National Forum

Is GAA, Or More Specifically It's Prominence, A Bad Thing For Irish Sport?

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Replying To KillingFields:  "But the world is a smaller place. People emigrate more and mix more/marry get int9 relationships with people from across the world far more. Nationality is far more fluid than ever before.
Youvant limit sport to si.ply where you are born or where your parents were born"
Yes, yes I do.

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8678 - 29/09/2023 17:52:30    2506299

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Replying To realdub:  "Yes, yes I do."
You cant limit it though to place of birth of parents as even that could have someone eligible for 3 countries.
like ive a cousin who's married to a french women and they have a kid, born in england, that kid is eligible for 3 countries immediately through that and then also has a german grandparent so eligible there.
there is lots of people like that and more and people emigrate more as well to live all over the world.
you cant limit playing for countries in sport on such limited grounds in the world the way people are these days

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3676 - 30/09/2023 21:33:08    2506410

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Replying To Pikeman96:  "David Meyler (son of John Meyler) is another one to have made a good living in soccer after also playing gaelic football and hurling while growing up.

And not to disrespect him in any way, but I doubt he had the same raw talent as a footballer as David Clifford had.

So to my mind, saying it's horse**** to claim that Clifford couldn't have made it as soccer player is itself horsesh*te when you consider others who have done so."
Gaelic football and hurling are played seriously by only a tiny percentage of the global population compared to soccer, so it's only natural statistically that the best GAA players would struggle to make an impact against the best soccer players in a given sport.
Even the vast majority of Irelands best soccer players are barely known internationally outside of whatever clubs they play for.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1942 - 01/10/2023 18:31:48    2506482

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Some people here ought to maybe visit some of the main universities and monasteries in the rest of Europe. They were founded or given prominence by people from this island. One of our great intellectuals died two weeks ago, an Officer of the Legion of Honour in France. Man from Gortin, Don't think RTÉ even mentioned it.


The ould English did a right job on us, sure enough. Obsessed with soccer and what they think of us. No one cares anymore.

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 3186 - 01/10/2023 20:24:52    2506511

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Replying To Liamwalkinstown:  "See, people saying that the reason there isn't more track and field venues and facilities etc is the main reason, not the GAA. However, it could be said, that the dominance of the GAA is the very reason there isn't those facilities, if you get me?
Like, why has Ireland never, in my lifetime, produced a half decent tennis player? I don't include Canadians and Yanks of Irish parentage, I mean a man or woman, born of this land. Similarly why have we never produced a basketballer of any note?

To the lads wondering why I picked Norway and Croatia, i picked them simply because they are similar population to ourselves and are far, far more dominant internationally than we are at a variety of sports."
Having two thriving sports to call your one, one of which (hurling) is the greatest sport on earth in my opinion anyways, is for me a greater source of pride than doing whatever Norway or Croatia do on the world stage, Norway don't do much anyways and Croatia do well at world cups which only come around for a few weeks every 4 years.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1942 - 01/10/2023 21:17:37    2506516

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Replying To KillingFields:  "Globalisation has been good for the planet. the alternative would be worse

GAA will always be strongest in ireland and describing the players in this case as mercenaries is highly ignorant of majority of the players in this situation"
I don't think you can say that the GAA will always be the strongest here.
50 years from now ireland will be demographically and culturally unrecognisable from what it is now so we don't really know what's around the corner.

Here in Galway city anyways most kids whose parents were born in other countries are choosing soccer over gaelic games.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1942 - 01/10/2023 21:21:16    2506518

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Replying To Galway9801:  "I don't think you can say that the GAA will always be the strongest here.
50 years from now ireland will be demographically and culturally unrecognisable from what it is now so we don't really know what's around the corner.

Here in Galway city anyways most kids whose parents were born in other countries are choosing soccer over gaelic games."
I doubt there is any other country in the world where there is a substantial section of the population, never mind the political and "intellectual" establishment who are looking forward to Ireland losing its identity as a separate people.

Cromwell never achieved that!

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 3186 - 01/10/2023 21:43:58    2506520

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Replying To Galway9801:  "Having two thriving sports to call your one, one of which (hurling) is the greatest sport on earth in my opinion anyways, is for me a greater source of pride than doing whatever Norway or Croatia do on the world stage, Norway don't do much anyways and Croatia do well at world cups which only come around for a few weeks every 4 years."
Its far more than soccer you know of.
Norway do plenty. Look at their olympics record. Both summer and winter. Theyve won 150+ medals in the summer olympics. we've 35 in comparison.
Croatia also are a lot more than soccer and doing well at world cups.

KillingFields (Limerick) - Posts: 3676 - 01/10/2023 22:01:11    2506522

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Replying To KillingFields:  "Its far more than soccer you know of.
Norway do plenty. Look at their olympics record. Both summer and winter. Theyve won 150+ medals in the summer olympics. we've 35 in comparison.
Croatia also are a lot more than soccer and doing well at world cups."
If you picked 100 people off the street and quizzed them on Norways Olympics record it's likely each avd every one of them would come up blank (in fact I'm willing to bet even you had to Google those stats you just presented) , and besides the Olympics no more than the world cup is a very brief event that happens once every four years.

Is it really worth our own games suffering just for a very slight improvement of our athletes on the world stage, so people living thousands of miles away might momentarily say "jeez, the Irish are great snow boarders" before forgetting about us two seconds later?
Not in my opinion but each to their own.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1942 - 01/10/2023 22:43:07    2506526

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Replying To KillingFields:  "Its far more than soccer you know of.
Norway do plenty. Look at their olympics record. Both summer and winter. Theyve won 150+ medals in the summer olympics. we've 35 in comparison.
Croatia also are a lot more than soccer and doing well at world cups."
India, population 1+billion, have won 35 medals. Same as us. Any comments on this?

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2565 - 02/10/2023 11:07:15    2506579

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Replying To Jjoniel79:  "Tennis and basketball need a dedicated surface to play on. Not too many farmyards have the required surface for these sports.

The reason the GAA and even more so soccer are so successful is they don't require any sort of facilities - just a ball and maybe a wall. Couple this with tradition and ingrained mindsets they'll continue to be the main sports of choice for kids.

Soccer should be much bigger in Ireland but the absolute incompetence in the FAI along with maybe some more hardline anti English sentiment in the northern counties has meant that it's never become as popular as it should have. Having said that there are vast swathes of Donegal that are soccer only areas. In Monaghan though I can tell you for a fact that whatever soccer organisations are available in the county are run by absolute idiots who couldn't organise a rip in a brewery."
Thankfully the GAA is making good inroads in those parts of Donegal.We have Innishowen teams in the Junior and Internediate Finals viz Moville and Malin.

gunman (Donegal) - Posts: 1126 - 02/10/2023 11:47:38    2506588

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Replying To gunman:  "Thankfully the GAA is making good inroads in those parts of Donegal.We have Innishowen teams in the Junior and Internediate Finals viz Moville and Malin."
Soccer has enormous participation here.

That's not the problem at all.

It's the lack of decent structures and the neglect of our own leagues.

We were better years ago because the big UK teams recruited here.

They just don't need our young lads anymore which are often overpriced by loi clubs.

It's far more cost effective for the to recruit from Europe and Africa..

I'd like to see us do better but not at the expense of our best sports.

Ie hurling and boxing.

Also horses and golf.

No matter what you do you won't create interest that just isn't there. The same as non hurling counties. It's a crime that the west bar Galway have no interest in our national sport.

The North would be great but at least there are pockets of die hards in antrim, derry and down.

It's a little irritating that boxing is overlooked on this thread. We are massive over achievers in this field but it's inconvenient for the title narrative.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3169 - 02/10/2023 12:50:31    2506611

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Replying To galwayford:  "India, population 1+billion, have won 35 medals. Same as us. Any comments on this?"
In fairness the weather is usually good in India. They've plenty for doing on them good days besides exerting themselves for Olympic events..

Them sports that Norwegians are good at are basically just various ways of staying warm and then someone called them sports.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7667 - 02/10/2023 16:00:49    2506662

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "In fairness the weather is usually good in India. They've plenty for doing on them good days besides exerting themselves for Olympic events..

Them sports that Norwegians are good at are basically just various ways of staying warm and then someone called them sports."
This is my favourite

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3169 - 02/10/2023 17:37:08    2506680

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Over 400 GAA clubs interanationally now. A meeting place for our emigrants.

galwayford (Galway) - Posts: 2565 - 05/10/2023 13:42:42    2507056

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Replying To galwayford:  "Over 400 GAA clubs interanationally now. A meeting place for our emigrants."
Extremely valuable too.

I spent some time in New York and couldn't have done is without those networks and supports.

Arrived on the Wednesday, was hurling on the Sunday. Got a good job and a place to live during the first training session.

Doylerwex (Wexford) - Posts: 3169 - 06/10/2023 10:11:33    2507121

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Replying To GreenandRed:  "In fairness the weather is usually good in India. They've plenty for doing on them good days besides exerting themselves for Olympic events..

Them sports that Norwegians are good at are basically just various ways of staying warm and then someone called them sports."
They need something to help them cope with the long winters in northern latitudes.

thelongridge (Offaly) - Posts: 1879 - 06/10/2023 17:33:38    2507198

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