The GAA and local clubs as a way into community life

Newcomers commonly notice how much social life in Irish neighbourhoods revolves around local clubs:

• The GAA is everywhere. The Gaelic Athletic Association is Ireland's largest sporting organisation, with over 2,200 clubs across all 32 counties of the island. Its games include hurling, Gaelic football, handball and rounders, with sister organisations for ladies' football and camogie.
• Clubs are built around places. The GAA is organised around traditional parishes and counties. The GAA itself says it is often hard to tell where the community ends and the club starts.
• Big match days. The All-Ireland hurling and football finals at Croke Park in Dublin, with a capacity of 82,300, are among the biggest days of the year.
• Volunteering. The GAA has remained amateur since 1884: players, even at the highest level, are not paid, and clubs run on volunteers.

The GAA was founded on 1 November 1884 in Thurles, County Tipperary, to make sport accessible to ordinary people and to revive traditional Irish games and pastimes. It also promotes Irish music, song, dance and the Irish language. The vast majority of GAA clubs own their own grounds and facilities.

Because clubs depend on volunteers and are tied to a parish or neighbourhood, joining one, whether as a player, a parent of a young player or a volunteer, can be a practical way to get to know neighbours.

The GAA is one of many options. In Clontarf alone, for example, there are clubs for rugby, soccer, golf, cricket, tennis and sailing as well as Gaelic games, and the local yacht club is one of the oldest in Dublin Bay. How central the GAA club is to local life varies by area and by family. You do not need to play to take part: supporting, coaching children or helping at events are all ways in.