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Does the GAA matter to you?

[Deleted User]

Over the years we've heard that old one about the influence of the GAA, from various sources described both glowingly and disparagingly. W've heard it referred to as a triumvirate with FF and the Church. So, does it matter to you, do you revel in the whole sense of identity with parish and origins, do you see it as a stranglehold on Irish sport and international identity?

For my part, I came from a family of blow ins in Kerry. I was the only son of 7 children born here. So as I grew up, I was far more interested in the fortunes of the Irish "soccer" team (I don't like that word, but it's useful here to distinguish the sports) and still follow League of Ireland. But in my 40s I kinda regret not getting more into GAA. Played it non stop as a teenager, captained club and school...but just never really got it at that age and dropped it in my 20s.

So...you see it as a cultural pinnacle or a dinosaur?

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Comments

justshane

No, plenty of respect for the lads that train like full time athletes for amateur rewards but the organisation as a whole stinks. Corrupt to the core.

RobertKK

I am from Kilkenny.
That is all I need to say.

K-9

Yes. The national anthem being played and the tricolor flown in a 6 counties ground is very symbolic of what the GAA means to nationalists in the North.

Mightydrumming

Dinosaur

whatawaster81

Will watch the Dubs, couldn't name the whole team.

KungPao

RobertKK wrote: »

I am from Kilkenny.
That is all I need to say.

Could you expand on that for us who know virtually nothing about GAA?

skywanderer

There is a two-tier system Dublin and the rest of the country. Todays game was a perfect example of just how corrupt the GAA is, Kerry robbed by a referee who couldn't appear anymore biased if he tried.

The spotlight is on the Olympics and Pat Hickey but it is the GAA that is absolutely corrupt to the core at the top, all the while you have amateur athletes and clubs all around the country struggling to survive, whilst millions in spent of Dublin GAA turning their so called Amateurs into professional athletes.

Barlett

justshane wrote: »

No, plenty of respect for the lads that train like full time athletes for amateur rewards but the organisation as a whole stinks. Corrupt to the core.

Name a sporting organisation that isn't? As an aside it is a great sport and the rivalries are great. I think up North it means that little bit more for obvious reasons.

Widdershins

I am also a blow-in and used to really dislike the GAA because all of the ignorant so and so's were in it and their lives revolved around it, giving it a bad reputation in my eyes. Now that I know some nicer, more intelligent lads who are in the GAA, I don't have as harsh a dislike for it. I also have some respect for something people dedicate so much effort to. I would barely know one end of a hurley from the other, myself.

failinis

Its a nice thing to keep people active and have aims and routine, if that is the method they like.
Plus some people enjoy to watch. Win win.

Barlett

skywanderer wrote: »

There is a two-tier system Dublin and the rest of the country. Todays game was a perfect example of just how corrupt the GAA is, Kerry robbed by a referee who couldn't appear anymore biased if he tried.

The spotlight is on the Olympics and Pat Hickey but it is the GAA that is absolutely corrupt to the core at the top, all the while you have amateur athletes and clubs all around the country struggling to survive, whilst millions in spent of Dublin GAA turning their so called Amateurs into professional athletes.

Ah would you stop, I wanted Kerry to win but the better team won today...after the 2014 semi finals I didn't hear Kerry fans going on about the referee who played a massive role in their win against Mayo. Every team has games where the decisions go for you and games where they go against you.

[Deleted User]

KungPao wrote: »

Could you expand on that for us who know virtually nothing about GAA?

Hurling - Kilkenny - religion.

Much the same as football here in South Kerry. And never got that as a kid. I look back and it's probably one of my few regrets. Now that I've moved on from the parish team I was born into I think...I should have stuck with it, Kerry minor trials were suggested at one stage and I laughed, went up to Cork to study, was going out with a girl who is now my wife so weekends were not gonna be given up travelling back down to North and West Kerry. The only thing I can do is still support my parish and hope that my daughter will one day tog out and represent the club I kinda turned my back on...not that I'll drive her...my father was one of those "play if you want to" types and I don't like the screaming parent on the sideline stuff...

Say Your Number

justshane wrote: »

but the organisation as a whole stinks. Corrupt to the core.

You haven't been following the antics of FIFA or the IOC in recent times, the GAA are choirboys in comparison to those showers.

Fleawuss

Enjoy watching the odd game. Not bothered about the GAA itself. Liked the result today. Does the country good when Kerry are beaten regularly.

eeguy

Never followed much of it (because I'm from Louth), but living in Dublin, it's great to see the camaraderie especially this time of the year. Hordes of lads coming from all corners of the country to support their teams.

It's especially good for the lads from Kerry and Donegal to have a bit of exposure to civilisation too.

GLaDOS

No particular love for it, but will watch if a big game was on. Was a fantastic game earlier tbf.

skywanderer

Barlett wrote: »

Ah would you stop, I wanted Kerry to win but the better team won today...after the 2014 semi finals I didn't hear Kerry fans going on about the referee who played a massive role in their win against Mayo. Every team has games where the decisions go for you and games where they go against you.

The better team today were robbed and Mayo beat themselves in 2014 which was just aswell as Donegal would have beaten them anyway.

Rothko

I don't watch it that much and there are aspects of the GAA that I really dislike but at the same time I'm glad that we have our own sports and that so many people feel passionate about it.

skywanderer

eeguy wrote: »

Never followed much of it (because I'm from Louth), but living in Dublin, it's great to see the camaraderie especially this time of the year. Hordes of lads coming from all corners of the country to support their teams.

It's especially good for the lads from Kerry and Donegal to have a bit of exposure to civilisation too.

I'm from Kerry and I've travelled all over the World and spent time in Dublin too, Dublin is far from the centre of the Universe as a matter of fact it is the black hole of calcutta for Ireland. Full of Junkies and Drugs, Criminal Gangs and everything is a rip-off, no effective public transport either. I'll stick to the Kerry or Donegal version of Civilisation because there sure as be damned isn't much civilised about Dublin.

[Deleted User]

Growing up in a small parish where there wasn't a huge selection of kids to pick from, im disappointed in our club that they were seemingly only interested in developing a core few selection of players. Anyone who wasn't in the clique was out in the cold. From the age of 8-18 i loathed alot of things about the GAA in all honesty. I walked away from it early on and felt I had no part in it. I certainly didnt feel that 'my shoulders were required to go to the wheel' in terms of the community i grew up in. Not the matches itself but the type of people who organised and ran it and there is still some dinosaurs out there but we have come on in leaps and bounds overall. I used hate the fact that teachers treated the top hurlers in my secondary school as gods but if i could advise my younger self from where i am now id advise me to stick at it and enjoy it regardless. not to put any unneccesary pressure on myself and ignore the boll0ckses.

I watched the Tipp matches on tv and attended the odd club game but only really discovered what i loved about the game when i started to drive and go to more matches and then suddenly i was hooked. I have been privileged to have been at Croke park 2 weeks in a row this month and my favourite of those occasions was the latter where our football team took part in an all Ireland semi final for the first time since 1935. I thought about how life was back then and that my own grandfather was younger then I am now. I felt the sense of history and occasion and savoured every second. Win, lose, draw, i wouldn't choose to be in any other part of the world last week then Croke park. For me there is few things in this life that will compare to a good round of 'Tipp, Tipp, Tipp, Tipp, Tipp, Tipp.....'. The big match occasion for me in the GAA is unrivalled. Ive been to the Emirates and the Nou Camp and it just doesnt compare in the slightest to a big match in Thurles, Kilkenny, Croker, Cork, or wherever.

It is worth also noting that the GAA do wonderful things for communities too these times and really bind all irish communities and diasporas together. In our own parish this weekend we held an annual juvenile hurling festival where many kids from all over the country (predominantly Ulster) come down, visit, make friends, and enjoy themselves.

Bogsnorkler

skywanderer wrote:

There is a two-tier system Dublin and the rest of the country. Todays game was a perfect example of just how corrupt the GAA is, Kerry robbed by a referee who couldn't appear anymore biased if he tried.

2009 Kennelley broke Nicolas Murphys jaw in a premeditated attack 3 seconds in to the AI final. **** Kerry. Knacks.

Atlantic Dawn

Seeing the millions spent on Hawkeye and then today seeing that its use didn't apply to goal decisions made the organisation look like a complete joke of an 80's Irish basket case government looking to introduce a levy per MB used on the internet to keep record shops in business.

justshane

Say Your Number wrote: »

You haven't been following the antics of FIFA or the IOC in recent times, the GAA are choirboys in comparison to those showers.

All in the same bracket imo.

LordSutch

Deleted User wrote: »

O Not at all, hate it and all it stands for
O Good sport, prefer it to others, but it's only a game
O Ambivalent
O Good sport, but prefer other sports...
O A pillar of Irish society, to be placed alongside the 1916 Shrine

Its a shame you don't have a less nuclear 'hate' option to option one^

...so if you had an option like "Not at all, no interest, its just not my kinda sport" then I could have ticked a box. Personally I would follow Rugby, Hockey, Cycling, and most of all Athletics with a capital A.

I have no interest in the GAA what so ever.

[Deleted User]

Bogsnorkler wrote: »

2009 Kennelley broke Nicolas Murphys jaw in a premeditated attack 3 seconds in to the AI final. **** Kerry. Knacks.

Murphy was targetted.

Much as Cork players would roam in packs, looking to take Paul Galvin out of the game. A subject of much amusement here in Kerry...any game that was in the balance, send on Galvin and Cork would forget all about football and just look to get him.

[Deleted User]

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Seeing the millions spent on Hawkeye and then today seeing that its use didn't apply to goal decisions made the organisation look like a complete joke of an 80's Irish basket case government looking to introduce a levy per MB used on the internet to keep record shops in business.

It looked to be a goal but i agree with you here AD. I mean we have bloody hawkeye for points but why the hell isn't it extended to goals? A goal is worth more than a point so therefore the importance of technology should at the every least be equally as paramount.

mzungu

No. I don't like it and find it boring, so I never watch it.

The Rape of Lucretia

Doesnt matter to me, but happy enough that it is there. It has, and continues to play an important role in society, particularly outside Dublin.

Hurling is a terrific game, but the concentration in the high level playing of it in a handful of counties is a shame and harms it.

Football really is a dire game, fundamentally flawed, has nothing to recommend it, and is far and away the worst of the world's football variants. It is a tragedy that it exists and heartbreaking to thing of how better the Gaa might have been without it: first, simply to not have such a bad game, and second, it is the weed that has probably strangled hurling from being a truly great nationwide game.

Bogsnorkler

Deleted User wrote:

Much as Cork players would roam in packs, looking to take Paul Galvin out of the game. A subject of much amusement here in Kerry...any game that was in the balance, send on Galvin and Cork would forget all about football and just look to get him.

Ah yes, poor innocent Paul Galvin, sledging lads about their brothers committing suicide......

Kerry have as many scumbags as any Dublin or Northern team, but feel the need to be portrayed as the righteous saviors of football every year. Makes me sick.

Atlantic Dawn

Deleted User wrote: »

It looked to be a goal but i agree with you here AD. I mean we have bloody hawkeye for points but why the hell isn't it extended to goals? A goal is worth more than a point so therefore the importance of technology should at the every least be equally as paramount.

Yes I think for sure that a portion of the ball 100% crossed the line but it was not clear if the entire ball did, I presume the entire ball is required for it to be a goal.