Gaelic Football
"My kids are Irish; I want them to grow up playing Gaelic football and learning Irish." Shane Filan
Key words
- Tenant: a person who pays rent for the use of land or a building
Tenants had to give part of their harvest to the landowners.
- Parish: in some Christian denominations, an area cared for by one priest with its own church, or (in England) the smallest unit of local government
She lived her whole life in the same parish.
- Gaelic: relating to the Celtic language of Ireland, or to its speakers or their traditional culture
Gaelic children were often heard speaking a mixture of Gaelic and English in the playground.
- Codify: to arrange something such as laws or rules into a formal system for people to follow
Our organization codified the best banking practices.
- Indistinguishable: impossible to notice differences when compared to another similar thing
The fish’s skin makes it virtually indistinguishable from the sand it swims over.
Read the article to find the answers
- How long was football banned for in Ireland?
- Where did the Gaelic Athletic Association get its rules from?
- What happened to children caught playing English football?
- What is the International Rules Series?
Caid
Caid, an Irish term meaning 'stuffed ball', refers to several ancient forms of Irish football. The 'cross-country' version was organised between landowners, with each team consisting of 20 or more tenants, and involved wrestling. It began after Sunday Mass and lasted the rest of the day until one side won by carrying the ball over the boundary of the opposing landowner's parish.
However, football was banned for over a century by the strict Sunday Observance Act of 1695, which imposed a heavy fine on those caught playing the sport.
Irish historians say that there is no link between ancient Caid and modern Gaelic football, claiming that many of the codified rules of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) were a direct copy of Australian Rules and other football codes written in the 1800s.
Gaelic Football
Rugby and soccer were very popular in Ireland in the 1800s. Trinity College Dublin was an early stronghold of rugby and soccer was popular in the Irish countryside. A third and very different form of football began to emerge and spread across the south-west of Ireland, that was virtually indistinguishable from Aussie Rules.
The GAA codified the Irish version of football in 1884. It had many similarities to Aussie Rules, but the mark was banned, it used a round ball and it was also influenced by the ancient Gaelic game of hurling. The first game of Gaelic football under GAA rules was played in Kilkenny in February 1885.
Irish Nationalism
In the first half of the 20th century, some Irish clubs were determined to make Irish football as different from English football as possible. They began to adopt strict nationalist policies where referees could only speak Irish, the use of any other language would be punished and children caught playing English football would be banned from playing Irish football.
Gaelic Football & the AFL
In 1967, an Aussie Rules referee sent an Australian team known as the Galahs to play Mayo and Meath in Ireland and the International Rules Series was born. The International Rules Series is an occasional football competition between Australia and Ireland using a special set of rules agreed by both the GAA and the AFL. The two countries alternate hosting the series at each other's most prestigious venues - the Cricket Ground in Melbourne and Croke Park in Dublin.
Discussion questions
- Do you have any questions about any of the vocabulary or grammar in this article?
- Do you think some sports should be banned?
- Do you think some languages should be banned in sport?
- What interests you most about Ireland?
- Is there another version of football in your country?
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