How is Gaelic football culturaly significant in Ireland?

Answer 1

First of all, it is Ireland's main national sport, just ahead of Hurling. The two sports are run by an organisation known as the GAA, which stands for the Gaelic Athletic Association. In every part of Ireland there are GAA clubs and each club can have many teams. GAA clubs are also places for social gatherings and other social events. People in a locality will follow the teams of their local club. Within each county, the best players from the clubs are selected to play for the county teams. People in each county will follow their own county. Particularly in the summer, when the season is at its highest, this means thousands of people following their county teams. There are many big rivalries, so the games get a lot of attention in the sports pages and beyond. The All-Ireland Hurling Final, on the first Sunday of September and the All-Ireland Football Final on the third Sunday in September are the two biggest sporting events in the Irish sporting calendar. They attract attention from Irish people both in Ireland and abroad.

The GAA was founded in 1884 to promote Irish sports and Irish culture which was at a time when Ireland was still under British rule. So it has historical significance and it has made a great contribution to Irish culture in many ways, not just sport, but things like music and dance and the Irish language amongst other things. The GAA is the largest amateur sporting organisation in the world. None of the players play for money. They play for the love of the sport, which actually makes them play better, as they are playing for their own club, or county. It is similar to the way people in other sports make a particular effort when they are playing for their national team compared to when they are just playing for an ordinary team. The GAA players are just ordinary members of society who have their own jobs or are studying, so they are rooted in the community they live and they hold their allegiance to their club and county for life. So Gaelic Football and more important the GAA is of huge significance in Ireland, much more so than can even be indicated in this answer.