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Period: to
Development of Sport
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Pre-industrial leisure
The term pre-inustrial means the period before machinery and factories were common, and before large town and cities were established when most people lived in small communities. the lifestyle was mainly subsistence living of the land to survive.
People were tied to work the land with little machiery to help them and did so to surive rather than for lesisure, but on market days or at fairs there would also be opportunity to take part in some leisure activites like dancing and gambling. -
Pre-industrial leisure
The rich were able to travel locally and may have hunted on neighbouring estates or travelled to the coast to sail but many county folk would not have the skills time or energy to take part. The church did not look kindly on sports and put pressure on King James to tone down the games and encourage people to worship more. -
Pre-industrial leisure
The new king Charles II resurrected sports and tennis, yachting and hunting grew in popularity again. Other sports, such as early forms of cricket, skating and fishing were followed by the rich but the poor still had to settle with bar games such as draughts, dice, dominoes and cards and festivals. -
Pre-industrial leisure
In this period more travel become possible and cricket was born in the early 1700s and spa towns such as bath encouraged bathing, dancing and taking walks in the park these activates were mainly the lower class people and the rich continued with their equestrian sports on their private estates. -
early nineteenth century
1800s brought more mechanical inventions and businesses such as mills were set up to produce and trade goods within the British Empire. The cities grew but life was hard and certainly not as healthy as country life – conditions were often cramped and unsanitary the absence of electricity running water or an inside toilet being made worse by overcrowding. Work was physically demanding such as mining or labouring on building sites and there was little time off and little or no additional earnings -
Early nineteenth century
for sport and leisure activities but the rich had leisure time and were able to follow pursuits such as hunting, riding and shooting on estates in the county but in towns they would have larger houses gardens and played croquet and bowls. -
Industrialisation of mid-nineteenth century
The richer classes to pay for their children’s education. Sports flourished within their walls, especially rugby, cricket, tennis and some soccer and rules were made to help structure the sports and these form the basis of rules and regulations today.
Factory workers and their children had little to speak of other than streets and pub games such as darts. Their working week would be close to 70 hours. There were more public holiday than saints’ day and church festival -
Industrialisation of mid-nineteenth century
These holidays were gradually suppressed by hard- nosed businessmen and factory-owners who promoted a hard-working ethic. This tide of capitalism was opposed over the years by working-class people, who fought for a shorter working day and week, higher wages, and time off work for leisure in return for their labour. -
Late nineteenth century
Sunday remained the day of worship but this was often followed by home- based leisure pastimes and hobbies. A crucial event for children was the elementary education act of 1870 which made it compulsory for children aged 5-13 to go to school where play was encouraged -
Late nineteenth century
This period saw a change in attitude and the right to time off so the weekend born which gave sport and leisure a chance to flourish. The Saturday afternoon off, was quickly filled with amusements and entertainment but also with sports matches taking on the more commercial approach that we see today. The opportunities to play and watch football, cricket and golf and for some ballooning and flying flourished. -
Rationalisation
• Keeping people healthier so they could work harder
• Giving them challenging leisure experiences to help them forget the drudgery of work
• Compensating them for hard physical labour
• Helping them to get some fresh air and escape poor working condition -
Foundation of the GAA
At the behest of Michael Cusack seven men met in Hayes Hotel, Thurles on November 1 1884 and founded the Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of our National Pastimes. Maurice Davin was elected President, Michael Cusack, John Wyse Power and John McKay elected Secretaries and Archbishop Thomas William Croke, Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt were asked to become patrons. -
Regulation
for example boxing adopted the Queensberry rules in 1867. Sports association’s leagues and clubs began to form too many ‘works teams’ such as Arsenal the football team formed in 1886 by workers at the Woolwich Arsenal Armaments Factory. Sport venues also began to spring up - football grounds, teenis clubs, public baths parks and gardens.A key feature late in this period was the reintroduction of the olympic games by baron de coubertin in 1896 -
Purchase of Croke Park
At the G.A.A.’s 1905 Annual Convention the decision was taken to erect a memorial in honour of Archbishop Thomas William Croke, First Patron of the GAA, who died in 1902. Between 1905 and 1913 fund-raising for this memorial was sporadic at best to be used for the memorial. Using these funds the GAA decided to purchase Jones Road Sports Ground from Frank Dineen for £3,500. They re-named the grounds ‘Croke Park in honour of Archbishop Croke. -
Involvement
Although not officially involved, many members of the GAA took part in the Rising. GAA activities throughout the country came to a halt as many of the association's members were imprisoned. In 1916 the GAA entered the ‘political arena’ when it agreed to send a delegation to a Dublin Corporation conference for the purpose of forming a Political Prisoners Amnesty Association. The finances of the GAA suffered severely as a result. -
Early twentieth century
Women had proved themselves in the war effort and had a vote so opportunities began to open up for their participation as well although conflict and inequality were still apparent, with most sports still being male-dominated. -
Bloody Sunday
The Dublin football team was scheduled to play Tipperary, in Croke Park, and the proceeds of this challenge match were to be donated to the Irish Republican Prisoners' Fund. The night before Michael Collins sent his ‘Squad’ out to assassinate the ‘Cairo Gang’, a team of undercover British agents working and living in Dublin. A series of shootings took place throughout the night which left 14 members of the British Forces dead. In reprisal the British Military entered Croke Park and open fire -
Tailteann Games
With the end of the Civil War the Irish Provisional Government decided to stage the Tailteann Games (due to take place in 1922 but postponed due to the outbreak of the Civil War) with Croke Park as the main centre of activity. The GAA was given a grant of £10,000 to refurbish Croke Park for the event, out of which they purchased a new stand, The Hogan Stand. Although the Tailteann Games were staged again in 1928 and 1932, the 1924 games are considered the most successful. -
Early twentieth century
There was better working conditions and better machinery in mills so the hard physical labour for some began to ease. There was sufficient interest in winter sports activities for the winter Olympics to be created in 1924. Some notable events that were squeezed in between the two world wars and the economic depression of the 1930s were motor racing at Monza in Italy, Davis cup tennis the first soccer world cup, the
Olympics hosted by Hitler in Nazi Germany. -
Early twentieth century
Sport began to take on new roles of helping the economy promoting national pride and bringing in new technology. Sport’s mantle of being ‘time-wasting’ was truly cast off. -
GAA and the advent of Telefís Éireann
With the establishment of Telefís Éireann television became a reality for a large section of the Irish population. Gaelic Games were televised live for the first time and initial worries that the televising of games would result in a serious drop in attendances proved unfounded. -
50 Years On
The GAA marks the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising by staging a pageant ‘Seachtar Fear: Seachtar Lá’ in Croke Park. The GAA also commissioned an extended essay on the GAA’s role in 1916. Veterans of the 1916 Rising were quests of honour at the 1966 All-Ireland Hurling Final. -
Early twentieth century: Commercialisation and social change
Jet-plane travel allowed the sports industry to become fully globalised. Sport entered the era of the big business with more sporting commodities being created opportunities for wealthy businessmen to aspects such as clothing and scope for agents to pursue high fees for the top players. -
GAA Centenary Year
All Ireland hurling final played in Thurles -
Jersey Sponsorship is introduced
the Leinster Championship First Round game between Dublin and Meath involves a marathon series of four games, which attracts 237,000 supporters. -
Late twentieth century:
Black athletes were more able to assert their rights to play at all levels as their physical prowess was recognised and equality of opportunity improved. Women also began to achieve equality in many sporting domains that had previously been male- only including some Olympic sports such as middle distance running and club competitions such as rugby and cricket -
Late twentieth century
Top athletes of both sexes and all colours have become ‘sports commodities’ e.g. Michael Jordan and Maria Sharapova who command large fees for matches and endorsing goods these are the top stars -
Late twentieth century
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The New Croke Park
The New Croke Park is opened with a capacity of 82,300. The world Special Olympics are staged at the venue -
125th Anniversary
the GAA celebrates its 125th year in existence with an array of events to mark the year.