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GAA people = Cavemen?

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    #182
    dirtyden
    Registered Users Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭dirtyden


    Cash Tall Loner wrote: »
    I started every single game until the day I l left, but decisions in meetings were only done if they didn't affect these families.

    Yeah, sure you did!


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    #183
    Baby Jane
    Closed Accounts Posts: 227 ✭✭Baby Jane


    Eric Wrong Self-interest wrote: »
    You're coming across as a bit of a "stage mom," tbh.
    How many kids have YOU raised successfully though?

    ;)


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    #184
    cena
    Registered Users Posts: 9,989 ✭✭✭cena


    dreamers75 wrote: »
    Fairly sure the OP is bang on.

    I refuse to let my kids play GAA as they a bunch of wankbags.

    What if gaa is the only sport in yout area?


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    #185
    Mal-Adjusted
    Registered Users Posts: 3,578 ✭✭✭Mal-Adjusted


    Cash Tall Loner wrote: »
    There's less of it in the city where there's lot of races. Out in the sticks, it's strange to see different races.
    lufties wrote: »
    There's more to it than that, Gaa players/crowd tend to be dog ignorant with a misplaced arrogance. They see the world through a very small selfish prism.

    The above attitude is what stops people like you from being taken seriously. The enormous generalizations only advertise your own bitterness with farcical statements like that. You clearly don't like the GAA, that's fine, you don't have to. But trying to justify your hatred by inventing fictions like this is simply childish.
    anncoates wrote: »
    People involved with 'soccer' generally have a better sense of self criticism though. Many such people here would be very quick to trenchantly criticize the FAI or junior football structures in Ireland, perhaps too quickly sometimes.

    On the other hand, if the aspects of cultural near-fascism, blatant funding disparities and political cronyism, expansionism (see Croke Park residents vs HQ profits) of the GAA is brought up, even reasonable supporters will instantly circle the wagons and start ranting

    You clearly haven't ever been on GAA boards. There's multiple discussions on this website and others about funding disparities, vanity projects and many other issues. What GAA fans take issue with is statements like the above, where someone who's clearly talking through their hole is just trying to get their ore in..


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    #186
    FURET
    Closed Accounts Posts: 685 ✭✭✭FURET


    AndonHandon wrote: »
    This. How many Irish have emigrated to fantastically far away places like Australia and the Middle East only to set up their own GAA tribe (club), spend all their time hanging out together and marrying each other? It's a real attitude of "once we have each other we don't need anyone else".

    Personally, when out of curiosity I looked up the Irish society where I currently live, I felt a bit disappointed that the ethos of it seemed to revolve around the pub, GAA, and Rose of Tralee.

    I've decided not to attend any of its events - which is absolutely no loss for the group's members, I'm sure!

    I think Irish people in general tend to cluster into groups when abroad and the activities of these groups tend to be very predictable. The same is true for some other nationalities (Filipinos always seek each other out). But Germans and many other northern Europeans seem to eschew each other when abroad. These are purely anecdotal observations, mind you.

    What can I say - one of the main reasons I left Ireland was because social life there didn't appeal to me at all; it revolves hugely around alcohol and sport. If you're not into these activities, you are in a minority.

    I suspect the Irish abroad fall into two groups:
    • The first and probably largest group is the one that hangs out together and basically tries to replicate life in Ireland through sport and the pub.
    • The second group are more introverted, not very enamored with Ireland, and many may have left Ireland precisely because they wanted to escape from the social life dominance of sport and the pub (and probably the weather). When these individuals go abroad, I guess they tend to avoid other Irish people and gravitate towards other cultures.

    Personally I have avoided Irish people where I live. On the few occasions when I have bumped into Irish people, they inevitably try to strike up some banter about the local Irish pub or make some GAA-related remark about the county I'm from. I just get nothing from that at all; it's not how I'd choose to start a conversation, I don't go to the pub and I couldn't care less about the county I happened to be born in, and I know absolutely nothing about its GAA teams. However, I completely understand why many people would try to start a conversation that way. But for me it's very off-putting...it's not as if people ask me "are you interested in hurling?" Usually, they just assume that I am interested and make some quip that goes over my head. It's the way I'm wired.

    I suppose more generally I don't like large group activities, teams, and the notion of supporters and fans. I look at large groups of supporters, all bellowing their slogans and wearing their colors, and I see nothing more than a mob. I realize that my perspective is unusual, and I'm fine with that and don't try to get into debates with people about it. I do not wish that deep down I could be like them. I just don't understand the mentality and find it annoying. But the thing about the GAA is that every two-bit dreary old village in Ireland (like the one that I'm from) has its very own mob. And then there are the 32 mobs, one for each county. And this clannishness seeps into politics and gets in the way of sensible planning. That's my considered viewpoint and I'm sticking to it.


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    #187
    AndonHandon
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,384 ✭✭✭AndonHandon


    Nodin wrote: »
    ...advice you seem to be able to give out but not receive.

    My statements are backed with well constructed answers and evidence, only met, certainly by yourself, with side-stepping, rather pointless one-liners attempting to obfuscate my points.


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    #188
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Mal-Adjusted wrote: »
    There's multiple discussions on this website and others about funding disparities, vanity projects and many other issues. What GAA fans take issue with is statements like the above, where someone who's clearly talking through their hole is just trying to get their ore in..

    So you personally agree that there are significant funding disparities, that the GAA are sh1tting on the Croke Park residents every chance they get on order to maximize income and that they blatantly decided to finish Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght - because they're a different code?

    You're right that I don't read the GAA forums much in here. If supporters genuinely are going against the grain re: above, then I'm sorry and kudos but my experience has been that members will back HQ when the chips are down.

    That's not a slight on normal supporters and volunteers, of which as I said, number my family and friends and it's not about the games themselves.

    Similarly, I detest the FAI and feel it needs serous reform but they're more of a model of corrupt incompetence and cronyism but they don't have that cultural /establishment position in Ireland.


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    #189
    Kermit.de.frog
    Registered Users Posts: 23,573 ✭✭✭✭Kermit.de.frog


    I don't understand what this thread is about really.

    I play both hurling and soccer and I can safely say that I don't recognise what the OP is on about in relation to the GAA. I have seen dopier gob****es at soccer matches to be perfectly honest.

    The thread title is also a little incendiary.


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    #190
    Aongus Von Bismarck
    Registered Users Posts: 1,794 ✭✭✭Aongus Von Bismarck


    I was always very fit and athletic growing up. I played a number of sports and excelled in most codes. My parish in Galway has a strong hurling tradition so naturally that was where I cut my cloth initially. Later in life I gravitated more to smaller team sports like rowing and athletics.

    I have to say my experience has always been wholly positive. It was one of community and parish pride. An excellent outlet where I learned valuable life and teamwork skills. I have great respect for the men and women who give up their free time voluntarily throughout the year to pass on life skills and bring enjoyment to children and teenagers across the country.


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    #191
    Mal-Adjusted
    Registered Users Posts: 3,578 ✭✭✭Mal-Adjusted


    anncoates wrote: »
    So you personally agree that there are significant funding disparities,
    Of course, both within the GAA and between GAA and other sports.
    anncoates wrote: »
    that the GAA are sh1tting on the Croke Park residents every chance they get on order to maximize income
    I wouldn't use such sensationalism language, and i recognise that the conflict between Croke Park and the residents is a two way street but they have certainly made no friends there.
    anncoates wrote: »
    and that they blatantly decided at a national level - to finish Shamrock Rovers in Tallaght - because they're a different code?
    from the little i know of that event, a club objected to the development of the stadium due to bull$h!t. It was a disgraceful tactic and didn't work. They may have had the blessing of Dublin Co board or even Croke Park, but using the term "national level" suggests that the entire organisation was on board with, or even following, the story.
    anncoates wrote: »
    You're right that I don't read the GAA forums much in here. If supporters genuinely are going against the grain re: above, then I'm sorry and kudos but my experience has been that members will back HQ when the chips are down.
    What do you mean by "going against the grain"? The GAA is not some well oiled machine, opperating as a single unit. In reality, each county board (and each club) is alike to an indipendant body, each with their own goals and development plans.
    anncoates wrote: »
    Similarly, I detest the FAI and feel it needs serous reform but they're more of a model of corrupt incompetence and cronyism but they don't have that cultural /establishment position in Ireland.
    As a Shelbourne fan, I could rant for ages on the failings of the FAI. There is a world of difference between them and the GAA central council.


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    #192
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    Kermit.de.frog wrote: »
    I don't understand what this thread is about really.

    I play both hurling and soccer and I can safely say that I don't recognise what the OP is on about in relation to the GAA. I have seen dopier gob****es at soccer matches to be perfectly honest.

    The thread title is also a little incendiary.

    Somewhat surprised a lock wasn't put on it tbh.


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    #193
    goose2005
    Registered Users Posts: 4,798 ✭✭✭goose2005


    sabat wrote: »
    Garrison Games is the expression I've heard many times.

    Of course you should never mention to GAA heads that their football is an entirely artificial construct, manufactured purely to be something that wasn't English. The effects of this back-of-an-envelope rulebook can still be seen today as it's almost impossible to dispossess an opposition player without fouling them.

    That's no big deal. Most football codes were only thrown together. The rugby league/union split came about because some people wanted to stop shin-kicking. Association football in 1885 was pretty different to modern soccer.

    Interesting to note that fascist Italy tried to invent its own football (volata) rather than play English soccer or rugby.


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    #194
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Mal-Adjusted wrote: »
    .from the little i know of that event, a club objected to the development of the stadium due to bull$h!t. It was a disgraceful tactic and didn't work. They may have had the blessing of Dublin Co board or even Croke Park, but using the term "national level" suggests that the entire organisation was on board with, or even following, the story.
    .

    They set out to scupper the stadium, end of, and by extension, 'association football' in the area as leaked emails showed. The county board backed them. You can say it's not acknowledged at National level but the board and club are part of that. If the FAI backed or tolerated a similar stunt against a GAA club, I'd be disgusted and appalled.

    I take your points which are reasonable and welcome but there's still a fealty to the organization that you don't get as much in football. I support a club and then, just the sport generally for kids and whatever but if anybody asks me about the FAI as an organisation, I don't support them currently as an organization and will say so. Whereas most GAA supporters will say, well such and such is deplorable but sure look at the volunteer work, craic etc. There seems to be this blind loyalty at organizational level which is akin to an military esprit de corps.

    Just on a smaller note. The eulogies about volunteer work are great and fair play (my own family do it) but every sport in the country has plenty of volunteers. Looking at some of those ludicrously mawkish ads for the likes of AIB, you'd swear the GAA invented amateur sports and volunteerism.


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    #195
    coopdog85
    Registered Users Posts: 148 ✭✭coopdog85


    Baldy Conscience wrote: »
    well, he's ten months old now, hopefully in 20 years or so Ireland will have secured Test status - if not, then yeah, an England & Wales* call up would be the pinnacle of Test Cricket, and I'd be absolutely proud of it.

    *it's actually England & Wales, not just England.

    No offence, but I hope your son turns out to be gay. He can run off & become a dancer. Daddy won't you be so proud of him?


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    #196
    Nodin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46,938 ✭✭✭✭Nodin


    coopdog85 wrote: »
    No offence, but I hope your son turns out to be gay. He can run off & become a dancer. Daddy won't you be so proud of him?

    Yep, the gayness test will bar him from cricket forever.....


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    #197
    Fr D Maugire
    Registered Users Posts: 633 ✭✭✭Fr D Maugire


    I grew up in the sticks playing GAA football but also athletics/soccer/cycling and never had any issues other than having the time to fit them all in.

    My opinion on many things that people have against the GAA is that if it didn't exist, the same issues, parochialism, small-mindedness etc would still be the same in whatever sport would be No 1. Having issues with managers/coaches happens in all sports and is not exclusive to GAA.

    I mentioned that I was involved in a number of sports and the one thing all clubs had in common is that they all had their assholes, the GAA just has more as it is the biggest sport in most parts, Law of averages etc.

    I have been involved in cycling again in recent years and there are plenty of assholes to go around as it has grown bigger. Indeed there were a number of incidents in our general area last year that were just shocking. Now new clubs are forming out of old clubs because of fights/disagreements. Crazy stuff.

    I stopped being involved with our local GAA club because of a few disrespectful comments directed at me by a few assholes. Was it because they were GAA people? No, it was because they were assholes. Period. I still attend games etc and would have no problem getting involved again in the future if I had the time.

    I think in rural area especially, the GAA can be a real lifeline for people. I have seen people who as kids barely played or were interested in GAA become followers of the County team and get involved in the local club with their children etc.

    At the end of the day, people are people.


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    #198
    Duckworth_Luas
    Registered Users Posts: 5,733 ✭✭✭Duckworth_Luas


    goose2005 wrote: »
    That's no big deal. Most football codes were only thrown together. The rugby league/union split came about because some people wanted to stop shin-kicking. Association football in 1885 was pretty different to modern soccer.

    Interesting to note that fascist Italy tried to invent its own football (volata) rather than play English soccer or rugby.
    The Rugby League/ Rugby Union split came about over payments to players over missed working hours.

    The original Association Football/Rugby Football split occurred over rules such as the banning of shin-kicking.

    Funnily enough the original Association rules were drawn up in a pub, there was only about 12 of them and the original game bore more similarity to modern Gaelic football than to any of the other modern codes. The one game it certainly doesn't resemble is modern soccer.


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    #199
    Mal-Adjusted
    Registered Users Posts: 3,578 ✭✭✭Mal-Adjusted


    anncoates wrote: »
    They set out to scupper the stadium, end of, and by extension, 'association football' in the area as leaked emails showed. The county board backed them. You can say it's not acknowledged at National level but the board and club are part of that. If the FAI backed or tolerated a similar stunt against a GAA club, I'd be disgusted and appalled.
    Like i said, i agree with that. i'm just not so blinded that i'd blame the entire organisation based on what a club/Dublin co board tried to do.
    anncoates wrote: »
    I take your points which are reasonable and welcome but there's still a fealty to the organization that you don't get as much in football. I support a club and then, just the sport generally for kids and whatever but if anybody asks me about the FAI as an organisation, I don't support them currently as an organization and will say so. Whereas most GAA supporters will say, well such and such is deplorable but sure look at the volunteer work, craic etc. There seems to be this blind loyalty at organizational level which is akin to an military esprit de corps.
    That seems more a fault of the FAI than the GAA. One body does what it can (for the most part) for member clubs and counties. The other grudgingly acknowledges it's clubs and won't lift a finger when they're screaming out for help (Monaghan United). There is certainly no blind loyalty though, just look at the criticism Kerry GAA got when they tried to buy up all the community pitches that time, or the recent Hurling 2020 proposals.
    anncoates wrote: »
    Just on a smaller note. The eulogies about volunteer work are great and fair play (my own family do it) but every sport in the country has plenty of volunteers. Looking at some of those ludicrously mawkish ads for the likes of AIB, you'd swear the GAA invented amateur sports and volunteerism.
    It's no worse that the "This is rugby country" ads that were around a few years ago, or the soccer thing with the "best fans in the world" about people who for the most part wouldn't be arsed going to a match five minutes down the road. Every organisation is going to put as positive light on itself as it can. If you have a problem with the way volunteerism is presented, go to AIB, they made the ads.


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    #200
    Shurimgreat
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,133 ✭✭✭Shurimgreat


    Yep GAA is completely unsophisticated compared to great sports like Rugby for example where you have 10 or 12 forwards who spend most of the game bashing heads against each other or rolling around in the muck or kicking the ball over the sideline is thought of as a great skill.


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    #201
    Zack Morris
    Registered Users Posts: 137 ✭✭Zack Morris


    The points system makes GAA far too predictable. All the dominant team has to do is control the midfield and win the game by kicking points. The sport is just a poor concept, it's no wonder why is only popular in regions of Ireland where the Catholic Church is strong and the people are, in general, stupid.


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    #202
    Fr D Maugire
    Registered Users Posts: 633 ✭✭✭Fr D Maugire


    Zack Morris wrote: »
    The points system makes GAA far too predictable. All the dominant team has to do is control the midfield and win the game by kicking points. The sport is just a poor concept, it's no wonder why is only popular in regions of Ireland where the Catholic Church is strong and the people are, in general, stupid.

    I think anyone who comes out with stuff like this should really not be calling other people stupid.


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    #203
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    Baldy Conscience wrote: »
    Still not answering my question Karl Stein? Wonder why that could be.

    You've not a clue about what you are on about, so seeya pal, been nice chatting to you kid.

    You sound like the kind of self important clown who'd try to get themselves involved in anything, like a redundant non-player manager in a 5 aside set up.


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    #204
    Wanderer2010
    Registered Users Posts: 6,714 ✭✭✭Wanderer2010


    Dont forget the homophobia. Its almost a guarantee that devoted GAA players/managers have little to no experience of gay men, having come from a rural isolated town where such things never happen....

    Its shocking to see in 2015 the degree of anti-gay talk from players, parents of players and managers that still goes on.


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    #205
    WesternZulu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,941 ✭✭✭WesternZulu


    Zack Morris wrote: »
    it's no wonder why is only popular in regions of Ireland where the Catholic Church is strong and the people are, in general, stupid.

    I can only assume this is a dig at anyone who lives outside Dublin; the same Dublin who have the best football team in the country, the best club championship, and who are making serious inroads in hurling :pac:


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    #206
    WesternZulu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,941 ✭✭✭WesternZulu


    Wanderer2010 wrote: »
    Dont forget the homophobia. Its almost a guarantee that devoted GAA players/managers have little to no experience of gay men, having come from a rural isolated town where such things never happen....

    Its shocking to see in 2015 the degree of anti-gay talk from players, parents of players and managers that still goes on.

    Donal Og Cusack is one of the 1st players in any sport that came out as being gay while playing and for the most part no one could have cared less.
    He's hardly shunned since he's stopped playing either as he's a regular pundit on TV and newspapers which would suggest that the GAA are not as backward as you make out.

    There is also a ladies player for Cork who has also come out as gay.

    Basically, you're talking crap.


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    #207
    Wanderer2010
    Registered Users Posts: 6,714 ✭✭✭Wanderer2010


    WesternZulu wrote: »
    Donal Og Cusack is one of the 1st players in any sport that came out as being gay while playing and for the most part no one could have cared less.
    He's hardly shunned since he's stopped playing either as he's a regular pundit on TV and newspapers which would suggest that the GAA are not as backward as you make out.

    There is also a ladies player for Cork who has also come out as gay.

    Basically, you're talking crap.

    No im not. There are tonnes of young gay GAA players who would like to come out but the whole ethos of GAA is still very unsupportive of this and a young man, who doesnt have the wisdom and experience of Donal Og (who didnt come out until quite late in his career, remember), can feel depressed and isolated as a large amount of his team-mates all head off on lads holidays, get married and settle down with the local girl and they can become the brunt of nasty gossip and end up even suicidal, its a lot more common that you think.

    Then you have the dyed-in-the-wool GAA board members, practically all family men and church going, who have a lot of influence over who plays and who doesnt etc and they often make comments which can seem hostile to gay men so no support there either. I think the fact that you reference ONE player who came out as evidence that the GAA is not homophobic is naive and short-sighted in the extreme.


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    #208
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    Cash Tall Loner wrote: »
    Why are some GAA people so blind to reality and stupid?

    The typical higher up in a GAA club is a devoted Catholic, acts like every other sport other than Hurling and Football doesn't exist and if someone plays other sports and doesn't play a GAA sport then that sport is for "People who are no good at GAA". In my experience they refer to Rugby and especially Soccer as "The Queen's game" and seem to still be very butthurt over the whose Bloody Sunday event. They have also scheduled GAA training with Soccer training to make people sweat.

    I might let it be known that I play both Soccer and Gaelic games and enjoy both thoroughly and I probably spend more time watching GAA matches than Soccer, but in my experience the GAA higher ups are very medieval while the Soccer lads have always been very down to earth. I'm just stating my opinions so if you have any opinions or if you question anything I've said, please feel free to comment.

    Are you looking forward to having the Junior Cert out of the way?


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    #209
    Fr D Maugire
    Registered Users Posts: 633 ✭✭✭Fr D Maugire


    Wanderer2010 wrote: »
    No im not. There are tonnes of young gay GAA players who would like to come out but the whole ethos of GAA is still very unsupportive of this and a young man, who doesnt have the wisdom and experience of Donal Og (who didnt come out until quite late in his career, remember), can feel depressed and isolated as a large amount of his team-mates all head off on lads holidays, get married and settle down with the local girl and they can become the brunt of nasty gossip and end up even suicidal, its a lot more common that you think.

    Then you have the dyed-in-the-wool GAA board members, practically all family men and church going, who have a lot of influence over who plays and who doesnt etc and they often make comments which can seem hostile to gay men so no support there either. I think the fact that you reference ONE player who came out as evidence that the GAA is not homophobic is naive and short-sighted in the extreme.

    How is this any different to any team-sports. Care to name the long list of participants in Rugby/Soccer who came 'out'. Rugby I can think of Gareth Thomas and that was when his career was over. Soccer, someone did recently I think but I cannot remember who it was as that kind of thing doesn't really bother me.

    I don't understand this constant berating of the GAA for attitudes that are still prevalent in all male team dominated sports.

    One look at the behaviour of the Chelsea fans in Paris this week will tell you everyone you need to know about attitudes towards racism and homophobia in other sports.

    People talk about family name, favourtism, racism etc in the GAA and I wonder how the hell did four young non-white lads make the Westmeath Minor team a few years back because if you believed what you read here, they had no chance.


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    #210
    conorh91
    Registered Users Posts: 3,328 ✭✭✭conorh91


    Wanderer2010 wrote: »
    I think the fact that you reference ONE player who came out as evidence that the GAA is not homophobic is naive and short-sighted in the extreme.
    It;s unfair to single-out the GAA. It's an issue in sports generally, although it's worth noting that the UK premier league has nobody like Donal Og Cusack or Conor Cusack, despite being much bigger.


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    #211
    anncoates
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    Zack Morris wrote: »
    The points system makes GAA far too predictable. All the dominant team has to do is control the midfield and win the game by kicking points. The sport is just a poor concept, it's no wonder why is only popular in regions of Ireland where the Catholic Church is strong and the people are, in general, stupid.

    While the end of your post is a bit mad, I actually would prefer hurling (I hate gaelic football and don't watch it) without points.


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