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About Gaelic Games
Every year on St Patrick’s Day, we in America are treated to many aspects of Irish culture, but little is known over here about a very important organisation in Irish society, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Ireland’s ancient sports of Hurling and Gaelic Football are mostly unknown outside of the home country. While the Irish are most famous for being builders, NYPD officers, or for their ability to drink stout in large quantities, it is on the sports field that one gets a much better insight into the national character.
The GAA is an amateur association, and players who are regarded as heroes and sporting icons on the national stage at the weekend all return to their day-jobs the following Monday. The GAA has gone to great lengths to resist the rampant encroachment of professionalism that has created a situation in other sports where where teams can win tournaments simply by throwing more money at them and buying the best players. The only way a team can succeed in Gaelic Football or Hurling is to put in the hard work at youth level in the local area with a long-term vision.
The association remains a community-based organisation staffed almost exclusively by volunteers. Despite this, it manages to stage events on the national stage that make the All-Ireland Hurling and Gaelic Football finals the Irish equivalent of the Superbowl, and with such a huge following that other European sports like Soccer and Rugby are eclipsed in Ireland and relegated to the status of minority sports.