Admiring the past can cost you the future!
The GAA are certainly going all out to celebrate their one and a quarter centuries of existence. Some weeks ago we had the incredible fireworks display at the start of the league campaign at Croke Park. No harm in that, but one must ask the question about the cost of all this and the possibility of funds being literally burned that could be used to promote the under-age game. As a tool to promote the game, the 125th Anniversary certainly helps put the spotlight on the Association in a year when other sports vie for the attention of the youth of Ireland. Rugby, in particular, is regarded as a big threat to the ability of the GAA to capture the best of the young talent. The incredible sucess of the Irish and Munster/Leinster teams in 2009 makes the task, especially in urban areas, all the more difficult.
It is fine to celebrate our GAA history as long as it not at the expense of the future of the code.
Nonetheless, continuing the 125th Anniversary celebrations, the GAA Museum and Sports History Ireland will host a one-day history conference in Croke Park on Saturday 25th April. Leading social and sporting historians from Ireland and overseas will participate and explore the history of the GAA and its place within Irish society.
Saturday 25th April 2009
Speakers will discuss a range of topics including the ancient origins of hurling, the life of Michael Cusack, the GAA in Ulster and amongst the Irish diaspora, the GAA and politics, the GAA in film and photography, the GAA and the Irish language, the socio-economic background of players and the question of the GAA’s relationship to amateurism.
The conference will close with the launch of a collection of fourteen essays, The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009 (Irish Academic Press, 2009) by the President of the GAA, Christy Cooney. The essays, published by Irish Academic Press, have been edited by Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse.
The conference has been organised by Sport History Ireland in conjunction with the GAA Museum in Croke Park and the GAA 125 Oral History Project, based in Boston College, Dublin.
Tickets are available to purchase from the GAA Museum in Croke Park - Adult €15, Student/Senior €10. Admission price includes tea/coffee at registration. Lunch not included. Please note that booking is essential.
For more information and booking please contact -
Selina O’Regan
GAA Museum Education Officer
Tel – 01 819 2361 or Email – soregan@crokepark.ie
www.gaa.ie/museum
GAA 125 History Conference
Saturday 25th April 2009
Croke Park Conference Centre
09.30 – 10.00: Registration in the GAA Museum
10.00 – 11.15: Hurling in Medieval Ireland
A.B. Gleason (Princeton University)
Riotous proceedings and the cricket of savages: football and hurling in early modern Ireland
Eoin Kinsella (Royal Irish Academy)
Michael Cusack: Sportsman and Journalist
Paul Rouse (UCD)
Commentator - Cathal Mac Coille (RTE)
11.15 – 12.30: “The Greatest Amateur Association in the World”? The GAA and Amateurism
Dónal McAnallen (O Fiaich Library Armagh),
The GAA in Ulster
David Hassan (University of Ulster)
Gaelic Games and the Irish Diaspora in the United States
Paul Darby (University of Ulster)
Commentator - TBC
12.30 – 13.30: Lunch
13.30 – 14.30:The Camera and the Gael: the Early Photography of the GAA, 1884-1914 Mark Duncan (Boston College-Ireland)
Gaelic games and ‘the movies’
Seán Crosson (NUI Galway)
Commentator - Stuart Ward (Visiting Professor of Australian Studies, UCD)
14.30 – 15.45 The GAA and the Irish Language
Brian Ó Conchubhair (Notre Dame University)
The GAA during the Irish Revolution, 1913-23
William Murphy (Mater Dei)
The GAA: Social Structure and Associated Clubs
Tom Hunt (Mullingar)
Commentator - TBC
15.45 – 16.00: Break
16.00 – 16.45: Roundtable Discussion - The GAA and Irish History
Mike Cronin (Boston College-Ireland)
Richard Holt (International Centre for Sports History, DMU)
Gearóid Ó Tuaithaigh (NUI Galway)
Mary Corcoran (NUI Maynooth)
William Nolan (UCD)
17.00: Concluding remarks and book launch by President of the GAA, Christy Cooney.
Mike Cronin, William Murphy and Paul Rouse (eds.), The Gaelic Athletic Association, 1884-2009 (Irish Academic Press)
Posted: April 22nd, 2009 under Camogie, Football, Football All Stars, Handball, Hurling, International Rules, Rumours.