The Evolution of The Modern Games

During the seventeenth century, hurling had its strongholds, in the southern half of the county. It was popular in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Tipperay and Kilkenny, with other outposts such as Antrim in the far north. To this day, these counties are traditional heartlands of hurling. There were substantial regional variations on the way the game was played, and no real attempts to form a unified code were made until around the time of the Association's formation.
The nineteenth centuy saw a version of hurling, or hurley as it was referred to, become popular with the upper classes. By 1879 there were at least six hurley clubs among the genty in Dublin, and the Irish Hurley Union was founded in Trinity College. It was exclusively an upper-class preserve and bore little relation to traditional concepts of the game.
The extent to which this version of the game was relevant to its rural cousin is evident in one of the earliest actions of the Irish Hurley Union, which wrote to the English Hockey Union for a set of rules.
The gentrified game was seen by the Association's founders, Michael Cusack in particular, as an aberration which was in danger of converting the traditional sport to a variant of hockey.
To offer an alternative, Cusack founded the Academy Hurling Club in the early 1880s with rules based on the rural game and organised practice sessions in Dublin's Phoenix Park. These proved immediately popular, and substantial crowds marched through Dublin each Saturday morning with hurleys on their shoulders to attend.
This evolved into the Metropolitan Hurling Club, also founded by Cusack. He set out to establish links with rural clubs in the south and west which proved receptive to the idea of national competitions. After playing against a Galway team, who operated under a different set of rules, Cusack realised the need for common regulations and this inspired much of his thinking with regard to the formation of the GAA.
In the case of Gaelic football, origins are murkier. A rough-and tumble form of the game was common throughout the middle ages, similar versions of which abounded throughout Europe and eventually became the forebears of both soccer and rugby.
The earliest records of a recognised precursor to modern Gaelic football date from a game in county Meath in 1670, in which catching and kicking the ball were permitted.
A six-a-side version was played in Dublin in the early eighteenth century, and one hundred years later, there were accounts of games played between county sides. Before the potato famine of the 1840s which proved hugely detrimental to all Irish sports, a codified game had emerged in east Munster, but the arrival of rugby union and soccer with fixed rules caught the imagination of the upper classes and native football was in danger of dying out. A particular signpost of this decline was the speed with which the schools of the middle classes adopted and promoted the newly promoted games, particularly in Dublin, Cork and Belfast.
Limerick was a stronghold of the native game around this time, and the Commercials Club, founded by employees of Cannocks' Drapery Store, was one of the first to impose a set of rules which were adopted by other clubs in the city. Competition remained localised, with occasional friendly matches against various sides around the county. Of all the 'National Pastimes' which the GAA set out to promote, it is fair to say that football was in the worst shape at the time of the Association's foundation.
Handball formed the third strand of Ireland's games. In the early nineteenth century it had been common throughout the county wherever a gable wall and a few yards of space were available, but in common with most popular sports, it was hard hit by the famine. The latter part of the centuy saw it in decline, and to this day, it has never really enjoyed the mass appeal of football or hurling.
Camogie, the women's version of hurling, began with the formation of the first club in 1903. Early rules included a prohibition on impeding the ball with the long skirts fashionable at the time, and it took time before prejudice allowed the rules to facilitate any serious competitive edge. The Ladies' Football Association was not set up until 1974, ninety years after the formation of the original Association. In common with camogie, its ruling body enjoys autonomy from the main body of the GAA, a situation considered preferable by both sides, although strong amliations are retained. Today, women's football is the fastest growing sport in Ireland. Camogie and women's football are played at league and championship level, with finals held in Croke Park.
From meagre beginnings, the modern GAA grew. Statistics show that upwards of a million people attend the intercounty football and hurling championships each year. As well as over 2600 separate clubs in Ireland, there are branches in England, Scotland, USA, Australia and Canada. The Association is the landlord of thousands of acres in Ireland and beyond and rakes in a surplus stretching well into seven figures annually.
Though rules of play have evolved considerably from early incarnations, both football and hurling are now played between teams of 15-a-side. A point is scored by placing the ball over the crossbar, while a goal is worth three points.
In hurling, each hurler plays with a camán, a curved stick made from ash wood, about three and a half feet in length. Hurlers seek possession of a tennis size leather ball, known as a sliotar.
The principal competitions are the All-lreland series, known as the Championship, which culminates in the hurling and football finals each September. County sides compete on a knock out basis within each of the four provinces, with one Qualifier from each province contesting the semi-finals. Recently, however, the rules for the hurling championship have been modified whereby the losers from the Leinster and Munster finals are re-admitted to face the Ulster and Connacht champions at a Quarter-final stage. This came about mainly because of a gross imbalance in strength in the south and east of the country.
Football's top prize is the Sam Maguire Cup, named after a London-born revolutionay and Gaelic games enthusiast, while hurling's equivalent is the Liam McCarthy Cup.
Second to the Championship comes the National League, the football version of which is played out during the winter months. Since 1997, the hurling has started from March onwards to maximise the chances of dy ground to which the game is suited.
The early stages of the National League are run off on a divisional basis for both football and hurling with four divisions in each sport. The top teams from each division then qualify to play in quarter-finals and so on until the league champions have been decided. These competitions are mirrored at club level, where each county has its own league and championship. The winners of individual county championships go on to contest provincial and All-lreland club championships, the finals of which are held in Croke Park on St Patrick's Day.

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This extract taken from 'The History of Gaelic Games' by Ian Prior, published by Appletree Press. Further information and order details.