAA rounders. The association also promotesIrish music anddance, as well as theIrish language and it also promotes environmental stewardship through its Green Clubs initiative.
As of 2014, the organisation had over 500,000 members,[1] and declared total revenues of €96.1 million in 2022.[3] The Competitions Control Committee (CCC) of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) governing bodies organise the fixture list ofGaelic games within aGAA county orprovincial councils.
Gaelic football and hurling are the most popular activities promoted by the organisation, and the most popular sports in theRepublic of Ireland in terms of attendance.[4] Gaelic football is also the second most popular participation sport inNorthern Ireland.[5] The women's version of these games,ladies' Gaelic football andcamogie, are organised by the independent but closely linkedLadies' Gaelic Football Association and theCamogie Association of Ireland, respectively.GAA Handball, is the governing body for the sport ofhandball, while the other Gaelic sport, rounders, is managed by the GAA Rounders National Council (Irish:Comhairle Cluiche Corr na hÉireann).
Since its foundation in 1884, the association has grown to become a major influence in Irish sporting andcultural life, with considerable reach into communities throughout Ireland and among theIrish diaspora.[6]
On 1 November 1884, a group of Irishmen gathered in theHayes' Hotel billiard room to formulate a plan and establish an organisation to foster and preserve Ireland's unique games and athletic pastimes. Arising out of the meeting, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded. The architects and founding members wereMichael Cusack ofCounty Clare,Maurice Davin,Joseph K. Bracken,Thomas St George McCarthy, a District Inspector in theRoyal Irish Constabulary, P. J. Ryan of Tipperary,John Wyse Power and John McKay.[7] Maurice Davin was elected president, Cusack, Wyse-Power and McKay were elected Secretaries and it was agreed thatArchbishop Croke,Charles Stewart Parnell andMichael Davitt would be asked to become Patrons.
In 1922 it turned over the job of promotingathletics to theNational Athletic and Cycling Association.[8]
The GAA organises a number of competitions at divisional, county,inter-county, provincial,inter-provincial andnational (All-Ireland) levels. A number of competitions follow a progressive format in which, for example, the winners of aclub county football competition progress to a competition involving the top clubs from each county in the province, with the champions from each province progressing through a series of national finals.
The association has had a long history of promoting Irish culture.[9]Through a division of the association known asScór (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 theIrish language, traditionalIrish dancing,music, song, and other aspects ofIrish 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.[10]
The group was formally founded in 1969 and is promoted through various Association clubs throughout Ireland (as well as some clubs outside Ireland).
The association has many stadiums scattered throughout Ireland and beyond. Every county and nearly all clubs have grounds, with varying capacities and utilities, where they play their home games.
The hierarchicalstructure of the GAA is applied to the use of grounds. Clubs play at their own grounds for the early rounds of theclub championship, while the latter rounds from quarter-finals to finals are usually held at a county ground, i.e. the ground whereinter-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 inUlster, where in 2004 and 2005 theUlster Football Finals were played in Croke Park, as the anticipated attendance was likely to far exceed the capacity of the traditional venue ofSt Tiernach's Park,Clones.
Croke Park is the association's flagship venue and is known colloquially asCroker orHeadquarters, 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. Croke Park is named afterArchbishop Thomas Croke, who was elected as a patron of the GAA during the formation of the GAA in 1884.
The Croke Park campus is also home to theNational Handball Centre, which replaced the old Croke Park Handball Centre built in the 1970s. The centre is due to be the home ofGAA Handball and to play host to All-IrelandGaelic Handball finals.[11]
The next three biggest grounds are all inMunster:Semple Stadium inThurles,County Tipperary, with a capacity of 53,000, theGaelic Grounds inLimerick, which holds 50,000, andPáirc Uí Chaoimh,County Cork, which can accommodate 45,000.
Other grounds with capacities above 25,000 include:
Research by formerFermanagh 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.[12][13]
The association has, since its inception, been closely associated withIrish nationalism,[14][15] and this has continued to the present, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland,[16] where the sports are played predominantly by members of the mainlyCatholic nationalist community, and many in the Protestant unionist population consider themselves excluded by a perceived political ethos.[17][18] According to one sports historian, the GAA "is arguably the most striking example of politics shaping sport in modern history".[19]
A perception withinNorthern Irelandunionist circles that the GAA is anationalist organisation[20][21] is reinforced by the naming of some GAA grounds, clubs, competitions and trophies after prominent nationalists or republicans.[22][23][24][25]
Other critics point to protectionist rules such as Rule 42 which prohibits competing, chiefly British, sports (referred to by some as "garrison games"[26][27][28] orforeign sports) from GAA grounds. As a result, the GAA became a target forloyalist paramilitaries duringthe Troubles when a number of GAA supporters were killed and clubhouses damaged.[29][30] 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.[31]
Some of the protectionist rules are as follows:
Rule 42 (Rule 5.1 in the 2009 rulebook)[32] 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"[26][27][28] orforeign 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 GAAhave 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.[33] The first soccer and rugby union games permitted in Croke Park took place in early 2007, the first such fixture beingIreland's home match in theSix Nations Rugby Union Championship againstFrance.
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.[34][35] 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.[34][36] It is also said that it is questionable as to whether or not such rental deals would be damaging to the GAA's interests.[34]
The GAA has had some notable rules in the past which have since been abolished.Rule 21, instituted in 1897 when it was suspected thatRoyal Irish Constabulary spies were trying to infiltrate the organization, prohibited members of the British forces from membership of the GAA.[37] The rule was abolished after an overwhelming majority voted for its removal at a special congress convened in November 2001.[38][39]Rule 27, sometimes referred to asThe Ban, dated from 1901 and banned GAA members from taking part in or watching non Gaelic games. During that time people such asDouglas Hyde, GAA patron and then President of Ireland, was expelled for attending a soccer international.[40] Rule 27 was abolished in 1971.[41]
The association points out the role of members ofminority religions in the membership throughout its history. For example, the ProtestantJack Boothman waspresident of the organisation from 1993 to 1997, while Sam Maguire was aChurch 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 aCommunity Development Unit, which is responsible for "Diversity and Community Outreach initiatives".[42] The Cúchulainn Initiative is a cross-community program aimed at establishing teams consisting of Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren with no prior playing experience.[43] Cross-community teams such as the Belfast Cuchulainn under-16 hurling team have been established and gone on to compete at theContinental Youth Championship in the USA.[43] Similar hurling and Gaelic football teams have since emerged in Armagh, Fermanagh, Limavady.[44]David Hassan, from the University of Ulster, has written about the cross community work of the association and other sporting bodies in Ulster.[citation needed]
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.[45][46] The Ulster Council is also establishing cross-community football and hurling teams in schools and is developing links with theUlster-Scots Agency and theChurch of Ireland.[46] 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.[46]
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.[47] The initiative was later expanded by teaming up with the Irish Farmers Association to integrate that organisation's volunteers into the initiative.[48]
Members of theIrish diaspora have set-up clubs in a number of regions and countries outside of Ireland, and there are GAA clubs in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, continental Europe and elsewhere.[49]
The GAA World Games were first played in Abu Dhabi in 2015.[50] The next edition was played in Dublin in 2016 with subsequent editions to be played in Ireland every three years. The 2019 games were awarded toWaterford,[51] but the next edition inDerry[52] was deferred to 2023 due to theCovid pandemic.
While some units of the association outside Ireland participate in Irish competitions, the association itself does not organise regular international games played according to the rules of either Gaelic football or hurling. However, the first international match between France and Italy was played in 2014.[53]
Compromise rules have been reached with two "related sports".
Hurlers play an annual fixture against a nationalshinty team fromScotland.
International Rules Football matches have taken place between anIrish national team drawn from the ranks of Gaelic footballers, against anAustralian national team drawn from theAustralian 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,[54] but resumed in October 2008 when Ireland won a two test series in Australia.[55] 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 theCormac McAnallen Cup by a score of 56–52.
The international dimension ofGaelic handball includes a World Championship tournament,[56][57] alongside aEuropean Tour and US Semi-Professional Tour.[58][59] The 4-Wall and1-Wall codes of the game are played around the world [with slightly different rules depending on which country one is playing in] and the World Handball Championships are organised by the World Handball Council.[60] AEuropean Tour has been set up with players from across Europe participating.[58] 4-Wall Handball is played primarily in Ireland, the US and Canada while the1-Wall code is played (in addition to the three mentioned) in Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, Spain and the UK.[58]
To address concerns about playerburnout, the association adopted a rule in 2007 that prohibited collective training for inter-county players for a period of two months every winter.[61] This has proven to be controversial in that it is difficult to enforce; in the drive to stay competitive, managers have found ways to avoid 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.[62]
Over 500,000 people were registered on the [membership] system in 2014
The GAA has developed abroad amongst the Irish Diaspora [..] and club units are now well established in the United States of America, Australia, Britain, Canada, China, mainland Europe and many other parts of the world
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| National | |
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