GAA must 'reach out' to unionism

[st333ve]

[quote=Amach na Casca]

Why?

Gaelic Games, in particular hurling, go back to 1272BC. The earliest accounts of football date from county Meath in 1670. Thus they have been played by the indigenous population (the Gael) for centuries, meaning Gaelic games have been part of Irish culture well BEFORE the plantations occurred in the 16th century.

Where did you get 1272BC from? This far predates any recorded history in this country.[/quote:264gkd3z]

Hurling is the oldest recorded sport in European history although i am not sure of where it was first recorded being played.

[st333ve]

To be fair to the OO, these latter oaths were at the time only a "copycat" idea. Originally, it was the RC church that forbid attending Protestant services. The Government could not even attend the burial of Douglas Hyde.

Yes, the RCs have fixed that and the Irish OO has not yet (I think the Scottish OO did?)

Those poor Orangemen, now i feel sorry for them.
Its those catholic fenians that made them take these oaths that come from a time when Protestant superiroity was to be protected by the repression of the catholic and methodist population.
An oath that comes from oppressing the 'peasant 'population, an oath that promotes superiority over these people.

But hey us Irish deserve it ,because some church in Rome apparently had a similar oath hundreds of years ago

Its all our fault, everything.
Ive seen the light!
Theyre not being fascist, we deserve it.

[size=7]Where do these eejits come from?[/size]

[Amach na Casca]

Hurling is the oldest recorded sport in European history although i am not sure of where it was first recorded being played.

Irish history has only been recorded since approx the 5th century AD, (time of the brehon laws) and hurling was referenced then. Nobody knows where the game has originated from but some historians think either Greece or somewhere in Africa are likely places. Its thought to have possibly been played in Ireland as long as 4,000 years ago, and its covered in ancient mythology, cuchulainn etc. It is truly an ancient game with an amazing history. I'm glad we've claimed it, and kept it going!

[ON THE ONE ROAD]

Hurling is the oldest recorded sport in European history although i am not sure of where it was first recorded being played.

Irish history has only been recorded since approx the 5th century AD, (time of the brehon laws) and hurling was referenced then. Nobody knows where the game has originated from but some historians think either Greece or somewhere in Africa are likely places. Its thought to have possibly been played in Ireland as long as 4,000 years ago, and its covered in ancient mythology, cuchulainn etc. It is truly an ancient game with an amazing history. I'm glad we've claimed it, and kept it going!

the nation was born with a game of hurley,

[Liam_Fenian]

The solution to the entire mess is to agree to another Act of Union. Catholicism, Nationalism, Republicanism, Gaelic, etc. should all be banned, and the punishment for practicing any of it should be severe pitchcapping (if you don't get the reference, look it up).

[joel]

Hurling is the oldest recorded sport in European history although i am not sure of where it was first recorded being played.

Irish history has only been recorded since approx the 5th century AD, (time of the brehon laws) and hurling was referenced then. Nobody knows where the game has originated from but some historians think either Greece or somewhere in Africa are likely places. Its thought to have possibly been played in Ireland as long as 4,000 years ago, and its covered in ancient mythology, cuchulainn etc. It is truly an ancient game with an amazing history. I'm glad we've claimed it, and kept it going!

Why does the game have to originate from somewhere else? - why say such a thing when you have no evidence for it?

[Zyklon B]

I think it's referenced amongst the ancient Greeks -as being a Celtic game! The Romans noted the Gauls i.e. Celts were playing hurling. The Iranian sport of Polo may derive from Hurling and the Scottish games of Shinty and golf are but varieties thereof. The Africans were most certainly not playing hurling.

[Amach na Casca]

This article is a pretty good one which tries to explain the origin of the game: http://www.klotz.org/SCA/mudpuppy/histo ... urling.htm

Similar to a game depicted in ancient Egyptian cave drawings, dated circa 2000 BCE, hurling is considered to be the oldest Irish game. The first written record of this pre-Christian sport is a mention in the Brehon Laws, compiled during the 5th century. No one knows where the sport originated from and whether or not it was native to Ireland or brought over from one of the many tribes that conquered or settled in the Emerald Isle, but there are two theories that link the ancient Irish to Egypt.

First, and most probably, is that hurling traveled with the nomadic tribe known as the Celts when they first landed in Ireland around 600 BCE. Linguistically the Celts belong to an Indo-European culture, and it is known that they once lived in the Semitic areas1. Another theory leads us back to the ancient Milesian legends, which are written in Lebor Gabala Erren (The Book of the Talking Dead2). According to the legends the Irish are descended from the kingdom of Scythia and its king, Feinius Farsaid. Feinius Farsaid and his son, Nel, went to Asia to work on the Tower of Nimrod (aka Babel), after which they returned and opened a school of languages. This school was so well known that the Pharaoh of Egypt invited Nel to come and teach his people the new languages of the world. While in Egypt Nel married Scota, the Pharaoh's daughter and settled down. Years later, after the Pharaoh drowned while pursuing "Moses and his band of Hebrews," Nel's great-grandson Sru left Egypt with his son, Heber Scot and returned to Scythia, where Heber Scot became king3. It is entirely possible that Sru and Heber Scot brought the game back with them. The only definite thing we know about hurling is that this ancient game is the model for most Celtic sports, including camogie, a female version, shinty, bandy or banty, hockey, gaelic football, and modern hurling.

[Erin go Bragh]

http://www.footystamps.com/gaa_history.htm

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.

[eileen ni tarbh]

I'm sorry, but I think that Colm Bradley is talking a load of drivel. I'm the product of a mixed marriage, and I got to experience the culture of both 'tribes' at first hand in childhood. I attended the local protestant primary school (it was closest) and deliberately steered clear of all churches until I was about 17 years of age, when I was taken to both Mass and the services of the local proddie church. Later, I attended one of those nominally proddie grammar schools which contained prods, Catholics, a Jewish lad and a Far Eastern Muslim girl in one class. I saw "The Twalf" at first hand and recall it as an event full of colour and pomp, although the quality of the 'music' was suspect (both in terms of hungover big drum tempo and in the screech of fifes and pipes). I didn't know the words to the tunes -the tunes were dire enought without "fenian blood". I also got to go to GAA matches, mostly in Clones, and immediately warmed to Gaelic football, hurling being less attractive to me. I've taken in Northern Ireland games at Windsor Park, where no one sang about "fenian blood" and All Ireland semis (never been to a final) at Croke, too.

Now, despite having been posting here for about a week, and labelled 'unionist' already, I've not much truck with those sorts of labels. And for those of you who are bandying such labels around, shame on you. Grow up and actually experience the culture of the other side rather than sit there in your little monocultural ivory towers, spouting crap about things you don't really understand.

Anyway, as many of you will know, your attendance in a Northern Irish primary school is the denominator in attributing you to a certain crowd. So my upbringing determines me as "protestant" for any job application in NI.

So, I'll take that label (even though I hate it) for the purpose of saying that the GAA doesn't really need to do anything in terms of 'outreach' to unionism (or, more accurately, protestants). Some of 'us' watch, experience, like and enjoy the game as it is. It's fast, it's furious, and there's some sort of local allegiance as a result of the county set-up. Still unconvinced by the Association's size-tarian policy of sticking the fat lad in goal, it must be said.

The poster who claimed that proddies in Fermanagh follow the county's fortunes is probably correct. Many may do, just as the game stands. Rather than change anything, the GAA simply needs to create brand awareness. BBC NI already does coverage of "The Championship", albeit with an Ulster bias, but as Ulster counties have dominated Sam Maguire in recent years, who can blame them?

No. Leave it alone. Prods do follow it. Historically, yes, their allegiances are most likely to be to association football, but the excellent coverage on the BBC has ensured that a good number, I'd guess, at least follow the All Ireland Championship.

There's a long way to go regarding proddie lads and lasses playing it, simply because they're in a school system that -usually- takes the rugger or GAA route from an early age. I'm not sure that this can be blamed on any 'sectarian division' confined to NI, though, since the top spot for rugger players is...um...Munster.

Anyway...I like GAA. I'm not offended by 'the anthem' or the tricolour or any other element of GAA. (Neither am I offended by GSTQ at the FA Cup Final) Leave it alone. Interest will grow...interest is growing...amongst proddies, in my experience. Just make it exciting, have some unpredictability in it (unlike the FA Premiership), and its appeal will trickle down to a section of the northern population to whom, historically, it was a representation of "themmuns". The North's growing up. Great strides have been made in ten years. Goodness knows where we'll be in another ten (although Aontrim will still never be near a Sam Maguire, I'd guess).