Gaelic Games

Citation

Bradley J (2020) Gaelic Games. In: Nauright J & Zipp S (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Global Sport. Routledge International Handbooks. London: Routledge, pp. 481-489. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Global-Sport-1st-Edition/Nauright-Zipp/p/book/9781138887237

Abstract
In varying forms and styles the Irish sport of hurling has a history going back at least two thousand years. The tribes and heroes of ancient Ireland’s sagas, the Firbolgs, Tuatha de Danaan, the Red Branch Knights and Cuchulainn, have all made their mark in the story of hurling and this has contributed to the games’ contemporary national mystique and narrative. This narrative has been enhanced further with authentic historical events and processes. For example, there was an attempt to ban the game in the 14th century under the English colonial administration’s ‘Statutes of Kilkenny’. Again in 1527 the ‘Statute of Galway’ ordered that no hurling should take place, while the 1695 Sunday Observance Act enacted, ‘that no person or persons whatsoever, shall play or exercise any hurling’.1 Although acts like the Statutes of Kilkenny and of Galway were meant to dissuade early colonists from adopting Irish ways and becoming ‘more Irish than the Irish’, in creating these laws the forces of conquest in Ireland also made clear their intention to subvert Irish pastimes. Thus, for many centuries, even before the birth of the Gaelic Athletic Association, sport in Ireland exhibited resonances that were linked to ethnic and national identity, resistance, culture and politics.