I was just wondering if anybody knows of any sites/books documenting GAA in the Gaeltacht regions of Ireland (Corca Dhuibhne, Muskerry, An Rinn, Rath Chairn, Connamara, the Island Gaeltachts, and the Gaeltachts of Mayo and Donegal). I'm fascinated at how football is so dominant rather than hurling in these regions historically, does anyone know why this is? Any feedback would be hugely helpful!

Treaty_Exile (Limerick) - Posts: 386 - 17/10/2014 14:56:23    1664714

As a person who was quite recently at Leitir Mealláin CLG and knows An Ghaeltacht CLG quite well thanks to the mot being from there its quite simple (bearing in mind that transportation during the foundation years of the GAA was not quite what we have now)..........no ash trees, no trees at all along the coast really......and isn't that where most gaeltacht regions are.....the Atlantic fringes.....Mayo and Gaoth Dobhair areas the same!!!!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus....Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 17/10/2014 15:38:40    1664733

Adding on from the last comment we have big rocks in the Gaeltacht so we used to train kicking them when we were young, it's only the good rich land in the east and south that have little pebbles and that's where the Hurling stronghold is, as for Limerick they always went to the Kerry Gaeltacht for summer holidays and thought Gaeltacht people were mad kicking rocks so they chose Hurling instead. Ar deireadh an lae daoine as na Gaeltachtai ba maith linn imirt iomainacht ach is peil an cluiche ata is mor sna ait seo

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 17/10/2014 15:57:33    1664737

Also very hard to get a decent flat field in the Gaeltacht. Hurling confined to good land generally

tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1109 - 17/10/2014 16:04:19    1664742

I would've thought hurling would be slightly bigger than football in Ring/An Rinn?

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 17/10/2014 16:10:54    1664745

I love the line that it's hard to get a decent flat pitch in the Gaeltacht, i can still remember the old players in the 80s and 90s and myself at underage telling the ref we'll play against the hill or uphill in the first half, never mind your Croke Park the pitch that will test you as a player or supporter is the one that has a decent hill or a massive hollow and hurricane wind and rain blowing across

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 17/10/2014 16:26:12    1664753

That's true. In bygone days, St. Mel's College of Longford were the kingpins of schools football & you wouldn't put cattle out on their training pitch!

keeper7 (Longford) - Posts: 4088 - 17/10/2014 16:51:44    1664761

Riverboys
Those pitches still exist today , and sure how bad, don't they build character .

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 17/10/2014 17:21:32    1664770

True Gaels etc etc etc hmmmm right, now the absence of trees and playing fields may have held before the war (take you pick) but absolutely no excuse now. Maybe hurling is a "foreign sport" and doesn't rest easy with what after all True Gaels.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 17/10/2014 18:35:55    1664793

The biggest reason is population or lack of population, unemployment is rampant now as was in the past so people either emigrated or moved to Dublin etc and never returned. Football has always being top priorty in the past and now in order to play Hurling we would have to pay outside coaches to train our underage and as we all know money is hard got and the clubs would rather try to compete for football titles every year rather than starting from scratch with Hurling and waiting 15-20 years for success. A funny incident happened in my club few years ago, we were knocked out of football champ and Mayo were doing well in AllIreland series so as club players we had a kickaround on a saturday evening, afterwards when we were leaving 1 of the players took out a hurley and said he'd love to play a game of hurling sometime, we said we'd all ring a few and see what happens and who turns up the following day. Next day club players (we have 24 lads) and lads who quit playing football at underage years ago turned up, we had 38 lads for a game of Hurling and we are a Football club, no Hurling tradition here, it's a pity we weren't given the chance to play Hurling years ago, might have gotten killed but so what, forming a Hurling team now won't happen as we barely can field football teams at underage. It's a great game to play and watch

riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 19/10/2014 20:28:22    1665260