Sport, Space and National Identity in Ireland: The GAA, Croke Park and Rule 42

1. A number of commentators felt that a secret ballot could favour those who opposed changes to Rule 42 and undermine a social and political climate that was understood to be conducive to change. So-called renegade delegates, it was postulated, having received a mandate from their county board to support amendments to the rule, could publicly voice their approval before casting their vote in the opposite direction. As it turned out, this scenario did not materialise (See www.ireland.com/newspaper/sport/2005/0406/16160747440SP3GAA.html).

2. Lefebvre, quoted in Maguire (Citation1998, p. 109), notes that A spatial work attains a complexity fundamentally different from the complexity of the text, whether prose or poetry. … What we are concerned with here is not texts but texture. We already know that a texture is made up of a usually rather large space covered by networks or webs; monuments constitute the strong points, nexus or anchors of such webs.

3. See, for example, Irish Times, 15 March 2005. A photograph, taken at the official opening of the redeveloped Hill 16, shows that amongst those dignitaries present were the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and Dr Dermot Clifford, Archbishop of Cashel Emly and patron of the GAA, who was there to bless the pitch. The photograph illustrates the significance attached to such ceremonial occasions on the part of the GAA, as well as political and religious leaders.

4. Limerick was the first county to raise the issue of Rule 42 at Congress. In 1990, county officials tabled a motion that would have allowed soccer matches to be played at GAA grounds. They wanted to host an international soccer match as part of celebrations to mark the 300th Anniversary of the siege of the city. Tabled in the context of a very different social and political climate than that which prevailed a decade later, the motion received only 10 votes (see www.ireland.com/newspaper/sport/2005/0217/2466898157SP1IAN3.html).

5. Tom Humphries (2004) was one of many who interpreted government funding as a form of bribery. In order to ensure the feasibility of a proposed new national sports stadium, the government required the support of the country's major sports bodies. The funding promised to the GAA was to compensate the association for agreeing to move some of their games to this new stadium. If the GAA had amended or repealed Rule 42, and made Croke Park available to other sports, it would have seriously undermined the case for the necessity of a new stadium.

6. Jack Boothman, for example, a former president of the association who consistently opposed the repeal of Rule 42, emphasised different objections at different times. On occasion, he argued that it would fly in the face of the basic (political) principles and values of the association. These were principles that were contained in what he referred to as ‘the charter’, the first five rules of the association's constitution. They include such aims as “the strengthening of the National Identity of a 32 Ireland through the preservation and promotion of Gaelic Games and pastimes”. During 2004, however, he adopted a different approach. “It has nothing to do with the ban mentality or the garrison game attitude”, he stated. “From a business point of view, it makes no sense to surrender our chief asset to our opponents” (see www.ireland.com/newspaper/sport/2004/1027/3471359228SP3FIX.html; and www.ireland.com/nespaper/sport/2005/0212/1474114734SPS5RULE42.html).

7. Even those commentators who argued that the GAA was both a traditional and a modern organisation—and thus threatened to subvert hegemonic readings of the association—often failed to break out of a dualistic conception of historical time. Donal Keenan, for example, a GAA columnist with Ireland on Sunday, stated that

• It is a proud boast for the GAA that no other institution in the modern history of Ireland has reacted so positively, adapted so magnificently to the seismic social, cultural and economic changes in society and still retained the very essence of its existence … It has maintained its position as the prime participant in the promotion of Irish games and culture while realigning itself to meet modern needs (Keenan, Citation2005).

Within this view, the GAA ‘reacts’, ‘adapts’ and ‘realigns’ itself with broader changes; it bridges the divide between the past and the present. There is little sense that the GAA embodies, contributes to, and actively shapes these on-going processes.

8. The exception here was Cork, the only southern county that voted not to amend Rule 42. Cork delegates were criticised for being ‘out of touch’ with their county membership who were said to favour changes to the rule. In recent years, divisions between northern and southern Gaels have not only been expressed in relation to GAA policy, such as Rules 21 and 42. The recent success of northern counties in the All-Ireland Gaelic football championship has given rise to debates concerning different styles of play. Further, it has been suggested by some northern GAA officials that the clamping of illegally parked cars outside Croke Park on match day unfairly targets vehicles from Northern Ireland! (See Irish News, 28 November 2005, p. 11.)