GAA History

CHRISTYG

Not sure if this belongs here-or anywhere- but I'll give it a go. Until (I think) the 1970s. the GAA operated a policy about "foreign games" What exactly did this entail?

tHE vAGGABOND

http://www.gaa.ie/html/history/milestones/1971.html

read thru the early history and find out

CHRISTYG

vAGGABOND, I've looked on that site, and it just reports the mere lifting of the ban. What I'm looking for-for research purposes- is a flavour of what the ban meant, e.g. did it just apply to the playing of games like soccer and rugby on GAA grounds, or did it mean (to use an extreme example) that members of GAA clubs COULDN'T be members of soccer or rugby clubs? I would be most interested to find out??

sceptre

The ban was fairly simple as I understand it.

It stopped members of GAA clubs playing foreign games (as in soccer and rugby which you mention)

More restrictively, it stopped members of GAA clubs *attending* foreign games - or even casually watching them. I can remember my father mentioning to me all the times he "lost" a sliotar on the embankment of the Mallow GAA grounds so he could spend an hour looking for it while watching the rugby game on the pitch nearby. In his case it was a factor that helped in his decision to chuck the hurling in, which was a pity as he'd played in county club finals (Cork) so was presumably good. In the long run, I suspect it was part of the reason the GAA dropped it - fundamentally it was unworkable and they were losing players to the foreign games.

Whether the ban stretched to other obviously foreign games like golf I don't know (though I suspect not as they weren't in direct competition with football/hurling/handball)

Oddly enough I remember seeing an interview with Nicky Rackard on the telly years ago where he mentioned how popular cricket was in Wexford (he played it himself, though I suspect the locals kept quiet about it - he being Wexford's star in both hurling and football at the time). Cricket was also on the proscribed list.

If you've specific questions, Christy, let me know and I'll ask my father about them. I'm sure there are plenty of people in your own area who would remember the details or have been affected by the ban themselves.

CHRISTYG

My first question, sceptre, is-how on earth was the ban "policed". Did the local GAA club have "spies" at local soccer, rugby, and other grounds trying to catch members of their club sneaking into the ground, thinking they were unnoticed? And was the penalty for disobedience instant expulsion from the club, and therefore from the GAA?