GAA Oral History Project

[Kerry Mike]

PRESS RELEASE

12 November 2008

GAA Oral History Project

The GAA is delighted to announce the commencement of the GAA Oral
History project at a launch held today (12th November 2008) at Croke
Park. This is one of the largest projects undertaken of its kind and
will trace the history of the GAA through the memories of its members.
The basic aim of this project, commissioned by the GAA and undertaken by
Boston College, is to run a community based public history project, to
celebrate 125 years of the Association by collecting, preserving and
embracing the past of the GAA.

"This is a project about the GAA: our games, our people, our history,
our place in Irish life. No sporting organisation anywhere in the world
has attempted to do what this project will do." stated President of the
GAA Nickey Brennan.

"It is the biggest sporting history projects ever undertaken in the
world and will leave a remarkable legacy for future generations. It is a
unique project and we invite every GAA supporter, club, and family to be
part of it and to tell their GAA story." he added at today's launch.

The project will draw together every section of the GAA at a key moment
in its history and it is envisaged as being a centrepiece of the 125th
anniversary celebrations. It is hoped that this will excite, interest
and inspire the followers of the GAA and allow everyone to become
actively involved. It is not just a snapshot taken in the year of the
125th anniversary, but will be added to year-on-year as new memories are
collected, it is about the future as well as about the past.

A questionnaire will be made available to every club, club historian,
local history society and junior cert teacher, in hard copy and via the
web, to be filled out by or used to interview anyone who has ever been
involved in the GAA. This will allow for the recording of the GAA's
history at the most personal and local level. In its entirety the
project will create a series of books, websites, radio and television
programmes, as well as a searchable digital archive which will be
permanently housed in the GAA museum.

"The material gathered will become an indispensable resource for future
generations who wish to understand not only the story of the GAA, but
also the story of modern Ireland. This is a project for people who live
in every corner of Ireland and anybody with an interest in Ireland"
stated Professor Mike Cronin, Boston College who is undertaking the
research.

The key to the success of this project lies in creating a sense of
ownership in every parish in Ireland. The structure of the GAA at local
level is the perfect vehicle to develop an oral history project. Getting
every club on board will be the first objective.

To take part in the project visit www.gaahistory.com , email
info@gaahistory.com or call 01-6625055.

For media enquiries and further information, please contact: Lisa
Clancy, Director of Communications, GAA on 01-8658614, 087-2314260 (Mob)
or lclancy@admingaa.ie.

[thebandit]

If done properly, this could be to this century what Dick Fitzgerald's books were to the start of the last century.

[magickingdom]

got a mention in todays irish times, might throw up some very interesting stories. the museum in croke park is a must for any gaa fan who has not made it there

[ziggysego]

Stuck my nose in the Museum once magic, but didn't get a chance to take a proper look around it. Would love to someday take a day and tour Croke Park.

[magickingdom]

i spent 2 days in there ziggy! very good

[spectator]

Sounds interesting.

Below are two short passages from websites I came across recently, which recount the early GAA years and tough nature of the games.

Anyone know of similar sites?


http://homepage.eircom.net/~taghmon/histsoc/vol3/chapter3/chapter3.htm

A 14 Years Old Football Prodigy

In January 1890 Jimmie Moore's name appeared on the top of a list of players picked on a Taghmon team to play Ballyhogue, and a new star was born. He was fourteen years and three months old. The match apparently did not take place at this time, but in March, the same team took on Lady's Island in Carne and, although soundly beaten, 2-8 to 0-4, they gave a splendid account of themselves. There is nothing unusual in a young boy of Moore's age lining out with grown-ups. Dick Fitzgerald, Paudi O'Shea, Pat Spillane of Kerry and Tommy Murphy of Laois, as well as hundreds of lesser known players, have done it, but in the primitive conditions of the 1890s with no proper set of recognised rules, it would seen to have been suicidal. Teams boxed and kicked and tripped and wrestled and battered each other unmercifully. Men were generally chosen for their toughness and ferocity and almost all were singularly lacking in the scientific skills that we take for granted today. Also, in 1890, teams were made up of 21-aside and all 42 of them lined up in the centre of the field for the throw in.

So we can imagine young Moore surrounded by 41 'leaping savages' each one obsessively intent on disembowelling the other. It was said at the time that football, as played by the Irish, was only slightly less hazardous than open warfare. When the ball was thrown in and the referee had scurried to a safe distance, the ideals and aspirations of the founders and their patrons were quickly forgotten, as 21 fiercely determined young men faced 21 equally resolute opponents and, without the benefit of nicety, strove with unrelenting tenacity to propel the ball in opposite directions.

'The Gunner went down in a slaughter of cuts
And "Snots" was stretched out with a kick in the guts'

Suprisingly, fatalities were rare: a man call Mathew Connelly, aged 26, of Finchogue, Enniscorthy, died when he was in collision with a number of players in a practice match near Vinegar Hill and in 1904, a young man named Ben Cotton was killed, in Fethard-on-Sea, while playing with Fethard St Patrick's against New Ross Geraldines.


http://www.iol.ie/~galwill/gaaphil.htm

Football before 1903

Comment:Before the GAA was reorganised in 1903, football in Cavan was on the decline. As control broke down, football tournaments became occasions for excessive drinking and faction fights. Phil recalls those days before 1903.

Those matches in the old days, before 1903, were they rough?
They were. Rough.

Would they kick each other?
Well, not so much. They'd leap on one another quicker. They'd run in on top of you and give you the two fists in the stomach and put you on your back. And, if all failed, they leapt up with two heels into the chest and put you down. Mickey McGannon was an auld fellow and he'd say 'Oh, football's alright, but I don't like to see them slithering down others' eyebrows with a pair of steel tips on them'.

So you could jump with your shoes into a fellows chest?
Oh aye. That was nothing at all.

In those days did they play the ball mostly on the ground? On the ground.

And did they not kick the shins of other?.
Well they had shin-guards. I got a pair of them shin-guards as a present from one of them (players). Well there was scores cut in that you'd think a man had sunk a 'cleek' in them and ripped them up. With kicks!

And had they football boots?
There was no such thing as a football boot until 1903. That's the time when football was brought in in a civilised way.

Would there be many rows at football matches.
Well there was no football match without one. I went to a tournament in Newtowngore. I was about 18 at the time. And we walked 6 miles from Killeshandra over to it, five or six of us, and we walked home. And we saw five minutes football. The ball was threw in and the match went on between Killeshandra and Aughavas, (from) far over in Leitrim. The row began and it never ceased. There was, I suppose, a hundred men in a ring, in a pile in the middle of the field, boxing. And there was one man, Charlie Gilronan, of Killeshandra. He was a blacksmith. And he was going round the ring and any place he met a polis (police) man he nailed him.

[thejuice]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/7729187.stm