Contesting the fields of play: the Gaelic Athletic Association and the battle for popular sport in Ireland, 1890–1906

Abstract

The Gaelic Athletic Association's (GAA) meteoric rise to dominance in the 1880s reflected its success in tapping into an Irish sporting constituency left largely untouched by the games of the British Empire. However by the early 1890s, the GAA verged on extinction as the broader economic, social and political climate conspired against it. In its wake, sports as diverse as rugby union, cricket and soccer sought to capitalize and gain increasing popularity among Irish sportsmen. This article sets out to explore sporting developments in provincial Ireland during the 1890s to illustrate how the Association's demise was a major factor in the consolidation and spread of rival sports at that time. With the rejuvenation of the GAA in the years after 1900, it will explore the campaign conducted by the Association and its membership against those games that now gravely endangered its once powerful local and national monopoly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

^1. Although in the case of cricket, by the 1870s the game had reached a level of popularity in many rural parts of counties such as Westmeath, Tipperary and Kilkenny.

^2. The GAA's administrative structure consists of a Central Executive (later renamed the Central Council), which administers the games nationally under which are individual county boards, which administer and run competitions within their own county bounds.

^3. For a discussion on motivations behind the GAA's formation and Michael Cusack's determination to open up Irish sport to the ordinary working Irish men, see Rouse (2009).

^4. Membership numbers are estimated from police statistics on the GAA's strength, which indicated that there was an average membership of 53 men per affiliated club (NAI, CBS Index, 2792/S).

^5. By 1889, the Irish Football Association (IFA) numbered only 65 clubs eventually rising to 199 by 1902. The Irish Rugby Football Union meanwhile had a mere 47 registered clubs by the time the GAA was formed (Garnham 2004b, 43; O'Callaghan 2011, 40).

^6. A recent exception is Gerry Finn (2010, 2255–2287) who has argued that elite public schools in Ireland and Trinity College actually played a key role in disseminating sports of British origin among the Irish population.

^7. Yet as more regional studies of the Association emerge the likes of Dónal McAnallen have begun to further critique this view, arguing that the peculiarities of the GAA's development and expansion across Ireland show it ‘was, in fact, more counter-Victorian than Victorian’(McAnallen 2014, 63).

^8. A notable exception is Mandle (1994).

^9. More than 56% of the total economically active male population of the country was directly employed in farming in 1891, while in more rural counties that figure was as high as 72.5% (Census of Ireland, 1891. Part II. General Report, with Illustrative Maps and Diagrams, Tables, and Appendix, [C. 6780], H.C. 1892, XCI.1, p. 356).

^10. The inevitable result was a sustained slide in prices for Irish farmers. Over the next decade, rural Ireland would witness a prolonged depression, interspersed with frequent potato crop failures.

^11. A total of 61.8% of GAA members depended on agriculture for employment, a figure that does not include the thousands of GAA players whose employment was geared towards a supporting role for the agricultural economy. For example, occupations such as shop assistants and office clerks were a popular career choice for younger farmer's sons and these groups formed the majority of the 16.2% of the GAA's membership identified in Hunt (2009, 184–186) national survey as belonging to the commercial class.

^12. Better economic opportunities in Britain and North America for those families decimated by the agricultural situation in Ireland, accounted for this steep rise (Fitzpatrick 1980, 129).

^13. During the period 1886–1905, 96.7% of GAA members were aged between 15 and 35 (Hunt 2009, 192).

^14. In November 1890, Parnell's political power was at its zenith but it quickly unravelled once his affair with his married mistress Kitty O'Shea made headline news across Britain and Ireland. The scandal caused outrage among political and church leaders. Parnell's allies in Parliament disowned him while on the 6 December 43 members of his own party voted to remove him as leader (Mandle 1994, 103–105).

^15. For example, a national conference of the Association's affiliated club representatives in July 1891 pledged its memberships support ‘to the leadership and ideals of Charles Stewart Parnell’. Sport, July 25, 1891.

^16. Before long police reports were observing that the GAA was being torn asunder due to this internal dissension and if this breach was not soon repaired it would become inseparable (NAI, CBS, DICS Reports Box Two, 521/S/2817).

^17. Only three County Boards held annual meetings during the 1893 and apart from the counties of Kerry, Cork, Dublin, Waterford, Kildare and Roscommon, which contested that year's All Ireland football championship, the Association remained defunct elsewhere. By January 1894, only 38 clubs survived in the midlands, 33 clubs in the southwest, 17 in the southeast, only 1 in Ulster and a further 29 in the west of the country (NAI, CBS Index, 4467/S/ 7828/S; Sport, March 24, 1894).

^18. To take the example of Kerry, there were no less than 539 separate GAA teams recorded as being active between 1890 and 1905 (see McElligott 2013, 467–468).

^19. This was in stark contrast to areas like central Scotland where 89% of sports club patrons and presidents were either members of the nobility or large landowners. Patronage of GAA clubs by such groups was almost non-existent (Tranter 1989, 232).

^20. Blake stressed that the varied interpretation of the GAA's limited rules by individual referees negated a common understanding, ‘resulting in players losing all confidence in these officials while spectators were left bewildered by their decisions’ (Sport, January 28, 1893).

^21. One famous example was the 1893 All Ireland Football Final between Cork and Wexford when, following an altercation with an opponent, the referee sent off the Cork player responsible. However, his team-mates refused to play on and left the field, an action which resulted in Wexford being awarded the game and title (Sport June 30, 1894).

^22. For example, the Kerry County Board refused to affiliate with the Central Executive and take part in the All Ireland in 1896 owing to a dispute with officials in Dublin over the match venue for that year's Munster final (Kerry Sentinel, February 15, 1896).

^23. As Rouse (1993, 341) argues, there was no political or ideological motivation to the ruling, rather it was simply a measure designed to force GAA clubs to affiliate to the ruling body so as to gain as much revenue as possible from their affiliation fees.

^24. In Kerry, the local RIC played a key role in the resurgence in popularity of cricket in the county in the mid-1890s. Meanwhile, association football was first introduced to the county at this time by military regiments, such as the Durham Light Infantry being stationed in the military barracks in the county's capital Tralee (Kerry Sentinel, February 10, 1894/June 19, 1895/April 8, 1896).

^25. Indeed, before its collapse many within the Kerry GAA were already concerned at the growth of the rival sport. When one attendee asked at a meeting of the County Board in 1894 if the organization was being too ‘conservative’ in not allowing its members to play rugby, the members response was that the class of men who run that game ‘would poison and hang everything Gaelic’ given the chance'(Kerry Sentinel, April 17, 1894).

^26. The sample consisted of selecting a pool of 32 players from various rugby combinations from 1897 to 1900 and matching them to census material from 1901. Players names taken from following teams: Tralee RFC 1897/1899/1900, Tralee Wreckers 1900, Tralee Pioneers RFC 1900, Killarney RFC 1898/1899, St Brendan's Seminary Killarney team 1899.

^27. O'Sullivan was a Killarney native who had gained fame in 1895 by captaining Queen's College Cork to victory in the Munster Senior Cup. He also became the first Kerry man to be capped internationally by Ireland (Larner 2005, 259).

^28. Indeed the meeting chairman argued ‘that the rugby game improved the condition of players who had afterwards looked to play in Gaelic matches’ (Kerry Sentinel, November 26, 1898).

^29. Such was the growing local enthusiasm for the sport that for the first time, the rail network arranged special match day services travelling from Kerry to Dublin for the upcoming Irish rugby internationals (Kerry Sentinel, February 10, 1900).

^30. For example, the inaugural meeting of the Listowel rugby club in October 1899 was presided over by John Macaulay, one of the founding members of the Garryowen RFC (Dillon 2010, 13).

^31. This lack of competitive matches became all the more common as local county boards became inactive and championships were abandoned or left to drag on for years at a time. The Kilkenny County Board collapsed in 1891, while the Westmeath county board suffered a similar fate in 1893 (O'Dwyer 2006, 54; Hunt 2007, 150).

^32. That May, the local Independent Wanders GAA club also decided to change their allegiance to cricket (Hunt 2007, 156–157).

^33. Meanwhile in Galway, the collapse of the local GAA helped to inject new life into cricket's appeal in the county. The Tuam Stars club had been favourites to win the 1891 Galway football championship but were defeated in its early rounds. Following their bitter defeat, the club quickly disbanded due to inactivity and the growing acrimony within the county's GAA leadership over the Parnell split. In the club's absence, the Tuam Cricket Club prospered, being augmented by players from Stars. The influx of these trained and competitive players emboldened the club to affiliate to the Connacht Cricket Union and subsequently win the inaugural Connacht Senior Cricket Cup that same year (O'Donoghue 1987, 132).

^34. For example, by January 1894, only one affiliated GAA club, located in Belfast, was recorded as still being active (CBS Index, 7828/S, 31 January 1894).

^35. Garnham (2004b, 95–96) study has shown that 63.6% of contemporary professional soccer players in Ireland were registered as either skilled labourers, artisans or white collar workers, occupations that in large urban centres like Belfast or Dublin would be little impacted by decline in wider agricultural economy.

^36. This is further evidenced by the Derry Board's decision to ban the handling of the ball in Gaelic football matches, contrary to the GAA's own rules. The intention was to help facilitate soccer players (Derry Journal, March 12/26, 1890).

^37. In November 1891, the Bishop of Derry publicly denounced the playing of Gaelic games on Sundays (Corry 1993, 55).

^38. The decline of GAA clubs at the expense of soccer in the region can be traced using the example of Buncrana club, Cahir O's from the Inishowen peninsula. They were the most active GAA club in the area, playing 13 matches in 1889. Yet in 1890, the Cahir O's participated in only eight matches and in August were said to have become inactive. In April 1893, a Derry soccer team played a match against Buncrana and this indicates that the GAA club had since switched to soccer (Curran 2012b, 126–127).

^39. Likewise, a rule was passed stating that ‘no political questions of any kind shall be raised at any of its meetings and no GAA club shall take part as a club in any political movement’ (Sport, May 4, 1895).

^40. For example, he clearly defined the previously continuous rules surrounding the catching of and running with the ball in Gaelic football, stating that once caught, the ball must now be kicked immediately and cannot be hopped, thrown or carried. Carrying was defined as moving more than four steps with the ball in hand. He also introduced comprehensive rules empowering referees to terminate matches due to interference of players and spectators. Clubs were also now expected to take precautions to prevent spectators from threatening or assaulting referees, officials or players during or after matches (Sport, May 4, 1895; Lennon 2010, 42–52).

^41. During his tenure, the number of clubs affiliated to the Association grew from 114 to 357, while income mushroomed from £284 to £1176 (See Blake 1900). However, Blake's tenure was not to endure. In 1898, he was dismissed from office over claims of his mismanagement of the GAA's finances (4–6). Yet both RIC reports and Blake's own account claim this was only a pretext and in fact, IRB elements within the GAA, led by its president, Frank Dineen, wanted him deposed because of his hostility to their own influence (NAI, CBS, Precis Box 2, 11 February 1898, 15506/S).

^42. This ‘Gaelic Revival’, as it was termed, would ultimately transform the entire cultural, political, economic and social fabric of Ireland. This reawakening of cultural nationalism within Irish society had already been given an impetus by the Home Rule campaign itself which had encouraged many Irish intellectuals to give serious thought as to what shape the society and culture of a politically independent Ireland would be (Hutchinson 1987, 155/168).

^43. Douglas Hyde had established the Gaelic League in 1893 to preserve and revive the Irish language. Hyde also wished the organization would stand as a bulwark against the increasing Anglicization of Irish society before the country and its people lost forever a sense of their separate nationality (Comerford 2003, 141). The energetic idealism generated by the League was seen as having the potential to revive the ailing fortunes of the Association (Nolan 2005, 69).

^44. This close relationship is not surprising, considering the Association's stated mission to preserve and promote native games against the encroaching Anglicization of Irish sport was for many cultural nationalists a natural extension of their promotion of an independent Gaelic culture and identity personified in the growth of organizations such as the Gaelic League.

^45. The Ancient Order of Hibernians was an Irish Catholic and nationalist society that emerged in Ulster in the late nineteenth century and was closely associated with membership of the Irish Parliamentary Party (Garvin 2005, 107–110).

^46. At the 1906 Tyrone Annual GAA Convention, up to 65 members representing almost every local AOH branch were recorded as attending the meeting.

^47. Their formation resulted in a much greater degree of organization and control at provincial level than the GAA's Central Executive alone could provide. It was a key factor in the revival of the GAA nationally from 1900 onwards. CPA, GAA/CC/01/01, 9 September 1900. By 1907, the number of affiliated GAA clubs stood at 784, with 101 in Ulster, 124 in Connaught, 222 in Munster and 337 in Leinster (De Búrca 1999, 73).

^48. As De Búrca (1999, 71) argued, this re-imposition of the ban on GAA members playing foreign games ‘was a practical application in the realm of sport of the policy of de-Anglicization, which had been advocated by cultural nationalists like Hyde as far back as 1892’.

^49. Any connection with the British establishment could now leave GAA members open to media condemnation. In Kilkenny, a prominent GAA referee and Gaelic Leaguer, Jack McCarthy, drew the scorn of the Kilkenny People because he attended a ball being held to celebrate the return from the Boer War of a local British Army Colonel. ‘Union-Jack’, as he was labelled, was accused ‘of the base perfidy, the unforgiveable treachery, the downright double-dyed traitorism’. Following the publication of the story, the Thomas town GAA club refused to play a match which McCarthy had been appointed to referee while the Kilkenny GAA itself proposed that McCarthy be thrown out of the organization (Kilkenny People, June 8/15, 1901).

^50. The Kerry Sentinel was at that point the most popular paper in Kerry and its editor, Edward Harrington, was a staunch support of Irish Parliamentary Party.

^51.Shoneens and West Britons were pejorative terms for Irishmen who imitated English ways. Moreover, they were men ‘who never shied away from toasting the health of the English King’ (see for example Kerry Sentinel, January 11/March 22, 1902).

^52. Under O'Sullivan's shrewd administration, the Kerry GAA blossomed and as secretary he laid the foundation for the county's dominance of Gaelic football in the years after 1905 (McElligott 2013, 124–127).

^53. Indeed, while O'Sullivan argued that the time had come ‘when a line should be drawn between the friends and the enemies of the GAA, and the more coercion that was applied, the better’, Mat O'Riordan, representing the Cork Board, said every club in Cork would suffer if rugby men were excluded from GAA's ranks (Cork Weekly Examiner, December 6, 1902).

^54. In his autobiography Patrick Heffernan, a Catholic middle-class doctor from rural Tipperary, bitterly recalled how he was decried as an ‘imperialist’ and ‘shoneen’ for his continuing involvement with the game (Heffernan 1958, 1/9). Prominent local advocates of the Irish revival who engaged in such exports of British cultural colonialism were subjected to particular social ostracization. In Claremorris, a prominent member of the local Gaelic League who joined the town's cricket team was heckled by the Connaught Telegraph as ‘the latest addition to the ranks of West Briton shoneens’ who had betrayed his conviction by ‘joining the nation killers’. The paper threatened that he had ‘one week to withdraw from the cricket club’ or else they would expose him to the whole community (Connaught Telegraph, June 2/16, 1906). Evidently he heeded this warning and within a few weeks the paper was reporting that the individual was no longer involved with the club (Connaught Telegraph, July 14, 1906).

^55. The paper began to carry a weekly satirical column entitled ‘In Lighter Vein’ written by the anonymous ‘The Man in the Street’, which specialised in taunting Westmeath cricketers.

^56. Moreover such people were accused of looking

to the Saxon with admiration, and they imitate him in every respect … They are incapable of thinking for themselves, and like a moth around a candle, they hanker after English ideals, although their limited intelligence does not allow them to successfully imitate. (Midland Reporter, September 7, 1905)

^57. To take one example, the Ringtown hurling club was founded in February 1904 and shared direct lineage with the area's cricket team (Hunt 2007, 199–201).

^58. McDevitt (1997, 263) argues that such constant reinforcement of the supremacy of Gaelic games allowed them to become a ‘hallmark of the Gaelic Renaissance’, with hurling and football producing examples of Irish masculinity which gave contemporary Irish society an image to be proud of. Such romantic views, especially of hurling, remained common with historians of the GAA well into the 1940s. Carbery (1946, 57–59), for example, credited the establishment of the GAA and the ensuing popularization of hurling, as bringing about the regeneration of Irish culture and the ‘spiritual emancipation’ of the Irish people.

^59. The Monaghan delegates argued that the GAA was still only finding its feet in a district that was ‘run all over’ by soccer and such draconian measures would set back the GAA's progress terminally. In the end, the Ulster convention decided to recommend to the Central Executive that the foreign games ban should not apply in Ulster (Anglo-Celt, December 30, 1905). Despite this when the motion came before the GAA's annual convention on 27 January, it was defeated by an overwhelming majority (Anglo-Celt, February 3, 1906).

^60. Indeed the body blamed much of this on the local press for not giving enough prominence to GAA matches, while instead devoting most of its sports pages to soccer (Derry Journal, January 29, 1906).

^61. I am indebted to Dr Conor Curran for allowing me to use some of his most recent research.

^62. During this period, the IFA failed to take the lead in establishing county football associations to effectively administer soccer in individual counties. As a result, only five local football associations were registered with the IFA by 1900.

^63. In mid-November, a meeting of the Donegal GAA stated that the Killybegs and Barnesmore football clubs had voted to remain playing soccer as their players considered it to be a superior game to Gaelic football (Derry Journal, November 17, 1905). The rules of soccer certainly seem to be far more commonly understood in the region. A report of a Gaelic football county championship match held in Derry City in December 1906 complained that not only were both clubs unable to gather together a full side, but both goalkeepers persisted in picking the ball off the ground and throwing it to their players, soccer style, which is illegal under Gaelic rules (Derry Journal, January 1, 1906).

^64. There was obviously a degree of sectarian tensions between both codes, with the Derry Journal remarking that opposition to the GAA ‘by the Unionist people … simply arises out of religious and political prejudice towards everything Irish and Catholic … Are the Derry Catholics going to allow this Irish movement to be killed by Protestant objectors?’ (Derry Journal, April 16, 1906).

^65. In May 1906, the Donegal Board was reported to have 20 clubs affiliated but by 1907, this number had fallen to seven with Donegal and Derry sharing the lowest number of affiliated clubs to Ulster Council (Curran 2012b, 140–141).

^66. Significantly MacManus' decision to emigrate to the USA precipitated the collapse of the County Board less than two years later.