Entrepreneurship in an Amateur World: The Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland

Abstract

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is unusual in the world of contemporary sport. While at the organizational level it is wholly corporate and follows standard global models of maximizing revenue from media deals and sponsorship, the players remain entirely amateur. As a result, rather than profits being removed from the organization in terms of dividends, the income is recycled through the grassroots of the organization so that local communities benefit. This is at odds with the two other major sports in Ireland, soccer and rugby, which both spend a large percentage of their revenue on player contracts and therefore only recycle comparatively small amounts of money to their grass roots. Historically, the GAA did not embrace entrepreneurship due to the nature of the general national economy, a lack of modernization and the drain of emigration from the island. It was only until the economic boom of the 1990s that the GAA began to innovate entrepreneurially, and the success of this strategy is evidenced by a healthy profit that is underpinned by a commitment to amateurism.     

The Amplification and De-Amplification of Amateurism and Professionalism in the Gaelic Athletic Association

In this paper we explain how and why a specific ethos of amateurism was portrayed and embodied by various groups comprising the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland throughout its history. Interestingly, the discourse pertaining to amateurism has at times been de-amplified, instead being superseded by the vilification of professionalism. Since the 1970s, both amateurism and professionalism have been imbued with new meanings and interpretations by different social groups comprising the organisation. In tandem with this, both the discourses of professionalism and amateurism have been increasingly amplified. We explain how the structure of competitive and cooperative interdependencies, the we-identifications, tensions and insecurities generated by these, between groups at different levels of integration – social class, national, inter-organisational and intra-organisational – underpin these social developments.     

Speaking Irish with hurley sticks: Gaelic sports,the Irish language and national identity in revival Ireland

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ban on foreign games, implemented nationally in 1905, affected not only GAA members but Gaelic League members also. The shared Gaelic heritage of both organisations led to their marriage in the Irish Ireland movement and the aims and ideals of both organisations were promoted alongside one another. GAA members were expected to promote and use Irish while Gaelic League members were to play only Gaelic sports. The commitment of GAA members to the language was to prove controversial throughout the Irish revival period, however, where lip service, symbolism and general lack of interest in the language led to the diminishing of GAA language policies. Nevertheless, GAA members enjoyed the status of being uniquely Gaelic. The same leniency was not afforded to Gaelic Leaguers with regard to vigilance in games. By tying itself to the GAA and the ban, the Gaelic League compromised its own ideals as regards the language forming the basis of Irish nationality and the importance of the games as part of Gaelic identity greatly increased. This corresponds with Timothy G. McMahon’s argument that the secondary aims of the Gaelic League came to obtain greater prominence in the Gaelic Revival than the language itself.     

Science and the Gaelic sports: Gaelic football and hurling

Abstract

The two major sports indigenous to Ireland are Gaelic football and hurling. Both are 15-a-side field games played on a pitch 40% longer than a soccer field. They are firmly linked to a nationalist tradition and have by far the highest participation rates in sports in the country. Both games make multiple demands on participants due to their free-flowing nature and quick movement of play from end to end of the pitch. Hurling calls for hand–eye coordination and skilled use of the hurling stick in hitting and blocking the ball. Fitness characteristics mirror game demands. Participants at elite level in both games display high aerobic power, the footballers tending to be stronger in the upper body and better in vertical jumping. Gaelic footballers in particular match the fitness characteristics of professional soccer players, except for sprinting speed. Less attention has been paid to female participants, especially in camogie, the female version of hurling. Despite their amateur status, and due to the popularity of the sports and the training regimens adopted by players, the games have garnered sports science support systems for elite performers. Support personnel benefit from a generic knowledge base as well as a burgeoning research agenda targeted at the Gaelic games.     

早期精武体育会武术传播寻绎

精武体育会的创立及其"入世进取"的角色定位与近代民族主义目标相契合,是精武体育会立会、发展的时代与群众基础。在紧扣时代脉搏的基础上,精武体育会通过依附和吸纳包括军、政、商等社会名流,延聘各地域武术名家,并通过广向各分会、学校及社团派遣武术师资等形式构筑了武术传播的人际网络。广设分会是精武体育会武术传播的一大特征,由沿海而南洋的拓展路线,使精武会成为以武术为代表的东方体育文化海外传播的领航者。精武会注重搭借各种媒介宣扬自我及个性化社团符号的打造,使其渐成为受众的一种普遍认同。精武会遵循和谐的传播与发展理念,从而使武术得以在延展后更大的多维空间中传播。     

论精武粤传的成因与意义

精武粤传的成因主要是社团自身发展的需要,北派武术具有的文化势能,广州等岭南城市优越的地理位置和精武体育会中粤人的人力优势。此举成功地将北派武术精华传播到了南粤大地,大规模地促进了中国南北武术文化的深度交流和融合,推动了岭南武术和体育事业的发展进程,使精武海外传播成为可能。     

Mobilising the Modern Industrial Landscape for Sports and Leisure in the Early Twentieth Century

By the 1930s, it was common for large corporations to construct recreation parks for employee sports and other outdoor leisure activities. These were designed according to developing theories of sports and recreation and the kinds of recreation space required for modern industrial nations. Some companies provided recreation grounds for their employees of a similar or superior scale and sophistication to those provided by municipal authorities, including state-of the art pavilions and swimming pools, pleasure gardens and picnic areas. In Britain and the USA, from 1890–1940 the park designs of two companies – Cadbury Brothers at Bournville, UK and the National Cash Register Company, Dayton, Ohio, USA – became role models for the development of corporate recreation and industrial sports that remained influential through the 1960s. Landscape architects added value to the companies by creating useful and effective recreation parks. These parks were modern in that they served the more leisured societies of modern industrial nations in a rational way. The design, construction and maintenance of these parks also reveals that industrial sports policies in Britain and the USA made a distinctive and significant contribution to the industrial landscape as well as to the sporting ‘revolution’ of the period.     

Gymnastics,Hygiene and Eugenics in Brazil at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

The aim of this study was to describe the influence of medical knowledge on the organisation of school gymnastics in Brazil, in the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century. For this purpose, the following sources were used: PhD theses approved by the Faculties of Medicine in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia state, and documents from the Academia Nacional de Medicina and the Escola Normal de São Paulo. It was concluded that the hygienist mentality was fundamental for the diffusion of gymnastics in the Brazilian context.     

Riding Instructors,Gender, Militarism,and Stable Culture in Sweden: Continuity and Change in the Twentieth Century

Equestrian sport underwent significant changes in Sweden during the twentieth century, from being connected to men and the army to being associated with women and leisure activities. Previous research has shown that a stable culture with masculine military norms still exists in spite of these changes. The purpose of this study is to explore why these norms continue to influence Swedish equestrian sport. Institutional economic theory and gender theory are used to explain continuity and change in stable culture. The source material consists of interviews and document analysis. An important finding is that military norms have been reproduced in the education of the riding instructors.     

Olympics,Media and Politics: The First Olympic Ideas in Brazilian Society During the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Abstract

The Olympic Games of the modern era are powerful global mediated events. Olympic cities receive an overwhelming examination by world media. As the 2016 Olympic host, Rio de Janeiro has been given an enormous amount of attention, both by the international media and researchers who looked at the urban spaces of Rio, the struggles over the hegemony of the city and the social meanings the Olympics bring to the host city’s citizens. However, studies over the historical relationship between Rio, sport and media are rare. This paper addresses the historical uses of the term Olympic by Brazilian media during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. By looking at the main articles in the newspapers of these periods, we examine the extent to which ideologies over sports have changed the way the Olympics were represented in Brazil’s national imaginary. We demonstrate how the use of expressions associated with the Olympics historically generated a closer appreciation of these events by the public. We also show how political authorities appropriated the Olympics for their own benefit. The paper concludes by asking whether or not the historical lessons from the early Olympic ideas in Brazil have been learned by the 2016 Rio Games organizers.     

春秋战国时期的武术文化自信

春秋战国是中国文化地域成熟期,以当时主流强国为标志的地域武术版块组成了瑰丽多姿的中国武术体系,使得中国武术既包含中华不同地域的文化特殊性,又呈现民族整体系统的文化同一性。剑器和弓弩代表的春秋战国武器制作水准居于世界领先地位,吴越宝剑与秦弓工艺反映着中华民族固有的文化气质,深蕴的武术工匠精神折射出中华文化内敛雄浑的核心竞争力。百家争鸣融汇中国武术的德性文化内涵,赋予中国武术鲜明的武德文化标志。诸子养生思想涵化了中国武术养生文化特色,提升了中国武术德性文化特质,构建出极具生命科学图景的身体文化修炼系统,确立了中国武术恢宏的文化自信气度与厚重的文化自信根基。春秋战国出现的"武侠"群体与"江湖"概念对于中华文化影响深远,凡此种种皆显示出春秋战国的突出武术史地位,也蕴含当代中华复兴进程的武术发展启迪。