The sporting world and the human heart: Ireland, 1880–1930

ABSTRACT

In the years between 1880 and 1920, tens of thousands of Irishmen and women played sport in Ireland. Some lived to play, others dabbled as they desired; some devoted their lives to one sport, others sought to participate in as many sports as they could. This article examines what motivated people to join the expanding world of clubs and associations, of matches and races. It assesses why they joined the particular clubs and associations that they joined, or played the particular games that they played. Further, the article explores how such choices were defined (or refined) by such factors as the influence of ideology and tradition, class and gender, commerce and geography, education and employment. Ultimately, it considers the extent to which the sporting choices of people were shaped by the straightforward pursuit of pleasure.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport
• popular culture
• play
• pleasure
• identity
• politics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The study of the history of sport has accelerated dramatically over the last three decades. The number of books and articles published, the range of journal articles in dedicated sports history journals and in broader historical journals, the number of theses undertaken in university departments have all increased to a remarkable extent. This work usually traces the development and impact of sporting organisations and individuals. It also occasionally, but certainly not always, seeks to examine the particular motivations that bring people to engage with sport. For an Irish example of an article that examines some aspects of what draws people to sport, see Garnham, “Accounting for the Early Success”. For an international perspective, see Collins, “Sport in Capitalist Society”.

2. McCarthy, Gold, Silver and Green, 210–234; Van Esbeck, One Hundred Years, 104; de Búrca, The GAA, 190–191, 202; and Mulhall, “A Gift From Scotland,” 32.

3. Peter, Irish Football Annual, 79; and Sport, October 8, 1881.

4. United Ireland, July 11, 1885.

5. Fitzgerald [Lord Castletown], “Ego”.

6. Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 15, 1893; and Davin, Recollections.

7. Irish Independent, September 1, 1976.

8. See, for example, Irish Independent, May 20, 1913, July 18, 1913.

9. D’Arcy, Horses, Lords and Racing Men, 243.

10. Fitzgerald, How to Play Gaelic Football, 13–15.

11. Public Record Office of Northern Ireland: D4196/A/1, IFA Minute Book, February 14 1899.

12. Lavery, Ard-Eoin Club History, 82.

13. West, The Bold Collegians, 37.

14. Sport, June 2, 1883.

15. West, The Bold Collegians, 40.

16. Irish Sportsman, June 22, 1878; and West, The Bold Collegians, 40.

17. Trinity College Dublin Archives: MS 2255, Minute book of the University footracesnd, June 16, 1880.

18. Sport, August 20, 1881, September 3, 1881.

19. Midland Tribune, August 20, 1888.

20. Holt, Sport and the British, 1.

21. Irish Sportsman, June 30, 1877.

22. O’Sullivan, Story of the GAA, 1.

23. Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association, 21–23.

24. Sport, July 30 1887.

25. Murphy, “Joseph K. Bracken,” 379–393.

26. Sport, October 29, 1887.

27. See note 25 above.

28. Sport, February 12, 1887.

29. Ibid.

30. Ibid.

31. O’Callaghan, Rugby in Munster, 164.

32. Rouse, “Politics of Culture and Sport,” 333–360.

33. Garnham, Association Football, 29–30.

34. Midland Tribune, February 9, 1888.

35. Murphy, “Sport in a Time of Revolution,” 116.

36. Ibid., 122.

37. Plunkett [Countess of Fingall], Seventy Years Young, 386.

38. Rouse, Sport and Ireland, 262.

39. Charles Kickham, head of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood until his death in 1882 and the author of the most famous novel published in Victorian Ireland: Knocknagow, or the Homes of Tipperary; this was to rural Ireland what Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes was to the English public school system.

40. Kickham, Knocknagow, 460–461; Celtic Times, March 12, 1887; Comerford, Charles J. Kickham; and Moran, “The Fenians and Tipperary Politics,” 73–90.

41. Irish Examiner, August 5, 2017.

42. GAA Museum and Archives: GAA/Laois/74, anonymous letter to the Leix County Secretary, c. Oct. 1914.

43. MacAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association”, 165.

44. Clare Champion, October 3 1914.

45. O’Callaghan, Rugby in Munster, 32.

46. Murphy, “Ireland and Physical Culture,” 161–167.

47. Ó Laoi, Annals Volume II, 36.

48. GAA Museum and Archives: Seán O’Duffy Collection, letter to unnamed newspaper, April 21, 1911.

49. Hargreaves, Sporting Females, 45.

50. See, for example, Higgins, “Hallmark of Pluperfect Respectability,” 15–31.

51. See also McDevitt, “May the Best Man Win”.

52. Enniscorthy Lawn Tennis Club Minute Book, July 19, 1918.

53. Garnham, Association Football, 66–67.

54. Enniscorthy Guardian, January, 1914.

55. Enniscorthy Echo, December 12, 1914.

56. Hornibrook, Without Reserve, 13–14.

57. Clare Champion, September 10, 1914.

58. Kerr, “Letter from Dublin,” 19–20.

59. Sport, January 1, 1881.

60. Sport, September 3, 1881.

61. Ibid.

62. Celtic Times, May 14, 1887.

63. Sport, November 19, 1881; and Garnham, “Rugby and Empire in Ireland,” 107–114.

64. Garnham, Origins and Development of Football, 177.

65. Ibid., 176–177.

66. Lynch, Irish Gordon Bennett Race.

67. Ibid., 14.

68. Leanne Blaney, “The Media and Irish Motorsport,” (MA thesis, UCD, 2012), chapter one.

69. Toms, “Electric Hare”.

70. Cronin and Higgins, Places We Play, 115–118.

71. Some of these tracks were also used for speedway racing. See Kearns, History of Speedway.

72. Irish People, October 15, 1864.

73. Irish Times, August 6, 1913.

74. See Ward, “Cockfighting in Ireland,” 97–111.

75. Freeman’s Journal, April 26, 1875.

76. Irish Sportsman, October 26, 1878.