Gaelic Revival - Sport

Sport

Prior to industrialisation, sport was disorganised by modern standards with rules for ball games frequently being agreed between opposing teams on a per-game basis. The emergence of organised sport in England in the nineteenth century, where football games were played by written rules establishment by the Football Association and the Rugby Football Union, led to the soccer and rugby codes becoming popular in Britain and spreading to Ireland. The soccer code emphasised a kicking game, rugby emphasised a carrying game. The style of football that had been played in Ireland prior to this was a combination of carrying and kicking, and some people involved in the Gaelic Revival were concerned at the encroachment of the English codes that were displacing the traditional native style of football, with cricket contributing to the decline of hurling. Most prominent of these was Michael Cusack of County Clare who, along with Maurice Davin, John Wyse Power, John McKay, J. K. Bracken, Joseph O'Ryan, Thomas St. George McCarthy and several others formed the Gaelic Athletic Association. The association codified the native style of football in the form of what is now modern Gaelic football, and the rules of hurling were also codified. The Gaelic Athletic Association went on to preserve the native pastimes to the point where they were saved from extinction and to this day remain the most popular sports in Ireland.