GAA Timeline

By niamhymckenna

  • Agriculture

    Agriculture wor was dictated by the seasons, leaving little to no free time for workers to take part in leisure activities, most people spent the majority of their time on the land, during the industrial revolution people wored long hours. Even when people changed the nature of their work they still didn't have time for sport. They took par in flexible working and job sharing.

  • Saturday half day

    The sesonal shift system was introduced so on a Saturday workers during the summer on worked from 6am to 6pm and in the winter they worked from 7am to 7pm. This enabled more time for men to take part in sport.

  • Foundation of the GAA

    Seven men met in the 'Hayes Hotel', Thurles on November 1st and then began to fund the Gaelic Athletic Association for the preservation and cultivation of our national pastimes.

  • Value of Goals and reduction of team players

    Goals were now made equal to five points and teams for gaelic games were reduced from 21-a-side to 17-a-side

  • Value of Goals

    The value of a goal was again reduced in 1896 from 5 points to 3 points.

  • Public Schools

    The richer families within the late 18 to early 19th centuries sent their children to public schools, due to being in a school all day and night these children had a lot of free time on their hands an this is when sports where introduced into schools.

  • Purchase of Croke Park

    In 1905 at the GAA Annual Convention the decision was made to create a memorial in honour of Archbishop Thomas William Croke, he was the first Patron of the GAA. The GAA then decided to purchase Jones' Road Sports and they then re-named the grounds ‘Croke Park’ in honour of Archbishop Croke

  • The GAA enters the Political Arena

    Although not officially involved in the easter rising itself. 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.

  • Gaelic Sunday

    In 1918 the Council prepared a series of matches through the country for Sunday 4th. These matches were played throughout the country with an estimated 54,000 members taking part. This is how Sunday got the name of Gaelic Sunday.

  • Bloody Sunday

    On November 21st Dublin and Tiperrary were scheduled to play, when the British Army attacked and killed 14 people in Croke park and left many more people inured.

  • The repair of Croke Park

    The GAA was given a grant of £10,000 to repair Croke Park. They then purchased a new stand and it was then remaned as ‘The Hogan Stand’.

  • All-Ireland Final in NewYork

    All-Ireland Senior Football Final was played between Cavan and Kerry. In the Polo Grounds of New York, this was to encourage interest in Gaelic Games amongst the Irish-American population that was there at the time.

  • Transport

    The improved transport systems started to contribute to sport from the 1950's with the railway system. This enabled large numbers of people to travel all around the country and helped to popularise sports such as football, rugby and cricket. Roads began to improve after the 1950's and this helped improve coach and bus travel.

  • First televised GAA game

    Gaelic Games were televised live for the first time and television became a big deal in Ireland, a huge worry came from this as people were afraid of attendenes dropping at games. The very first televised game was played in 1961, between Kerry and Dublin in Croke Park.

  • 50 years on

    The GAA marks the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising by staging a pageant ‘Seachtar Fear: Seachtar Lá’ in Croke Park.

  • Rule 27 is rescinded

    The GAA deleted the ‘Rule 27’ from its Official Guide. Members that were previously banned from Gaelic before this had now got full permission to both play and attend.

  • All - Ireland final between Dublin and Galway

    All-Ireland Football Final, between Dublin and Galway has been best remembered by the fact that Dublin finished the game with only 12 players.

  • Jersey Sponsorship is introduced

    in 1991 Jersey sponsorship was brought into the GAA. This helped clubs recieve more recognition due to the newsponorsips recieved.

  • Sponsorship

    The GAA's biggest and longest sponsorship deal was made with the AIB in 1992 this sponsorship deal carried in £4.5million for the All Irelnd fooball championship.

  • The Redevelopment of Croke Park commences

    After the incident in the Hill 16 in1983, Liam Mulvihill was then convinced that Croke Park needed complete revamp.

  • Back door system

    TheGAA introduced th 'Back-Door' system, this as introduced for team that had been beating a game to find another way of winning. This meant every county had the chance to compete in two championship games.

  • The GAA’s Rule 21 –

    This prevented members of the British Security forces becoming members of the Association is ended.

  • The New Croke Park

    In 2003 Croke park was newly opened with the capacity to hold 82,300 people.

  • The GAA’s Rule 42 –

    This prevented sports other than Gaelic Games from being played at GAA the venues.

  • 125th Anniversary

    The GAA celebrates its 125th year in existence by displaying a range of events to mark the year.

  • Introduction of HawkEye

    The Hawkeye point detection technology for both hurling and football at Croke Park was first used on 1 June 2013 at the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-final double header.

  • GAA makes a TV deal with Sky

    In 2014 th GAA mde deal with Sky which enables Sky to broadcast 20 games per season. This deal was set in place in 2014 origionally for 3 years but has now been extended until 2021.