There is a wide range of choices when it comes to team sports in Ireland. The people of Ireland, love competition and comradery, Irish people play soccer, hockey, basketball, rugby and Gaelic Football, which is just one sport within the umbrella of the GAA.
Let us first take a look at Gaelic Football.
"The game of life is a lot like football. You have to tackle your problems, block your fears, and score your points when you get the opportunity."
- Lewis Grizzard
A Brief History of Gaelic Football - GAA
Gaelic Football can be described as a mixture of soccer and rugby, although it predates both of those games. The first record of Gaelic football is in the Statutes of Galway (1527) which allowed the playing of football but banned hurling. The earliest reported match took place at Slane, Co. Meath in 1712 when Meath played their neighbours, Louth
In August 1884 Micheal Cusack and Maurice Davin met a group of nationalists in Loughrea, County Galway, and outlined their plans to establish a national organization, the Gaelic Athletic Association.
Currently, the GAA is the largest sporting organization in Ireland, boasting 2,800 clubs comprising approximately 182,000 footballers. Here is one major difference between soccer and GAA, all GAA football players are "amateurs", which means there is no financial benefit for players and so they are playing for “the glory and pride" of winning.
"To become a great player, you've got to show real dedication and commitment to football, and you've got to be very humble and hard-working. And, above all, you've got to fight to make your dreams come true."
- Sergio Ramos
A Brief History of Soccer
Today's version of soccer began in the 19th century when the game first became popular at universities and schools.
Back then, the ball game was somewhat a mixture of rugby football and soccer and was simply referred to as ‘football.’ It was unruly and chaotic due to the variation in rules that different teams adhered to. In 1848, eight undergraduates from four public schools came together in Cambridge to draft up rules that everyone could follow. They agreed on a set of eleven rules that they then nailed to a tree in Parker’s Piece. One significant rule that has carried over into the modern game today was that carrying the ball was mostly disallowed. This rule is likely what started the divergence of ‘soccer’ and ‘rugby’ which eventually became separate sports.
1863, the first-ever Football Association was formed in London. This newly enacted Football Association (the FA today) used the Cambridge Rules as the basis for their set of rules.
In 1878, Sheffield held the first floodlit match at Bramall Lane. Twelve thousand people paid sixpence each to watch the ‘blues’ play the ‘reds’ in a landmark event forever stamped in Sheffield and soccer history.
In 1888 the first-ever football league was formed, and twelve teams made up this ground-breaking league.
FIFA
Shortly after the game had been established domestically in England, national associations began to spring up worldwide. There were only a few national football teams in the late 19th century. The first national teams of England and Scotland first played each other in the 1870s.
In 1903, French journalist Robert Guérin saw an opening to create an international governing body that would oversee the international side of soccer. Guérin invited seven nations to meet in Paris. These seven nations all had one common goal in mind, to unify national soccer associations worldwide. These founding nations included Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Which is More Popular in Ireland Gaelic or Soccer?
For the first time in a while and mostly because of the pandemic, personal or individual sports have become more common in Ireland. Things like dancing, specifically Irish dancing or other sports such as swimming, running and yoga have overtaken club sports in popularity in Ireland so finding the stats for this was much more difficult than I thought they would be.
I could find a reference for 2018 when Gaelic football was more popular than soccer for the first time in 10 years. I could find reports for years and years before that however when I started looking for the last three years it became increasingly difficult to see which sport was more popular.
Although the viewership held up very strongly for both sports, and it was very tight to see which was more popular there. To see which was more popular as a played sport or an attended sport, became difficult. It took much research and I finally came across some statistics and articles which brought me to the following conclusions.
"Colin Corkery on the 45 lets go with the right boot. It's over the bar. This man shouldn't be playing football. He's made an almost Lazarus-like recovery from a heart condition. Lazarus was a great man, but he couldn't kick points like Colin Corkery."
- Micheal O Muircheartaigh
In 2021 Gaelic football was more popular amongst players and we were attending games in Ireland, according to RTÉ news statistics, Gaelic Football held on to the top spot as Ireland's favourite sport for the third year in a row at 24%, ahead of soccer at 14%.
However this year, 2022 soccer was much more sought out by fans and players. They have a higher number of members joining clubs and attending matches and according to "Ireland before you die" soccer won the popular vote by 1.9%.
Did this sudden rise in popularity have anything to do with the World Cup? You tell me.
Whatever way you look at it, both Gaelic Football and Soccer will always be competing for the top spot as Ireland's favourite sport, and rugby will always be nipping at the heels.
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