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The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) (Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, ) is an amateur Irish and international cultural and sporting organisation focused primarily on promoting Gaelic games, which include the traditional Irish sports of hurling, camogie, Gaelic football, handball and rounders. The GAA also promotes Irish music and dance, and the Irish language.

It has more than 1 million members worldwide. 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. Gaelic football is also the largest participation sport in Northern Ireland.

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.

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.

Foundation and aims
The GAA had its genesis with Michael Cusack of County Clare. At the Civil Service Academy in Dublin, he established one of the first hurling clubs. Cusack, a native Irish speaker, was troubled by declining participation in traditional Irish sports. To remedy this situation and to re-establish hurling as the national pastime, Cusack met with several other enthusiasts with similar concerns, most notably Maurice Davin.

They established the Gaelic Athletic Association on Saturday, 1 November 1884 in the billiards room of Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, County Tipperary. The seven founder members were Michael Cusack, Maurice Davin (who presided), John Wyse Power, John McKay, J. K. Bracken, Joseph O'Ryan and Thomas St. George McCarthy. Frank Moloney of Nenagh was also later admitted to have been present by Cusack, while the following six names were published as having attended in press reports: William Foley, a Mr. Dwyer, a Mr. Culhane, William Delehunty, John Butler and William Cantwell. All these six were from Thurles except Foley, who like Davin was from Carrick-on-Suir. Given later controversies about playing and attending non Gaelic games and banning of playing non Gaelic games in Gaelic ground and the banning of members of the British armed forces and police from joining, it is notable that Thomas St. George McCarthy was a capped rugby international player (having played for Ireland against Wales in 1881-82 series of home nations matches) and was also a serving District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) at the time. J.K. Bracken was the father of Brendan Bracken, who was later a member of the UK cabinet during World War II. The Irish Republican Brotherhood by 1886 dominated the GAA executive and Cusack as secretary was ousted.

Aims
The initial plan was to resurrect the ancient Tailteann Games and establish an independent Irish organisation for promoting athletics, but hurling and Gaelic football eventually predominated. The following goals were set out:
 * 1) To foster and promote native Irish pastimes
 * 2) To open athletics to all social classes
 * 3) To aid in the establishment of hurling and football clubs which would organise matches between counties

The Gaelic Athletic Association in the twentieth century
In 1918 the GAA was banned by the British government, but Gaelic games were still played. It was very closely associated with the nationalist cause and got caught up in the troubled politics of the age. In 1919, the association took a decision to expel any civil servants who had taken the Oath of Allegiance. In November 1920, RIC policemen and British Soldiers surrounded Croke Park and fired indiscriminately into the crowd and onto the field killing 14 innocent people as a reprisal for political violence that had taken place earlier in the day elsewhere in Dublin. The day came to be known as Bloody Sunday and one of the stands in Croke Park was subsequently named after Michael Hogan, a Tipperary footballer who was among the dead.

In 1922 it gave up the task of promoting athletics to the National Athletic and Cycling Association.

In 1984 the GAA celebrated its hundredth year in existence. This anniversary was celebrated by the GAA with numerous events throughout the island. The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final was played in Semple Stadium in Thurles to honour the town in which the GAA was founded.

Domestic
The GAA organises competitive games in both codes and at all levels from youth all the way up to adult senior.

The highest level of competitions in the GAA are the inter-county All-Ireland Championships where the counties of Ireland compete to win the Provincial championships, All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. Before 1892, the winning club in each county championship contested the All-Ireland championship representing their county. In 1892, Congress granted permission for the winning club in each county championship to use players from other clubs in the county. This evolved into the modern practice of county teams consisting of players selected from various clubs throughout the county.

The inter-county All-Ireland championships have become the most prestigious competitions in the GAA and major national sporting events. The All-Ireland finals attract capacity crowds of over 80,000 at Croke Park, domestic television audiences on a par with international soccer and rugby, and worldwide viewing audiences.

Internationals
While some units of the GAA outside Ireland participate in Irish competitions, the GAA 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, but resumed in October 2008 when Ireland won a two test series in Australia.

Modern challenges
The association today defines itself as "a National Organisation which has as its basic aim the strengthening of the National Identity in a 32 County Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic games and pastimes."

Additional aims of the association are stated as:

Ireland has changed rapidly since the mid 1990s. EU enlargement, combined with the Celtic Tiger economy, had led to a large influx of foreign nationals from the EU's new member states in Eastern Europe. This means that a large proportion of the country's population is now outside the traditional native-born family structure through which the GAA tradition was passed from generation to generation. This presents a challenge to an organisation that was previously not geared towards marketing itself to people who have not heard of it or its games, and instead relied on people who had been reared watching and playing Gaelic games. The GAA has launched a number of projects to attract non-traditional members such as consulting with the Australian Football League and running leagues aimed at non-Irish nationals. The fact that increasing numbers of Irish people live in cities presents challenges to the GAA as well.
 * 1) To 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.
 * 2) To promote its aims amongst communities abroad through its overseas units.
 * 3) To support the promotion of Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football.
 * 4) To support Irish industry by sourcing equipment from Irish manufacturers.

Maintaining the GAA's activities in the overseas units is also a challenge for the modern association with the number of Irish people emigrating overseas in decline. Despite the large Irish diaspora, Gaelic games remain fairly low-profile outside of the Irish expatriate community. Initiatives such as full-time development officers and high-profile competitions such as the Continental Youth Championship and a North American College Hurling Championship currently contested between UC Berkeley and Stanford are helping to bring the games to non-Irish people everywhere, while the British GAA is promoting Gaelic games to youth in Britain.

Structure
The GAA is a democratic association consisting of various boards, councils, and committees organised in a structured hierarchy, and the basic unit of the association is the club. Its world headquarters are at Croke Park. All of the association's activities are governed by the Official Guide. Each County Board may have its own by-laws, none of which may conflict with the Official Guide. Each Divisional Board may have its own regulations, none of which may duplicate or contradict the Official Guide or county by-laws.


 * Annual Congress
 * President
 * Central Council
 * Provincial councils
 * County Board
 * Divisional Board (in larger counties)
 * Sport specific board (in some counties)
 * Club Committee

All of these bodies are elected on a democratic basis and the members are volunteers. There is a small paid staff.

The organisation is overseen by the President, currently Christy Cooney. The President travels across Ireland and the world to promote the organisation and attend games; Cooney's predecessor Nickey Brennan travelled over 250,000 kilometres (160,000 miles) in Ireland alone during his three years as President, and visited Great Britain, Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East on several occasions, meeting dignitaries such as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg along the way.

The Director General (Ard Stiúrthóir) of the Association is the person who leads the executive work of the Association and oversees the work of the full-time staff, the current holder of the post is former Monaghan County Board Chairman Paraic Duffy who was appointed in 2008.

Cultural activities
Through a division of the association known as Scór (Irish for "score") the GAA promotes Irish cultural activities, running competitions in music, singing, dancing and storytelling.

Rule 4 of the 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. "

The group was formally founded in 1969, and is promoted through various GAA clubs throughout Ireland (as well as some clubs outside of Ireland).

Cultural impact
The Gaelic Athletic Association has grown to become the largest and most popular sporting organisation in Ireland with over 1 million members including those in clubs beyond the island of Ireland (referred to overseas units), more than 2600 member clubs, of which 300 are outside Ireland, and manages about five-hundred grounds throughout the world.

The extinction of the Gaelic games of hurling and the native style of football was averted in the nineteenth century. The rules of both hurling and football were standardised, which helped to spur the growth of the modern games since they were now being organised on a structured basis.

Hurling and Gaelic football have become the most popular spectator sports in the Republic of Ireland; 1,962,769 attendances were recorded at senior inter-county hurling and football championship games in 2003 while 60% of all attendances to sports events in the Republic of Ireland were at Gaelic games, with 34% of the total going to Gaelic football and 23% to hurling. Soccer is the closest rival with 16%. This presence means that the GAA has become a major player in the sporting life of Ireland and in the country's cultural life though its Scór section. The association is recognised as a major generator of social capital thanks to its promotion of healthy pastimes, volunteering, and community involvement.

Grounds
The GAA has many stadiums in 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 the Inter county games take place or where the county board is based. For example, a team like Gweedore GAA will play most of its games at Páirc Mhic Eiteagáin, if they reach the final of the club championship then the game will be played in MacCumhail Park, Ballybofey.

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, due to the fact that the anticipated attendance was likely to far exceed the capacity of the traditional venue of St Tiernach's Park, Clones.

Croke Park
Croke Park is the GAA's flagship venue and is known colloquially as Croker or Headquarters, since the venue doubles as the GAA'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.

Other grounds
The next three biggest grounds are all in Munster - Semple Stadium in Thurles, Co. Tipperary, with a capacity of 53,000, the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, which holds 50,000 and Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Co. Cork, which can accommodate 43,500.

Other notable grounds include:
 * McHale Park in Castlebar, the largest stadium in Connacht (and in the northern half of the country);
 * Pearse Stadium in Galway, which has hosted International rules football series games;
 * Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney: some Munster Finals are also held here;
 * Páirc Uí Rinn, also in Cork, a former League of Ireland soccer ground.
 * Semple Stadium in Thurles, Tipperary, the largest GAA ground outside of Croke Park.
 * St. Jarlath's Park, (known as Tuam Stadium) in Galway host to the most Connacht Finals.

Community outreach
The GAA has maintained that it has always promoted an Irish rather than Catholic identity and forbids sectarianism in it official guide, however it is preceived by the unionist community as being a nationalist sectarian organisation. To dispell this perception, the GAA in recent years has worked hard to reach out and bridge the gap between it and the unionist community.

In 2009, the GAA appointed National Congress Ulster Council Secretary Danny Murphy and Ulster Council Community Development Manager Ryan Feeney as "Community Outreach Co-ordinators" on behalf of the entire association. Their roles is to co-ordinate the association's unionist outreach and engagement work, and are responsible for promoting dialogue and links with individuals and groups who groups who traditionally have no involvement in the association.

The Cúchulainn Initiative, organised by Ulster GAA, is a cross-community program aimed at building teams consisting of Catholic and Protestant children who go on to play Gaelic games internationally. This consists of schoolchildren in Year 11 who have no direct experience of playing competitive Gaelic games. A hurling team from Armagh and a Gaelic football team from Fermanagh are examples of these attempts to promote good relations at grassroots level. The Fermanagh Cúchulainn team was commended by Irish President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin in 2010. The Belfast Cuchulainn team was the first cross-community under-16 hurling team; it was established in 2008 and went on to compete at the Continental Youth Championship in America. It "encouraged collaboration through sport between 4 post-primary schools in Belfast bringing together young people from both Protestant and Catholic working class communities in a spirit of respect and diversity." In 2010 there was Cúchulainns Cup Hurling competition that saw school children from across Belfast, Armagh, Limavady and Fermanagh compete in a cross community Hurling tournament for the first time.

The ‘Game of three halves’ cross-community coaching initiative was established in predominantly Protestant east Belfast in 2006. This scheme is organised through Knock Presbyterian Church bringing GAA coaches to work alongside their soccer and rugby counterparts to involve 150 primary school children at summer coaching camps. The Ulster Council is also establishing cross-community football and hurling teams at school levels and is developing links with the Ulster-Scots Agency and the Church of Ireland. 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 GAA in attempt to "promote understanding and foster respect on a cross community basis". In November 2008 the Ulster Council officially launched a new Community Development Unit, and one of the unit's six key responsibilities is the "Diversity and Community Outreach initiatives".

In addition to cross community work in Northern Ireland, in January 2011 President 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. The initiative was later expanded by teaming up with the Irish Farmers Association to integrate that organisation's volunteers into the initiative.

Nationalism
The Gaelic Atheltic Association has, since its inception been closely associated with Irish nationalism, and this has continued to the present, particularly in relation to Northern Ireland, 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.

According to one sports historian, the GAA "is arguably the most striking example of politics shaping sport in modern history". 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".

Michael Cusack, one of the leading founders of the GAA, stated that he wished to ‘nationalise and democratise sport in Ireland’, and to revive and promote Gaelic Ireland whilst discourgaing anglicisation. The GAA's nationalist aspect was further enhanced upon its creation with the appointment of Charles Stewart Parnell, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and Michael Davitt, head of the Land League, to become patrons of the association, whilst the nationalist MP, William O'Brien, offered to provide space for weekly articles and notices within his newspaper, United Ireland.

Politicisation
As the GAA expanded and its popularity grew, so too did the number of Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) members within the organisation. A meeting of the association as Thrules, September 1886, would encourage revolutionary nationalists to infiltrate the GAA, seeing its potential to be a recruiting ground. At this meeting a member of the IRB, P. T. Hoctor, was elected Vice-President of the GAA. John O'Leary, who was a Fenian leader in the failed 1867 rising, was elected as a patron of the association, whilst it was decided to raises funds for a memorial to Charles Kickham, an Irish revolutionary. A letter of thanks from the newly-elected patron of the GAA, John O'Leary, stated that the benefits of physical strength would help "nationalists prepare for battle".

The 1887 convention, saw the IRB gain control of the GAA's central executive, with the election of prominent IRB members as chairman and president. These appointments where met with opposition by many within the organisation, and divisions between militant and contitutional nationalism grew and became very evident. Archbishop Croke, one of the key founders of the GAA, denouced those members within it that advocated armed revolution.

This division also manifested itself in the naming of clubs, which took on a political nature, with names indicating support for either the Irish Parliamentary Party or the Fenians, for example: the Parnells, the Davitts, the Ballina Stephenites, and the Kickhams. However, IRB dominance within the GAA central executive came to an end on 4 January 1888, when they were outnumbered and ousted from the organisation, and saw them going underground.

Northern Ireland
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. Two incidents of Irish republican hunger strike commemorations on GAA grounds drew criticism from unionists, even though these events violated the GAA's rules.

The naming of Northern Irish GAA grounds and clubs after significant nationalists and republicans has also alienated the Protestant community in Northern Ireland. For example Casement Park in Belfast is named after Sir Roger Casement, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The main Gaelic football competition is called the Sam Maguire Cup, named after Sam Maguire, an Irish Republican Brotherhood officer. Other clubs and grounds are named after such figures as Theobald Wolfe Tone (Bellaghy Wolfe Tones), Thomas Clarke (Dungannon Thomas Clarkes), and more modernly, Kevin Lynch (Kevin Lynch's Hurling Club).

Protectionism
The GAA has successfully united its membership around a shared love of Gaelic games and an Irish nationalist identity, doing so, in part, through protectionist rules. These restrictions drove away most of the small numbers of unionist and Protestant supporters of Gaelic games, but helped to forge a sense of national affiliation that was able to transcend power struggles within the association. These rules include:


 * Rule 15, requires that the flag of the Republic of Ireland is flown and Amhrán na bhFiann, the national anthem of the Republic is played at all matches, even outside the Republic of Ireland.
 * Rule 21, which came into force in 1897 and was abolished in November 2001, prohibited members of the British forces from GAA membership, and prevented members from attending social events with them..
 * Rule 27, sometimes referred to as The Ban, came into force in 1901 until 1871. It banned GAA members from taking part in or watching non Gaelic games. Punishment for violating this rule was expulsion for the organisation. It resulted in Douglas Hyde, a GAA patron and then President of Ireland, being expelled for attending a soccer international. In order to circumvent the ban members such as Moss Keane would commonly adopt a false name.
 * Rule 42, prohibits the use of GAA property for games which conflict with the interests of the GAA, most notably foreign sports such as rugby and soccer. In 2005, this rule had been temporarily relaxed in regards to Croke Park whilst work was carried out at Lansdowne Road football ground.

Rule 42
Rule 42, (Rule 5.1 in the 2009 rulebook) 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" 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. 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. 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. 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.

Parish catchment areas
A rule which reinforces the association's Roman Catholic identity is the "parish rule", under which clubs, which are the basic unit of administration in the GAA, may have their catchment areas defined by the local Roman Catholic parish boundaries. 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.

The rule has become a topic of debate since changing demographics and settlement patterns in Ireland have meant that enforcement of the rule has caused problems for some clubs which face declining numbers and need to amalgamate with clubs in neighbouring parishes. A policy review in 2002 recommended that the rule be relaxed or replaced by county by-laws which can use more modern and relevant means of defining local communities.

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

Other links

 * National GAA Results and Fixtures on Aertel
 * GAA World by The Irish News
 * Index of GAA club sites
 * Michael Cusack Visitor Centre

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