As I write, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is about to complete its 125th anniversary. 2009 saw many celebrations of this milestone with thousands of clubs across Ireland celebrating in their own unique way.

The GAA organization and its games are truly unique in the world of sports. No other country in the world has such a set of games, played by amateur men and women of very high fitness levels and a high degree of skill that attract mass audiences within Ireland and yet remain virtually unknown in any country in the world. world. With the exception of expats hosting games in the US, UK and Australia, these wonderful games are ignored by the mainstream media around the world. And boy, what are they missing!

For those unfamiliar with the national games of Ireland, a brief introduction is necessary. Gaelic games are basically divided into soccer, hurling, camogie (effectively women’s hurling), women’s soccer, and handball (similar to squash without rackets). The first two mentioned are the main games, played by men.

The core of the entire GAA system is the parish club and the amateur spirit. There are over 2,500 clubs in the 32 counties of Ireland. No player in either sport is paid and only at the top management level do officials in full-time positions receive salaries and expenses.

The volunteer aspect of the organization is amazing. Mentors and officials at the club and county level work passionately to ensure the continuation of the games through generations as other sports compete to attract the children who will shape the future. For a sport that is confined to the island of Ireland, the attraction and sheer power it wields is a phenomenon not seen anywhere in the sporting world.

The amateur aspect is also the key to its success. Gaelic sporting heroes are ordinary, tangible men and women performing heroic deeds on the field of play, seen by thousands and by a much larger television audience. However, they have jobs due on Monday, whether it’s a construction site, an accounting internship, a teaching job, or a college place. These young men and women are delicate and sensitive people you’ll meet in the pub over a pint, largely ignored by their local peers, but mega stars in the national media. They live ordinary lives with their feet firmly on the ground. There is little room for posing in the GAA locker room and the realistic attitudes of most players, famous or not, are implanted in them from a very early age.

As a great force for good in every community, be it a small town or a large city, it is impossible to estimate the enormous cultural and personal benefits that arise from the presence of the GAA club.

At a higher level, the success of the game has enabled the GAA and Ireland to have one of the best stadiums in the world, namely Croke Park on the north side of Dublin. This stadium has a long history, but the GAA leadership’s forecast to demolish it virtually in stages, keeping the championship game schedule, and rebuild it completely by 2005 with a capacity of 82,000, was a tremendous feat for a fan. organization. It’s not just Croke Park though, but many fantastic stadiums across the country including the launching stronghold of Semple Stadium in Thurles, Pairc O Caoimbh in Cork and Clones in Monaghan to mention just a few.

It speaks volumes for the quality of the people who run the organization when you see the chaos that their counterparts in the FAI have made of football locally and nationally, despite the great years of the 1980s and 1990s, when the profile of football it was so tall. with the success that Jack Charlton brought to the team and the country. The incompetent morons parading as professional administrators in the FAI could take a lesson from what the football brigade derides as the Grab All Association.

It should be more correctly described as the Give Away Association when one sees the funds trickling down to ground level, creating high-end services in every small town and city, while the football clubs are still fighting behind the ditch and team national is Vagabond!

The somewhat archaic administration system in which the existence of county board, provincial council and central council levels of management is often criticized for the inability to move issues forward quickly. There is more than a degree of truth to that, and this has often led to deadlock when trying to reach important decisions. Nothing more than the thorny and controversial decision to open Croke Park to facilitate the playing of football and rugby union, games that were once alien to GAA culture due to the British occupation of Ireland at the time of the Association’s founding. in 1884.

This mentality was reinforced by the memory of a barbaric act by British forces in 1921 when they entered Croke Park in armored vehicles and opened fire on spectators and players without warning. Thirteen people died on that day of shame, including one player, Michael Hogan, for whom the Hogan Stand is now named.

Thereafter, members of the British forces were not allowed to be members of the GAA. As the state evolved into what it is now, a 26-county Republic of Ireland and a separate 6-county province of Ulster, ruled by the British, the ban applied until recent years to members of the then RUC (now NIBP). .

The most controversial aspect of the GAA rules that held since the 1920s was what became known as the “Ban”. This rule prevented Gaelic game players from participating in what were termed “foreign games”, i.e. football and rugby union. Both of these games were considered British games and therefore alien to Irish culture. It was the most ridiculous rule ever invented by the GAA and it was broken so many times, by so many different methods, that public opinion forced the organization to repeal the rule in 1972.

That the rule has lasted this long is not something the GAA should be proud of.

Therefore, the controversy over the opening of Croke Park to football and rugby stemmed from the events of many years ago. It took three years for the motion to allow this to happen to pass, and it showed that history can be a huge brake on progress.

However, one of this writer’s great memories was watching Ireland beat England in the 6 Nations Rugby Championship in 2006 in a cauldron brimming with indescribable emotion and pride.

May these wonderful and unique games be with us for a long time to enjoy, and as 2010 brings the GAA into its 126th year of existence, may the volunteer aspect always remain!