The Amplification and De-Amplification of Amateurism and Professionalism in the Gaelic Athletic Association

Abstract

In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by various groups comprising the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland throughout its history. Interestingly, the discourse pertaining to amateurism has at times been de-amplified, instead being superseded by the vilification of professionalism. Since the 1970s, both amateurism and professionalism have been imbued with new meanings and interpretations by different social groups comprising the organisation. In tandem with this, both the discourses of professionalism and amateurism have been increasingly amplified. We explain how the structure of competitive and cooperative interdependencies, the we-identifications, tensions and insecurities generated by these, between groups at different levels of integration – social class, national, inter-organisational and intra-organisational – underpin these social developments.

L'amplification et ‘de-amplification’ de l'amateurisme et le professionnalisme dans la Gaelic Athletic Association

Dans cet article, nous expliquons comment et pourquoi une philosophie spécifique de l'amateurisme a été présenté et incarné par divers groupes qui composent la gaélique Athletic Association (GAA) en Irlande tout au long de son histoire. Il est intéressant de noter que les discours se rapportant à l'amateurisme a parfois été désamplifié, plutôt que d'être remplacé par le dénigrement du professionnalisme. Depuis les années 1970, tant l'amateurisme que le professionnalisme ont été imprégnés de nouvelles significations et interprétations par différents groupes sociaux composant l'organisation. Parallèlement, les discours du professionnalisme et de l'amateurisme ont été tout deux de plus en plus amplifiés. Nous expliquons comment la structure des interdépendances compétitives et coopératives, les formes d'appartenance à un groupe, les tensions et l'insécurité qu'elles génèrent entre les groupes à différents niveaux d'intégration – de classe, national, inter-organisationnel et intra-organisationnel-sous-tendent ces évolutions sociales.

La amplificación y la amortiguación del amateurismo y del profesionalismo en la Gaelic Athletic Association

En este artículo se explica cómo y por qué varias organizaciones, entre las cuales la Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), han representado y personificado una forma específica de amateurismo en Irlanda a lo largo de su historia. Cabe destacar que el discurso del amateurismo en ocasiones se ha visto amortiguado, quedando sustituido por el vilipendio del profesionalismo. Desde los años 70, tanto el amateurismo como el profesionalismo han incorporado nuevos significados e interpretaciones por parte de diversos grupos sociales, entre ellos la GAA. En paralelo, tanto el discurso del profesionalismo como el del amateurismo se han visto cada vez más amplificados. Exponemos de qué forma han influido en estos movimientos la estructura de las interdependencias competitivas y cooperativas entre grupos con diversos niveles de integración (clase social, nacional, inter-organizacional e intra-organizacional), las identidades de grupo, las tensiones y las inseguridades generadas por éstas.

Die Verstärkung und Verringerung von Amateurismus und Professionalität in der Gaelic Athletic Association

In diesem Artikel erklären wir, wie und warum in Irland ein bestimmtes Ethos des Amateurismus durch verschiedene Gruppen aus der Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) im Laufe ihrer Geschichte porträtiert und verkörpert wurde. Interessanterweise hat sich der Diskurs in Bezug auf Amateurismus bei Zeiten verringert, anstatt durch die Verunglimpfung von Professionalität abgelöst zu werden. Seit den 1970er Jahren wurden sowohl Amateurismus als auch Professionalität durch neue Bedeutungen und Interpretationen von den verschiedenen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen, welche die Organisation umfasst, inspiriert. Parallel dazu haben sich sowohl der Diskurs der Professionalität als auch des Amateurismus zunehmend verstärkt. Wir erklären, wie die Struktur der konkurrenzbetonten und kooperativen Wechselwirkungen, die Wir-Identifikationen, Spannungen und Unsicherheiten, die durch diese erzeugt wurden, zwischen Gruppen auf verschiedenen Ebenen der Integration – sozialschichtbedingt, national, organisationsübergreifend und innerorganisatorisch – diese gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen untermauern.

盖尔竞技运动协会中的业余主义和专业主义的扩大化和去扩大化

作者在本文中解释了作为特定民族思潮的业余精神在爱尔兰历史中是如何和怎样被包括盖尔运动协会（GAA）这样的团体所描述和体现得。有趣得是，有关业余精神的论述有时被缩小了, 而不是被专业精神所取代。自从20世纪70年代以来，业余精神和专业精神在爱尔兰就已经被新的方式所灌输和被包括GAA在内的不同的社会团体所解释。与此联系的是，有关专业精神和业余精神的论述也已经被逐渐地扩大。作者认为由专业精神和业余精神所产生的竞争与合作的相互依赖性结构、群体认同、紧张和不安全感以不同整合层次出现在群体间，这些层次包括社会阶层、民族、组织间和组织内，并且解释了这种相互依赖性的结构是如何巩固社会发展的。

A amplificação e desamplificação do amadorismo e do profissionalismo na Associação Atlática Gaálica

Esse artigo explica como e porque um ethos específico de amadorismo foi representado e incorporado por diversos grupos na Associação Atlética Gaélica na Irlanda ao longo de sua história. Curiosamente, o discurso referente ao amadorismo foi por vezes desamplificado, ao invés de ser suplantado pelo aviltamento do profissionalismo. Desde os anos 1970 o amadorismo e o profissionalismo foram imbuídos de novos significados e interpretações por diferentes grupos sociais que compunham a organização. Paralelamente, os discursos do amadorismo e do profissionalismo foram gradualmente amplificados. Explicamos como a estrutura de interdependência de competitividade e cooperação, a nós-identificação, e as tensões e inseguranças criadas por elas entre grupos em diferentes níveis de integração – classe social, nacional, interorganizacional e intraorganizacional – sustentam essas movimentações sociais.

ゲーリック・アスレティック・アソシエーションにおけるアマチュアリズムとプロフェッショナリズムの拡張と減退

本論文では、アイルランドのゲーリック・アスレティック・アソシエーションを構成する様々な集団によって、ある独特のアマチュアリズムのエートスがその歴史を通じてどのように、そしてなぜ描写され具現化されたかを論じる。興味深いことに、時にアマチュアリズムに関わる言説は減退し、プロフェッショナリズムへの謗りに取って代わられる。１９７０年代以降、アマチュアリズムとプロフェッショナリズムは、同組織を成す様々な社会集団によって、新たな意味と解釈を与えられてきた。またこれと同時に、プロフェッショナリズムとアマチュアリズムについての言説もさらに拡張されてきた。本論文では、社会階層、国家、組織間、組織内といった様々な統括レベルでの集団間において、競争的ないしは協同的な相互関係の構造と、それによって生じる｢我々｣意識の形成、緊張、不安定さが、これらの社会的発展をいかに支えているかについて論じる。

Keywords::

• amateurism
• professionalism
• Gaelic Athletic Association
• Elias
• Ireland

Notes

^1. Dunning and Sheard document and explain the gradual replacement of amateur values, attitudes and structures by professional ones in the sport of soccer in Britain from the late 1870s, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players; also see, Dunning, “Dynamics of Modern Sport,” 205.

^2. Gaelic games refer to the sports of Gaelic football and hurling, which evolved over several centuries in Ireland.

^3. The ethos of amateurism is institutionalised in the constitution of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the governing body for Gaelic games, and players remain unpaid for competing.

^4. Dunning, “Dynamics of Modern Sport,” 205.

^5. Elias, Civilizing Process.

^6. McAnallen's “Greatest Amateur Association” is one of the most comprehensive historical accounts of amateurism in the GAA.

^7. Following Elias' What is Sociology?, the concept of interdependence concerns the structure of relations bonding people to one another. Such relations are always characterised by fluid power balances.

^8. Dolan, “Figurational Dynamics and Parliamentary Discourses.”

^9. Ibid.

^10. In some areas local rules persisted, similar to the situation for “Gaelic” football and hurling following the formation of the GAA and efforts to standardise rules and play.

^11. Ó Riain, Maurice Davin, 30.

^12. Mullan, “Opposition, Social Closure, and Sport,” 27.

^13. Cork Examiner, November 3, 1884.

^14. Freeman's Journal, February 11, 1885.

^15. Mullan, “Opposition, Social Closure, and Sport.”

^16. Hunt, “GAA: Social Structure”; O'Donoghue, Proud and Upright Men, 182; Garnham, “Accounting for the Early Success,” 72.

^17. Garnham, “Accounting for the Early Success,” 72; Garnham, Association Football and Society, 12.

^18. Garnham, “Accounting for the Early Success,” 72.

^19. Michael Cusack in Celtic Times, March 19, 1887, 6, and May 14, 1887, 4. Cusack came from rather humble origins in County Clare.

^20. Hunt, “GAA: Social Structure,” 191.

^21. Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association.

^22. Gaelic football was not a national sport played under a set of codified rules at that point. Rather, it had evolved throughout different parts of Ireland from older “folk” forms and with playing rules and styles differing from region to region.

^23. Michael Cusack repeatedly denounced both rugby and association football. For the deriding of soccer in Galway in 1890s, see also O'Donoghue, Proud and Upright Men, 51, 96–97.

^24. Garnham, Association Football and Society; Hunt, “GAA: Social Structure.”

^25. Garnham, Association Football and Society, 7.

^26. Between 1898 and 1916, the GAA had approximately twice the number of affiliated clubs, though varying from year to year. However, IFA-affiliated clubs were concentrated in specific regions indicating, as Garnham suggests, the popularity and dominance of soccer. See Garnham, Association Football and Society, 43–44; for GAA, see Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association, 116.

^27. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1901. The desire to ban GAA members from playing “other” sports was not universally accepted, and many GAA members and activists were less than keen for such a development. Furthermore, despite appeals on the basis of cultural nationalism, for many, GAA membership was reinforced through the emotional identification with local clubs and/or related social units.

^28. Hunt, Sport and Society in Victorian Ireland, 156; O'Donoghue, Proud and Upright Men, 78.

^29. Garnham, Association Football and Society, 133.

^30. McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association,” 162.

^31. Ibid., 99.

^32. Garnham, Association Football and Society, 87.

^33. Elias and Scotson, Established and the Outsiders.

^34. Garnham, Association Football and Society, 81–82.

^35. Garnham, “Accounting for the Early Success,” 72; Mullan, “Opposition, Social Closure, and Sport,” 284.

^36. Ó Riain, Monegall Hurling Story, 9.

^37. Minutes of Central Council of the GAA, May 22, 1908.

^38. A conclusion also drawn by McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association.”

^39. Irish Times, May 28, 1909, 3. The IRFU also instituted a rule in 1913 preventing any professional player in the code of association football from playing rugby at any level even if they had been reinstated as an amateur, Garnham, Association Football and Society, 81.

^40. McDevitt, “Muscular Catholicism.”

^41. Gaelic Athletic Annual and County Directory 1908–109; 1910–11; see also McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association,” 161.

^42. McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association’, 158.

^43. Ibid.; O'Donoghue, Proud and Upright Men, 172

^44. Sport, August 8, 1903.

^45. Garnham, Association Football and Society, 30.

^46. Gaelic Athlete, March 27, 1915.

^47. See Dolan and Connolly, “Civilizing of Hurling”; Connolly and Dolan, “Civilizing and Sportization of Gaelic Football.” Here the term “civilizing” is not meant in any evaluative sense, rather it is central within the theoretical framework developed by sociologist Norbert Elias. It denotes a process in which thresholds of shame towards engaging in and witnessing violence are heightened and where a shift in the balance between social and self-control occurs in the direction of the latter.

^48. Fitzgerald, How to Play Gaelic Football.

^49. Looney, Dick Fitzgerald.

^50. As in Dunning and Sheard's study, broken-time payments involved “the reimbursement of working men for wages lost through playing and/or training during working hours,” Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players, 149–150.

^51. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1930

^52. Devine, “The Twenties,” 27.

^53. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1906, 1911, 1925, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1946, 1952.

^54. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1929

^55. Conboy, “The Forties,” 69.

^56. Ibid., 63.

^57. Minutes of Armagh County Board of the GAA, July 6, 1934, 31.

^58. O'Sullivan, Art and Science of Gaelic Football.

^59. Moran, “The Fifties,” 74.

^60. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1946.

^61. Minutes of annual congress of the Leinster provincial council of GAA, 1927.

^62. The GAA's most prestigious competition is the men's senior inter-county All-Ireland championship.

^63. Minutes of the annual congress of the GAA, 1946.

^64. See, for example, minutes of annual congress of the Leinster GAA congress, 1927; Conboy, “The Forties,” 57; Gaelic Quarterly Review, 2, 1936; Ó Hannrachain, “Heroic Importance of Sport.”

^65. Devlin, Our Native Games.

^66. See Ó Hannrachain, “Heroic Importance of Sport,” 1332–1333.

^67. Irish Times, October 14, 1943, 2.

^68. Irish Times, January 19, 1939, 3.

^69. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1942; Secretary's Report, An Chomhdáil Bliantúil, 1950.

^70. Boyle, “From Our Gaelic Fields.”

^71. Irish Press, April 27, 1948, 8.

^72. That the Anglo-Irish gentry were no longer a significant and powerful group in Irish society also meant that amateurism carried any significant association with them. As such, this could not be identified as the main reason for the de-amplification of amateurism at this time.

^73. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1947.

^74. Minutes of annual congress of the Leinster provincial council of GAA, 1953.

^75. Minutes of central council of the GAA, February 28, 1953.

^76. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1953.

^77. Dolan, “Figurational Dynamics and Parliamentary Discourses.”

^78. Lunn and Layte, Sporting Lives.

^79. GAA, Report of the Commission on the GAA.

^80. Ibid.; McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association.”

^81. GAA, Report of the Commission on the GAA.

^82. Ibid.; GAA, Comhdail d'oifigigh choisti chuige agus chontae.

^83. Connolly and Dolan, “Sport, Media and the Gaelic Athletic Association.”

^84. Ibid.

^85. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1963.

^86. See Dolan and Connolly, “Civilizing of Hurling”; Connolly and Dolan, “Civilizing and Sportization of Gaelic Football.”

^87. See McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association.”

^88. Dunning, “Dynamics of Modern Sport,” 205.

^89. Irish Times, November 16, 2006, A8.

^90. Citation omitted to maintain the integrity of the review process.

^91. Elias, Civilizing Process.

^92. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1980.

^93. McAnallen, “Greatest Amateur Association,” 177.

^94. Minutes of Armagh GAA County Committee, February 8, 1935.

^95. McKeever, “Coming of Age,” 32.

^96. Representatives (administrators) of each club in a county comprise the county committee.

^97. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1929, 1935, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1946, 1972.

^98. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1931.

^99. Hayes, “Down Through the Years,” 25.

^100. Ibid.

^101. O'Connor, The Club.

^102. Martin, Unlimited Heartbreak.

^103. Irish Times, August 4, 1988, 3.

^104. Minutes of the executive committee of the GAA, 1972.

^105. Gaelic Players Association (GPA), Gaelic Players Association.

^106. Ibid.

^107. It lasted less than a year.

^108. Irish Times, August 4, 1988, 3.

^109. Irish Times, May 24, 1988, 3, and March 22, 1989, 2.

^110. See, for example, Irish Independent, June 19, 1996, 20; also Darby, “Gaelic Games and the Irish Immigrant,” 97. There is little evidence to indicate how widespread this practice was but media reports helped amplify it.

^111. Murphy, Dunning, and Murphy, “Soccer Crowd Disorder and the Press.”

^112. GAA, Report of the Committee established to review the GAA's amateur status, 1997; Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1992.

^113. Cusack, Come What May.

^114. GAA, Report of the Committee established to review the GAA's amateur status, 1997.

^115. Players and administrators comprise a whole series of different, complex and overlapping social units of the GAA and at different levels of integration, which generates conflicting emotional tensions for individuals. For instance, they can comprise clubs, county, provincial and national units.

^116. Minutes of annual congress of the GAA, 1992.

^117. Ibid.; GAA, Report of the Committee established to review the GAA's amateur status, 1997; Irish Times, December 30, 2002, 28.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Connolly

John Connolly lectures in research methods and the management and marketing of sport at Dublin City University Business School. His current research interests include figurational approaches to sport, organizations and advertising.

Paddy Dolan

Paddy Dolan is a Lecturer in Consumer Research at the College of Business, Dublin Institute of Technology. He is a sociologist whose research interests include figurational theory, consumer culture, sport, organizations, national identities and childhood.