Gaelic football in a sociological perspective

We have previously written from a sociological perspective on many aspects of Gaelic football, and Gaelic games more generally, including player and spectator violence (Connolly and Dolan, 2010; Dolan and Connolly, 2009, 2014), media relations (Connolly and Dolan, 2012), organizational tensions (Connolly, 2015; Connolly and Dolan, 2011, 2013a) and the tension between amateurism and professionalism (Connolly and Dolan, 2013b). It is to this latter aspect we return here. The sports of Gaelic football, handball and hurling (collectively referred to as ‘Gaelic games’) remain one of the few remaining amateur sports in the world today. This is somewhat remarkable given the gradual erosion of the amateur ethos across a whole range of sporting domains that has occurred over the course of the last 130 years, including sports such as rugby union which held a strong amateur ethos until relatively recently. Moreover, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), the entity with responsibility for the organization of games, is one of the largest sports bodies in Ireland. It has 500,000 1 members worldwide and significant financial revenues generated directly and indirectly from spectators – through gate-taking and broadcast rights. Indeed, over €29m was generated from gate-taking in 2013. 2 We emphasize this last point because financial dependence on spectators has been connected to professionalizing pressures (Dunning and Sheard, 1979).