How many people play GAA abroad?

Answer 1

There are over 2500 GAA clubs in Ireland. Within each club there can be many teams for different age categories and ability. Some players would be playing for more than one of those teams. Some clubs concentrate more or even exclusively on Hurling and others on Gaelic Football. Outside of clubs there are teams representing all levels of educational institutions from school to universities. Many workplaces have teams too. So because there is such a variety of teams, it is very difficult to know how many people play Gaelic Football. It is the biggest sport in Ireland.

Answer 2

That is difficult to answer. Gaelic Football and Hurling are Ireland's two national sports. The senior All-Ireland finals in both sports are the two biggest sporting events in Ireland. Between radio and television, the total interest would be in millions. Throughout the year there are all sorts of smaller matches, right down to children's games which people would attend. There are over 2500 GAA clubs in Ireland, each with lots of teams and some of them with a very large amount of teams. So when you take this all into consideration, going from the lowest levels to the highest levels, it would be hard to know how many people go to matches or at least watch them on TV or listen to them on radio, but it does run into millions.

As an example, the GAA has recently released the attendance figures for the 2009 Hurling and Football Championships. The combined total attendance figures for the two championships was 1,523,000. Naturally that would count the same person going to more than one match, so actual individual people going would be less than that. However that is only for the two championship competitions, and while a lot of the same people would be going to other competitions and to all levels of games, there would be people who wouldn't go to championship games. A lot of people would watch on TV too.