On 13 November 1938, just months after his inauguration, President Douglas Hyde attended a soccer match between Ireland and Poland. In a passionate reaction, the GAA declared that by attending a 'foreign game', he had broken Rule 27 – the Ban – and they removed him as patron. One of the most controversial incidents in recent GAA history, it strained relations between the GAA and Éamon de Valera's Fianna Fáil government. It also damaged the standing of the Ban and was used extensively by opponents to argue for its removal.
It had been a busy few days for Adolf Hitler, but Douglas Hyde had not slipped his mind ... On 25 June 1938, Douglas Hyde became the first President of Ireland. His values stood in stark contrast to those of the continental dictator. As a Protestant nationalist and a leading figure in the language revival, he made the office an inclusive one and determined to be a president for all the people of Ireland. He also played a highly significant, but previously unheralded, role in the state's policy of neutrality during the Second World War. Hitler's fleeting fixation with Hyde was that the new presidency significantly diluted Ireland's bonds with the British Empire. The accepted wisdom is that Hyde's transition to the presidency was a seamless process, but new research shows it only came about on foot of a late political compromise. He may have been a compromise candidate, but with his non-partisan background, he was also an inspired choice. Forgotten Patriot shows Hyde's considerable impact on the development and perception of the office of President of Ireland.
Originally published in 1960 and edited by Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Shaping of Modern Ireland was a seminal work surveying the lives of prominent early twentieth-century figures who influenced Irish affairs in the years between the death of Charles Stewart Parnell in 1891 and the Easter Rising of 1916. The chapters were written by leading historians and commentators from the Ireland of the 1950s, some of whom personally knew the subjects of their essays. This volume draws its inspiration from that seminal work. Written by some of today’s leading figures from the world of Irish history, politics, journalism and the arts, it revisits a crucial phase in the country’s history, one that culminated in the Easter Rising and the Revolution, when everything ‘changed utterly’. With chapters on men and women of the stature of Carson, Connolly and Markievicz, but also industrialists such as Guinness who contributed to ‘shaping modern Ireland’ in the social and economic sphere, this book offers an important contribution to the renewal of the debate on the country’s history.
The first history of sport in Ireland, locating the history of sport within Irish political, social, and cultural history, and within the global history of sport. It studies the relationship between sport and national identity, how sport influences policy-making in modern states, and the ways in which sport has been colonized by the media.
From its earliest days, association football was seen not just as a contest between individuals and teams, but also between nations and peoples. The Irish national team was among the first in the world to participate in international competition in the early 1880s, but not everyone accepted it as a truly national entity. Sport in Ireland was disputed ground in a manner that was not the case elsewhere – even the term ‘football’ itself was a contested one. But soccer followers generally found no contradiction between their sporting and national loyalties, and the game found an important niche in Irish life, supported by many leading nationalists, from James Connolly to John Hume. This book provides a unique window into the history of Ireland and Britain, with keen insights into the making of national, regional, sectarian, class and gender identities that crystallised around Irish soccer. Taking the story from the 1870s up to the present, it examines the domestic as well the international game in Ireland, North and South, and sets both in a richly detailed historical and cultural context. It also examines the experience of Irish communities in England and Scotland, and the ways in which the game affected their relationship with their host societies. Carefully weaving together political, social, cultural and sporting history, No Foreign Game tells a story not just of division and conflict, but also one of solidarity and celebration, and in doing so it breaks new ground in the history of Irish sport.
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is a part of the Irish consciousness and plays an influential role in Irish society that extends far beyond the sport itself. In popular imagination and experience, the GAA is often evoked in terms of its objects: medals passed down from generation to generation, jerseys worn in All-Ireland finals, Michael Cusack’s blackthorn stick, a pair of glasses damaged during the events of Bloody Sunday. It is this body of objects that forms the focus of this book. A History of the GAA in 100 Objects acts as a signpost to significant moments in GAA history, offers fresh perspectives on a previously overlooked area of enquiry and presents new ideas not available elsewhere.
The decade between the labour conflict (the 'Lockout') of 1913 and the end of the Civil War in 1923 was one of seismic upheaval. How the GAA – a major sporting and national body – both influenced and was influenced by this upheaval is a rich and multifaceted story. Leading writers in the field of modern Irish history and the history of sport explore the impact on 'ordinary' life of major events. They examine the effect of the First World War, the 1916 Rising and its aftermath, the emergence of nationalist Sinn Féin and its triumph over the Irish Parliamentary Party, as well as the War of Independence (1919–21) and the bitter Civil War (1922–23). This is an original and engrossing perspective through the lens of a sporting organisation. Contributors: Eoghan Corry, Mike Cronin, Paul Darby, Páraic Duffy, Diarmaid Ferriter, Dónal McAnallen, James McConnel, Richard McElligott, Cormac Moore, Seán Moran, Ross O'Carroll, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Mark Reynolds, Paul Rouse
Sports have their own controversies: fights over tactics, disputes over refereeing calls, the specter of drugs and cheats. Then there are those with dark political overtones. Foul! Tackling Politics and Sport takes a look at controversial moments when sport and politics have collided during the past century, some tragic, others plain sinister, a few bizarre; all the subject of hot dispute. Ranging from the infamous Berlin Olympics, hijacked by Hitler and the Nazis, the tragedy of Munich, and the Cold War boycotts, to the curious case of the Gaelic Athletic Association throwing out Irish President Douglas Hyde. It shows how sport can be cynically manipulated by some of the most unsavoury of characters in world history; and how ultimately athletes and the fans end up losers.
Sport is a geographic phenomenon. The physical and organizational infrastructure of sport occupies a prominent place in our society. This important book takes an explicitly spatial approach to sport, bringing together research in geography, sport studies and related disciplines to articulate a critical approach to ‘sports geography’. Critical Geographies of Sport illustrates this approach by engaging directly with a variety of theoretical traditions as well as the latest research methods. Each chapter showcases the merits of a geographic approach to the study of sport – ranging from football to running, horseracing and professional wrestling. Including cases from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, the book highlights the ways that space and power are produced through sport and its concomitant infrastructures, agencies and networks. Holding these power relations at the center of its analysis, it considers sport as a unique lens onto our understanding of space. Truly global in its perspective, it is fascinating reading for any student or scholar with an interest in sport and politics, sport and society, or human geography.
