The G.A.A. a Contested Terrain

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) as an organisation grew from an idealised political ideology prevailing in nationalist Irish politics. Coupled with the Home Rule movement in which the right of alien governments having any constitutional right to interfere and infringe on the borders of another where contested. The GAA espoused to similar ideals, it believed in the right to self-determination and governance of domestic athletics. The GAA organized itself around the premise that traditional Irish pastimes where being eroded, that there was a need for these pastimes to be encouraged and protected from morally corrupting alien influences. The GAA was distinctly organised around a cultural revolution in which its founding member, Micheál Cusack, sought to defend traditional Irish cultural landscape from Anglicisation. It was thought that the increasing interest in Cricket, Rugby, and Football etc was ‘cleansing’ the Irish cultural landscape of any significant meaning. The GAA acted against this perceived Anglican naturalisation and organised itself from rural to urban enclaves, which resulted in a national organisation that recognises only county borders; it is organised around a parochial regional level, to a county level administration that is accountable to a provincial administration, four provinces under the umbrella of a central administration based in Croke Park, Co. Dublin. The GAA is organised around a national ideology and has direct national policies set out in a Charter with legally binding rules and regulations that hope to ensure the success of the organisation but also the success of traditional Irish pastimes, Irish Culture.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

National University of Ireland Maynooth

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• McLoughlin, Gerard

• Geography

Language dc:language

en