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WHAT IS GAELIC FOOTBALL?

History of the Game

References to the Gaelic Games, in particular hurling, go back to 1272BC. The earliest accounts of football date from county Meath in 1670. In the 17th and 18th Century both games were noted to be important to Irish life.   In 1884 on the 1st November a group of men, between 7 and 14, met in the Commercial Hotel in Thurles and founded the Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes. The foundation appears to be the culmination of a lot of ground work being done behind the scenes by Michael Cusack.

Cusack was a native of the Burren in County Clare. At an early age he played hurling as well as Rugby Union. He spoke fluent Irish. He trained as a teacher and eventually settled in Dublin where he set up an academy to assist in the entrance of students to the Police and Civil Service. He was particularly interested in the revival of Hurling. The Cusack Stand in Croke park was named after him in recognition of his contribution.  (The stamp at right was issued on the 23rd August 2006 to commemorate the Centenary of his death)

If Cusack was the driving force, it was Maurice Davin, the first President, who nurtured the organisation through its initial years.  Rules for football and hurling were drawn up in January 1885 and the first championship was played in 1887 with eight of the counties participating in football.

In 1887 the radical secret society the Irish Brotherhood tried to take over the association but this was resisted, with the resignation of Davin. A "reconstruction" conference restored Davin in 1888.   Politics and the GAA have always been frequent bedfellows. In 1902 Rule 27 was passed. It read "any member of the association who plays or encourages in any way rugby, football, hockey or any imported game which is calculated or injuriously affect our national pastimes, is suspended from the association."  It was deleted in 1971. Patrons of the Game

Archbishop Croke was born in Cork in 1823. He was ordained a priest in 1847 in Rome and returned to Ireland during the Great Famine. After attending the first Vatican Council he became Bishop of Auckland in New Zealand. He returned in 1875 to become Archbishop of Cashel. He became involved in social policy and openly supported home rule and the Land League. His enthusiastic support of the GAA contributed to its rapid development throughout rural Ireland. His name is perpetuated in Croke Park, the Dublin headquarters of the GAA. He died in 1902.  (The stamp at left was issued on 17th September 2002 to commemorate his death)

He was Born at Straide, County Mayo in 1846. He was the son of a small farmer. He was imprisoned between 1870 and 1877 for his political activities. On August 16th, 1879, the Land League of Mayo was formally founded in Castlebar, with the active support of Charles Stewart Parnell. On October 21st, 1879, the National Land League was formed in Dublin with Parnell as President, and Davitt as one of the secretaries. From that time right on to 1882 the Land War was fought in earnest.- British Prime Minister Gladstone at first replied with coercion, but was finally forced into making important concessions. Davitt served as an MP for County Meath, North Meath and South Mayo and was a patron of the GAA from its foundation.(The stamp above was issued on 4th July 1996  to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of his birth. Another stamp was issued on 5th September 2006 on the Centenary of his death)

Parnell was a protestant landlord whose family estate was at Avondale, Co. Wicklow. He was first elected to parliament in the Meath by-election of April 1875 and joined the Home Rule Party. Parnell was only twenty-nine when he entered parliament. On 21 October 1879, Davitt founded the Irish National Land League in Dublin with Parnell as President. The main objectives of the League were to provide tenants with a fair rent, fixed tenure and free sale. The long term aim was that farmers would own the land (peasant proprietorship). Trouble loomed for Parnell however, in his private life. He had secretly courted a married woman, Kathleen O'Shea, the husband of whom filed for divorce, naming Parnell as the co-respondent. He tried to ignore the scandal and continued his public life. Public pressure in Ireland and from Gladstone in England eventually brought his downfall and he died shortly afterwards, in 1891.

The above stamp was issued in 1991 to commemorate the Centenary of his death, while the set below was issued on the 16th September 1946 to commemorate the birth of both Davitt and Parnell.  The above information was taken from http://www.footystamps.com/gaa_history.htm

Rules of the Game

Gaelic Football can be described as a mixture of soccer and rugby, although it predates both.  Gaelic Football is played on a field approximately 140yds long and 85yds wide. The goalposts are the same shape as on a rugby field, with the crossbar lower than a rugby one and slightly higher than a soccer one.

The ball used in Gaelic Football is round, slightly smaller than a soccer ball, but looks like a volleyball. It can be carried in the hand for a distance of four steps and can be kicked or "hand-passed", a striking motion with the hand or fist. After every four steps the ball must be either bounced or "solo-ed", an action of dropping the ball onto the foot and kicking it back into the hand. You may not bounce the ball twice in a row. To score, you put the ball over the crossbar by kicking or punching it for one point or under the crossbar and into the net by kicking or one-timing with a punch for a goal.  A goal is good for three points.

 

Each team consists of fifteen players, lining out as follows: One goalkeeper, three full-backs, three half-backs, two midfielders, three half-forwards and three full-forwards. The field of play looks like the diagram below:

Players wear a jersey with their team colors and number on the back. Both teams must have different color jerseys. The goalkeepers' jerseys must not be similar to the jersey of any other player. Referees normally tog out in black jerseys, socks and togs.

 

Goalkeepers may not be physically challenged while inside their own small parallelogram, but players may harass them into playing a bad pass, or block an attempted pass.

 

Teams are allowed a maximum of five substitutes in a game. Players may switch positions on the field of play as much as they wish but this is usually on the instructions of team officials.

 

Officials for a game comprise of a referee, two linesmen (to indicate when the ball leaves the field of play at the side and to mark '45'' free kicks and 4 umpires (to signal scores, assist the referee in controlling the games, and to assist linesmen in positioning '45' frees).

 

A goal is signaled by raising a green flag, placed to the left of the goal. A point is signaled by raising a white flag, placed to the right of goal. A '45' is signaled by the umpire raising his outside arm.  Instead of a corner kick in soccer, the offense is awarded a free kick from 45yds out when a defender touches the ball over the end line.  A 'square ball', when a player scores having arrived in the small goalkeeper's square prior to receiving the ball, is signaled by pointing at the square.

 

Gaelic football is played by approximately 250,000 men and women, making it the most popular sport in Ireland. The first record of Gaelic football is in the Statutes of Galway (1527) which allowed the playing of football but banned hurling. The earliest reported match took place at Slane, Co. Meath in 1712 when Meath played their neighbors, Louth.

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