THE GAA TODAY

Today, the GAA is a big part of Ireland. There are hundreds of clubs across the world. There are 132 clubs in the United States, 40 of them in New York, 71 in Europe excluding the UK and Ireland, 64 in Australia and 22 in Asia. In the United Kingdom there are 83 clubs and 31 of them are located in London. Together these figures ,make up 20% of the number of GAA clubs. In Ireland, Cork has the most clubs with 259, followed by Dublin with 134 and Antrim with 108. Due to its population, Leitrim has only 24 GAA clubs, the lowest amount in a county.

Image of Croke Park from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Croke_Park_from_the_hill.jpg

Croke Park was opened in 1884 and was named after Archbishop Thomas Croke and is located in Dublin 3. Today it is Ireland's largest stadium and Europe's third largest. it is the main stadium and headquarters of the GAA. 'Croker' has a capacity of 82300, 73500 of which are seated. After much controversy, the stadium had developed to host matches and events which are not related to GAA. these include rugby matches, American Football matches, ceremonies and concerts. Today, Croke Park is used very regularly. It also has a museum and Skyline Tour. Croke Park and the GAA have also played a huge role in marking the centinary of the 1916 Easter Rising. This year's Football League Finals, divisions one and two, were played on Sunday 24 April, the exact anniversary of the Easter Rising. As well as this, the GAA wanted to promote the Irish flag, culture and sport in honour to mark this historic event. They hosted a once-off show called 'Laochra', meaning heroes. Over 3500 people were involved and it told the history of Ireland through song and dance. The GAA have also been celebrating their own history this year in addition to the Easter Rising.

GROWING POPULATION OF THE GAA

GAA is continually growing and is now the biggest sporting organisation in Ireland. It has grown more popular over the years and has played a big role in Irish life and culture.
When Irish people emigrate, they can often form small Irish communities abroad. These communities can set up GAA clubs to give the emigrants a 'home away from home'. As the number of Irish emigrants abroad grew, so have their clubs. Also, non-Irish locals and expats have began to join GAA clubs in their area because they are interested and fascinated by these sports. An example of this is the annual Asian Gaelic Games tournament which is a tournament of GAA clubs held every year in Asia. It first began in 1996 in Manilla, where only 72 players participated. It has developed to become the largest gathering of the Irish community in Asia with 800 players taking part in the 2014 tournament. Similarly, GAA competitions like this have been operated in other countries too which include the Australian Championship and the European GAA Championship. When Irish emigrants left for Britain and the United States in the nineteenth century, they took GAA with them and were able to use it as a social network for the Irish community abroad. There are now approximately 440 GAA clubs outside of Ireland and this number is continuing to increase.




Image from: https://www.oneills.com/asia-gaa-mens-jersey-team-3.html

CLUBS AND COMPETITIONS

GAA is not played and located in Ireland alone, there are indeed many clubs across the country and also over the border up north, but there are also many clubs internationally too. Many Irish have emigrated and brought GAA with them allowing clubs to be set up in foreign countries across the world. There are GAA clubs in every county in Ireland and also many outside of Ireland in places like England, Germany, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands, France, Finland, Luxemburg, Spain, Denmark, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, UAE, Sweden, Taiwan, Canada, Japan, USA and Hong Kong!

The GAA and its clubs operate many matches and competitions throughout the year. Many of the competitions are held within the counties, where clubs play each other to become to 'best' in their county. Matches are also played between counties in the Allianz Leagues and All-Ireland Championships. Clubs from different counties can also play against each other. International teams can too be arranged to play GAA in a modified version. This happens annually when Ireland play Scotland in a game with a mix of shinty and hurling. Ireland also play Australia in a  match of Gaelic Football and Australian Rules Football. The largest and most popular competition in the GAA is the All-Ireland Championships. this competition is held for Gaelic Football (both men and ladies), hurling and camogie each year. The All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is the most popular one and can sometimes be considered the most competitive too. The current title holders are Dublin who have won twenty-six times but Kerry have won the most championships with an outstanding thirty-seven titles. Kilkenny (36) are theall time record-holders of the Hurling, Cork and Kerry are tied both with eleven titles for the Ladies Football and Cork and Dublin are tied for the Camogie with twenty-six titles each.

International Jersey Image From: https://www.oneills.com/ireland-international-rules-gaa-conall-tshirt-kids.html

Founding of the GAA

The GAA was founded by a man named Michael Cusack on November 1 1884, 132 years ago. Cusack was from Carran in Co. Clare and was born on September 20 1847. He was a teacher and he opened an academy which prepared students for their Civil Service examinations. His students were greatly involved in sports including rugby, rowing and cricket. In the 1880s, he became more interested in traditional Irish sports, particularly hurling.

Images from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cusack and http://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2015/10/the-irishman-joins-online-british.html

In 1882, Michael Cusack went the opening meeting of the Dublin Hurling Club, which was set up 'to re-establish the national game of hurling'. After weekly games of hurling in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, the game grew very popular leading Cusack to set up 'Cusack's Academy Hurling Club'. The establishment of this club led to the founding of the Metropolitans. the Metropolitans played Killiomor in 1884 in Galway. The teams could barely play the match as they had to keep stopping the game because both teams were following different rules of the game. Cusack felt something needed to be done about this. He wrote an article titled 'A Word About Irish Athletics' which appeared in the United Irishman and The Irishman newspapers. shortly after, Cusack wrote a letter to the two newspapers explaining that there would be a meeting held in Thurles on November 1.

The meeting took place at Haye's Commercial Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary on November 1 1884. A group of enthusiastic Irish men, including Cusack, wanted to make athletics more accessible to the people of Ireland. At this time, only people in the middle of upper class were participating in sports. in an effort to revive traditional Irish sports and past times, Michael Cusack formed the 'Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes'.

Within six months of its establishment, GAA clubs had began to set up around the country and people played their sports with more pride than ever before. The GAA has continued to grow and has become the Gaelic Athletic Association as we know it today.




Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GAA_insoco.png

WHAT IS THE GAA?

The Gaelic Athletic Association (or GAA for short) is an Irish amateur sporting organisation. It promotes Gaelic sports including Camógie, Gaelic football, Hurling, rounders and handball. in addition to these sports, the organisations also promotes Irish song, dance, music and the Irish language. There are many GAA clubs across the country and abroad which are part of the Association and they carry out the same roles as the GAA.


Hi, my name is Eva and welcome to my Transition Year blog on the geography of GAA. I play camógie and have a great interest in GAA and I am interested in finding out the Geography of a sport I play and enjoy.

Image from: http://galwaybayfm.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/GAA.jpeg