Where is Gaelic football played?

Answer 1

Gaelic Football is one of Ireland's two main national sports, the other being a sport called Hurling. At a first glance by the uneducated eye, it could look like a cross between soccer and rugby, but there is a lot more to it than that.

It is 15 players a side. The goals resemble a soccer goal and rugby goal stuck together. Getting the ball into the net is called a goal and gets 3 points. Get the ball over the crossbar and between the posts gets 1 point and is known as a point. There is no score for just reaching the endline like a try in rugby or a touchdown in American Football. It is played with a round ball. Players can touch it, but not run while just holding it. They also cannot touch it with their hands while it is in contact with the ground, but have to hook it up with their foot. It is a fast moving game when played at its best. Players can pass by punching or kicking the ball, but not by throwing it. A game is normally played over two 35 minutes halves.

The game is played by everyone from children to adults, with competitions at different grades, like by age or through schools and colleges. Nearly every small town or parish in Ireland has a GAA club. The GAA is the Gaelic Athletic Association, the governing body of Gaelic Football and Hurling, as well as some other sports. It is a social, sporting and cultural organisation, which is why clubs are so widespread, about 2500 in Ireland alone. There are also some where large amounts of Irish people have gathered around the world. New York has teams for example. Any club can have lots of teams of the different categories, from children upwards.

Ireland has 32 counties and the best players from the clubs in each county can get selected to play for their county team. The biggest competitions are the inter-county ones, with the All-Ireland Championship being the main competition. The final, which is played every September, is the single largest sporting event in the entire Irish sporting calendar. It is played in Croke Park in Dublin, the largest stadium in Ireland. It is one of the top 5 largest sporting stadiums in Europe in fact.

Gaelic Football is amateur, which is a very significant and a surprise to many who see it. Although the biggest match of the year will fill Croke Park's 82,300 capacity and have millions of people tuned in on radio, TV and the internet, in Ireland and anywhere in the world where you will find Irish people, the players don't get paid a single cent. They are playing for the love of the game, and many have day jobs or are students. They actually play more passionately, much as people do when they play sport for fun, before money starts to interfere.

There are matches all year round, but the main season stars around February with the league. The All-Ireland Championship starts in May, after the League finishes.

See the related question below where you will find links to video of Gaelic Football.
Gaelic football is an Irish game that bears some similarities to soccer and Australian rules football. Two sides play with a round ball, which the players are allowed to either kick or carry, and they score either by propelling the ball into a net guarded by a goalie or kicking the ball between a pair of uprights that extend above the net. A kick into the net is worth 3 points, and a kick between the posts counts for 1 point.

Answer 2

Gaelic Football would not be well known in most countries in the world. It is one of Ireland's two national sports. However, as Irish people are found in many countries, wherever they are in large numbers GAA Clubs (Gaelic Athletic Association) are founded. GAA Clubs would also have Hurling as part of their activities.

As the Irish people are found in so many places, GAA competitions are held in many parts of the world, between local clubs. There are regional competitions in Britain, other parts of Europe, America, Asia and Australia. The All-Ireland Championships, which features teams from counties all around Ireland, also includes teams from London and New York. In 1947, as commemoration of the centenary of the great famine in Ireland in 1847, and as a recognition of many people that emigrated to America, the 1947 All-Ireland Football Final was played in the Polo Grounds in New York. Cavan beat Kerry in the final. It is the only time the All-Ireland Senior Football Final was ever played outside Ireland.

Irish people at home and abroad follow their teams with great interest. Irish people abroad will often be seen wearing sports shirts which are in fact the shirts of their home county or local club. For the biggest matches of the year, Irish people abroad will often come together to watch matches on TV in Irish pubs or clubs in the countries that they are living in. With today's technology they can also watch or listen to matches online. The two biggest matches of the year, the All-Ireland Hurling Final and All-Ireland Football Final are played on two separate Sundays in September. On those two days Irish people all over the world will be endeavouring to see or listen to the matches. As Hurling and Gaelic Football are Ireland's two main national sports, the two finals are the biggest sporting events in Ireland every year.

Answer 3

Gaelic Football is one of Ireland's two national sports, the other being Hurling which is the fastest field game in the world. So Gaelic Football is played in Ireland, and in parts of the world where you have large Irish communities. The Gaelic Athletic Association, the governing body of Gaelic games, has many members from outside of Ireland, particularly in other parts of Europe and Asia, America and Australia.

Answer 4

Gaelic Football is played all year round. There are often matches on the 1st of January and right through until the 31st of December. As it is one of Ireland's national sports, the game is widespread throughout the country and is played at many different levels. Gaelic Football has many levels, from children to adults, from schools through to teams representing counties and provinces.

There are of course major competitions and times when the biggest games are played. The biggest of all is the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, which is played between county teams and which starts in May and culminates in the All-Ireland Football Final, the largest single sporting event in Ireland, in September. A league runs from January to May for county teams and it is the second biggest competition. There are also some other competitions for county teams.

For schools and clubs and other levels, there are also All-Ireland championships. An individual player often plays for several teams. They could be playing for their county, their college and their club. They could even be playing at different age levels, like for a Senior team, which is for anyone over 18, and also for an Under 21 team. Because there are so many grades, different competitions are played at different times of year. So when the All-Ireland Senior championship finishes in September, the amount of club games increases as players involved in county teams are now available. September would also see the re-opening of schools and colleges, so their competitions will start then too. So as you can see, there are matches throughout the year.

Answer 5

There are hundreds and hundreds of grounds where Gaelic Football is played., so it would be impossible to list them all It is the national sport of Ireland, so nearly every local area has a ground. There are some significantly larger grounds where really big matches are played. The biggest of these is Croke Park in Dublin, which can hold 82,300 people.

Answer 6

Gaelic Football is one of Ireland's two main national sports, so it is most popular in Ireland. It is popular in all parts of Ireland. Around the world, wherever large populations of Irish people live it is popular at a local level.

Answer 7

It would be impossible to give a full list. There are over 2500 GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) clubs in Ireland, many of which will actually have several Gaelic Football teams. Then there are teams in schools and colleges, some workplaces and of course the county teams. So there are actually thousands of Gaelic Football teams, from children to adults.

Answer 8

It is not a truly international sport, but there are many Gaelic Football and Hurling clubs around the world, where there are large amounts of Irish people living. So there are teams in all of the major continents and championships in some countries are organised, and club teams from different countries also play each other in organised competitions.