ABSTRACT
The modern form of hurling – which now thrives as the “national game” of Ireland – was codified in the 1880s with the establishment by Michael Cusack of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. By then, hurling was surviving only on the margins of modern life in Ireland, played in traditional ways by a handful of rural communities in areas such as north Tipperary and east Galway. The modernization of Irish sport in the second half of the nineteenth century had seen clubs for cricket, rugby, soccer, tennis, and many other sports established across Ireland. It was a phenomenon that had remade the Irish sporting world – but hurling had not modernized as part of this process. Part of the appeal of hurling is the history and mythology which surrounds the game. The construction of this history and mythology was a conscious decision. Back in the 1880s, Michael Cusack was at pains to set out this idea that hurling “grew out of the soil of Ireland” and that it was an assertion of Irishness in the face of British cultural imperialism. Indeed, the game of hurling was presented as one of the great symbols of distinction between the Irish and the rest of the world. This chapter examines how a traditional game was remade as a modern sport, how this remaking was interwoven with myth and history, and how the desire to shape a national identity was fundamental to its codification.
