The civilizing of hurling in Ireland

Abstract

This essay examines the sport of hurling in Ireland through the theoretical framework of sport and leisure developed by Elias and Dunning. Through an analysis of newspaper reports of games, of rulebooks and codes of play, as well as historical data on increasing social differentiation and integration, we argue that hurling has undergone sportization and civilizing processes. However, due to the unevenness of wider figurational shifts these processes have been non-linear and fragile. Gradually, we see increasing numbers of rules, as well as increasing severity of punishment for the breaking of specific rules relating to violent play. The level and extent of violent conduct also appears to change with both players and spectators becoming more self-controlled. The increasing emotional restraint of spectators and players can be explained by the changes in the overall structure of Irish society during this period, particularly from the 1960s onwards with increasing interdependencies between people.

Notes

  1 Elias and Dunning, ‘Dynamics of Group Sports’; Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement; Dunning and Sheard, Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players.

  2 See de Búrca, Michael Cusack.

  3 Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

  4 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1.

  5 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1

  6 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1, 3.

  7 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1

  8 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 3.

  9 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 3

 10 Quoted in de Búrca, Michael Cusack, 83.

 11 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 3.

 12 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 11.

 13 Celtic Times, April 16, 1887, 6.

 14 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 95.

 15 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 150.

 16 Lennon, The Playing Rules of Football and Hurling, 46.

 17 Lennon, The Playing Rules of Football and Hurling, 72.

 18 Lennon, The Playing Rules of Football and Hurling, 99.

 19 Elias, Time.

 20 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 199.

 21 Kee, The Green Flag, 643–4.

 22 Kee, The Green Flag, 680, 708.

 23 Elias, ‘Introduction’.

 24 Curr, Dunning and Sheard, ‘Sociological versus Empiricist History’, 113 note the difficulty in quantifying violence in sport.

 25 See Elias, The Civilizing Process.

 26 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1.

 27 Goudsblom cited in Wouters, ‘Developments in the Behavioural Codes’, 422.

 28 See Dunning, ‘Social Bonding’.

 29 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 2.

 30 Croke quoted in Fullam, The Throw-In, 44–5.

 31 See Elias and Dunning, Quest for Excitement.

 32 See de Búrca, Michael Cusack, 149–64.

 33 Celtic Times, May 7, 1887, 8.

 34 See Elias, The Society of Individuals.

 35 Kee, The Green Flag, 364–75; Lee, Modernisation of Irish Society, 65–96.

 36 see Elias, The Society of Individuals; The Civilizing Process.

 37 Celtic Times, May 7, 1887, 8.

 38 McDevitt, ‘Muscular Catholicism’.

 39 Celtic Times, February 26, 1887, 6.

 40 Celtic Times, May 7, 1887, 8.

 41 See de Búrca, Michael Cusack.

 42 Celtic Times, April 9, 1887, 7.

 43 See de Búrca, Michael Cusack, 162.

 44 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 35.

 45 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 76.

 46 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 79.

 47 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 52.

 48 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 237.

 49 Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA Official Guide, 40.

 50 Downey, Irish Times, July 11, 1977, 3.

 51 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 86.

 52 McCarthy quoted in Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 162.

 53 Kee, The Green Flag, 693.

 54 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 162.

 55 Mandle, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 174.

 56 Irish Press, August 7, 1933, 9.

 57 Irish Press, August 17, 1936, 14.

 58 Irish Press, August 17, 1936, original emphasis.

 59 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 273.

 60 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 274.

 61 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 307.

 62 Gerry McCarthy, Irish Press, August 5, 1974, 16.

 63 Seán Moran, Irish Times, July 20, 1998.

 64 Seán Moran, Irish Times, July 22, 1998.

 65 John McIntyre, Galway City Tribune, December 24, 1986; Seán Moran, Irish Times, July 22, 1998.

 66 GAA Central Council minutes, August 10, 1946.

 67 Murphy cited in O'Sullivan, Men in Black, 122.

 68 Flynn et al. , ‘Ocular Injury in Hurling’, 495.

 69 See Sheard, ‘Boxing in the Western Civilizing Process’.

 70 John McIntyre, Galway City Tribune, December 24, 1986.

 71 Elias, The Civilizing Process, 171.

 72 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 1.

 73 de Búrca, Michael Cusack, 83.

 74 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 20.

 75 Celtic Times, May 7, 1887, 8.

 76 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 52.

 77 Irish Press, August 7, 1933, 1.

 78 Irish Press, August 7, 1933

 79 Irish Press, August 17, 1936.

 80 Elias, Involvement and Detachment, 45–115.

 81 Lennon, The Playing Rules, 220.

 82 Irish Press, July 24, 1950.

 83 Paddy Downey, Irish Times, July 3, 1989.

 84 Downey, Irish Times, July 3, 1989, 2

 85 Elias, ‘Introduction’, 26.

 86 See Clark, ‘The Importance of Agrarian Classes’, 31; Ó Gráda, Ireland, 255–70.

 87 Elias, The Civilizing Process, 380.

 88 See Clark, ‘The Importance of Agrarian Classes’.

 89 See Keogh, The Rise of the Irish Working Class.

 90 Lee, The Modernisation of Irish Society, 3–4.

 91 Lee, Ireland 1912–1985.

 92 Elias, ‘Introduction’.

 93 Jones, ‘Divisions within the Irish Government’.

 94 See Lee, Ireland 1912–1985, 491–2.

 95 Vaughan and Fitzpatrick, Irish Historical Statistics.

 96 See Keogh, The Rise of the Irish Working Class; Roche, ‘The Liberal Theory of Industrialism’.

 97 McGuire, in FIE: Federation of Irish Employers.

 98 Kenned, Giblin, The Economic Development of Ireland in the Twentieth Century.

 99 O'Malley, ‘Problems of Industrialisation in Ireland’, 33–4.

100 O'Malley, ‘Problems of Industrialisation in Ireland’, 39.