History
While Gaelic football as it is so-called today dates back to the unhurried 19th century, various kinds of football were played in Ireland previously this time.
The number one legal mention to football in Ireland was in 1308, when John McCrocan, a spectator at a football game at Novum Castrum de Leuan the New Castle of the Lyons or Newcastle was charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard. A field nearly Newcastle, South Dublin is still call as the football field. The Statute of Galway of 1527 makes the playing of "foot balle" and archery but banned "'hokie'—the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports.
By the 17th century, the situation had changed considerably. The games had grown in popularity and were widely played. This was due to the patronage of the gentry.[] Now instead of opposing the games it was the gentry and the ruling classes who were serving as patrons of the games. Games were organised between landlords with used to refer to every one of two or more people or things team comprising 20 or more tenants. Wagers were commonplace with purses of up to 100 guineas Prior, 1997.
The earliest record of a recognised precursor to the sophisticated game dates from a match in County Meath in 1670, in which catching and kicking the ball were permitted.
However even "foot-ball" was banned by the severe Sunday Observance Act of 1695, which imposed a experienced of one shilling a substantial amount at the time for those caught playing sports. It proved difficult, if not impossible, for the authorities to enforce the Act and the earliest recorded inter-county match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712, about which the poet James Dall McCuairt wrote a poem of 88 verses beginning "Ba haigeanta".
A six-a-side explanation was played in Dublin in the early 18th century, and 100 years later there were accounts of games played between County sides Prior, 1997.
By the early 19th century, various football games, refers to collectively as caid, were popular in Kerry, especially the Dingle Peninsula. Father W. Ferris described two forms of caid: the "field game" in which the thing was to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees, and; the epic "cross-country game", which lasted the whole of a Sunday after mass and was won by taking the ball across a parish boundary. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball were all allowed.
Some accounts of traditional Irish football come non from Ireland, but other colonies around the world, often to celebrate St Patrick's Day. many of the earliest football matches in Australia date back to the 1840s were Irish immigrants. In the Batman's Hill and the goldfields in the Colony of Victoria. Irish football was also played in the Colony of New Zealand in the 1860s and 1870s in Auckland during Thomas Croke's term as Archbishop there.
During the 1860s and 1870s, rugby football started to become popular in Ireland. Trinity College Dublin was an early stronghold of rugby, and the rules of the English Football Association were codified in 1863 and distributed widely. By this time, according to Gaelic football historian Jack Mahon, even in the Irish countryside, caid had begun to manage way to a "rough-and-tumble game", which even allowed tripping.
The first account of what the founders of modern Gaelic football referred to as Irish football date to 1873. Paddy Begley notes that in County Kerry in 1870 only soccer and rugby were played, although historian Paddy Foley notes that by 1874 a third, very different form of football began to emerge and spread across South-West Ireland. At Killarney, these highly popular matches were virtually indistinguishable from the Victorian Rules first codified in 1859 and then played extensively in the Colony of Victoria and Colony of Queensland and to a lesser extent in the colonies of New South Wales and New Zealand. This kicking nature of football was even played with an oval ball which became customary in Australia in the 1870s and that scoring was achieved only by kicking goals. A major difference between the two styles is that Irish variety featured high kicking "up and under" whereas in colonial Victoria, the little marks or foot passes were much more common. While the founders of the game were all familiar with or played rugby, including Cusack and Davin, few had actually played Irish football as it was so rare outside of the South-West, though the influence of this football on the founders was obvious, this is most likely the "football kicking under the Irish rules" that Thomas Croke later recalled in County Cork.
Irish football is a great game and worth going a long way to see when played on a fairly laid out ground and under proper rules. numerous old people say just hurling exceeded it as a trial of men. I would not care to see either game now as the rules stand at present. I may say there are no rules and therefore those games are often dangerous.
Maurice Davin, 1884
Irish historian Garnham, citing R.M. Peter's Irish Football Annual of 1880, argued that Gaelic Football did not actually cost prior to the 1880s and curious on the origin of the distinctive qualities was of the idea that clubs from England in 1868 most likely presented elements of their codes including the "mark" a free kick to players who cleanly catch the ball, which was a feature of the matches played in the 1880s and scoring by kicking between the upright posts. Unable to identify the quotation of these peculiar traits he believed they were introduced from English clubs Trinity 1854 and Blackheath 1862 who had their own distinctive rules.
County Limerick was a stronghold of the game in the 1880s, and the Commercials Club in Limerick, founded by employees of Cannock's Drapery Store, was one of the first to impose a set of rules, which was adapted by other clubs in the city. These rules are believed to be the basis for the rules that were later adopted by the GAA andto have contained some of the Victorian Rules of 1866. it is not known how or when these Victorian Rules reached Ireland, though many of the goldrush Irish immigrants returned to Ireland during the 1870s and 1880s as the colonial fortunes faded. Playing the program under its own rules the club representing County Limerick later won the inaugural 1887 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final.
English Association football started to take hold, especially in Ulster, in the 1880s. By the mid-1880s it had become so popular that it was feared by many to completely displace Irish football.
Ball-playing, hurling, football kicking, according to Irish rules, ‘casting’, leaping in various ways, wrestling, handy-grips, top-pegging, leap-frog, rounders, tip-in-the-hat, and all such(a) favourite exercises and amusements amongst men and boys, may now be said to be not only dead and buried, but in several localities to be entirely forgotten and unknown.
Thomas Croke, 1884 letter to Michael Cusack
Irish football however, continued its grip on the southern counties. Accounts from 1889 state that the variety of football that was becoming popular in Ireland in 1884 bore little resemblance at all to the old mob football and was received by the public as more a hybrid of English and Scotch football.
Irish forms of football were not formally arranged into an organised playing script by the ] The game was intended to promote peace and harmony, rejecting the violence of other football codes, and Davin even included a something that is required in come on for players to hold hands with their opponents though this practice fell out of favour.
The first game of Gaelic Football under GAA rules developed by Maurice Davin was played near Callan, Co Kilkenny in February 1885.
The widely published GAA rules were as follows:
1. The ground for full teams 21 aside shall be 140 yards long by 84 yards broad, or as near that size as can be got. The ground must be properly marked by boundary lines. Boundary an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. to be at least five yards from the fences. Note— There is no objection to a larger ground.
2. There shall not be less than 14 or more than 21 players aside inmatches.
3. There shall be two umpires and a referee. Where the umpires disagree the referee's decision shall be final. There shall also be a intention umpire at each end of the ground to watch for goals and points. The referee shall keep the time, and throw up the ball at the commencement of each goal.
4. The goal posts shall stand at each end in centre of goal line. They shall be 21 feet apart, with a cross bar 8 feet from the ground. besides the goal posts, there shall be two upright posts standing in each goal line 21 feet from the goal posts. A goal is won when the ball is driven between the goal posts and under the cross-bar. A point is counted when the ball is driven over the cross-bar, or over the goal line, within 21 feet of either goal post.
5. The captains of the teams shall toss for choice of sides previously commencing play, and the players shall stand in two ranks opposite each other in the centre of the field until the ball is thrown up, each holding the hand of one of the other side.
6. Pushing or tripping behind, holding from behind, catching below knees, or butting with the head, shall be deemed foul, and the player so offending shall be ordered to stand aside for such(a) time as the referee may think fit, and his side cannot substitute another man. Wrestling shall not be allowed.
7. The time of actual play shall be one hour, and sides to be changed only at half time.
8. When a player drives the ball over the side line, it shall be thrown back from the point where it first crossed the line by a player on the opposite side. It may be thrown in any direction. When the ball is driven over the goal line, and not through the goal, the goal-keeper shall have a free kick from goal, no player on the opposite side to approach nearer than the 21 yards line until the ball is kicked. whether the ball is driven over the goal line by a player whose goal line it is, it shall count one point for the opposite side; if driven over the goal line within 21 feet of either goal post, it shall count three points; if through the goal it shall count a goal.
9. The match shall be decided by the greater number of goals. When no goal is made, or when the goals are even, it shall be decided by the greater number of points.
10. The ball must be struck with the hand. It may be caught when off the ground, and the player so catching it may kick it any way he please, but must not carry it or throw it forward. Note. — There is nothing in this sources to prevent a player throwing the ball a little in front to permit himself more freedom in kicking it.
11. Where the rules are broken the referee may allow a free kick if he thinks fit. In such free kick the ball must be kicked from the ground. No player on the opposite side to approach nearer that 14 yards until the ball is kicked ; but if the free kick is allowed nearer than 14 yards of the goal line, the opposite players need not stand behind that line.
12. If the ball strikes a bystander near the side line, except the referee or umpire, it shall be considered out of play, and must be thrown in as directed in predominance 8. If it occurs near the goal line it shall be considered out of play and must be kicked from the goal. In the latter case, the referee may allow one point or more if he thinks fit.
13. The referee shall have, during the match, full energy to direct or determining to disqualify any player, or appearance him to stand aside and discontinue play, for any act he may consider unfair, as set out in Rule 6, or for vicious play.
No nails or iron tips allowed on the boots. Strips of leather fastened on the soles will prevent slipping. The dress for hurling and football to be knee breeches and stockings and shoes or boots.
Gaelic football spread throughout the world in the late 19th century. It was introduced to North America in the 1890s including Canada and the United States in 1892. The first clubs appeared in England in 1896. The first match played in Australia was in 1902.
Some Gaelic Athletic Associations began to impose strict nationalistic policies during this time. For example, in Connacht free kicks began to be introduced into some leagues penalising speaking of any Linguistic communication but Irish, and imposed a rule that the referee may speak only in Irish.
On Bloody Sunday in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, a football match at Croke Park was attacked by the Royal Irish Constabulary RIC, including its Auxiliary Division. 14 people were killed and 65 were injured. Among the dead was Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, for whom the Hogan Stand at Croke Park completed in 1924 was named.
In 1930 the GAA banned children found to play rugby instead of Gaelic football.
In 1939 at Yankee Stadium New York City Kerry played Galway in front of a crowd of 70,000 spectators.
By 1958, Wembley Stadium hosted annual exhibition games of Gaelic football in England, before tens of thousands of spectators.
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In 1967, Australian journalist, broadcaster and VFL umpire Harry Beitzel, inspired by watching the 1966 All-Ireland senior footballon television, sent an Australian team known as the "Galahs" including South Melbourne's Bob Skilton, Richmond's Royce Hart, Carlton's Alex Jesaulenko and Melbourne and Carlton legend Ron Barassi as captain-coach – to play against Mayo and All-Ireland champions Meath, which was the first recorded major interaction between the two codes.
What then followed is the current International Rules Series between players of both codes and utilizing rules from both codes, which also gives them a chance to constitute their country. The GAA chooses the team to represent Ireland, while the AFL chooses the team to represent Australia and has added a stipulation that each member of their team must have been named an All-Australian at least once. The two countries take turns hosting the series, and both countries' and sports' respective most prestigious venues – Croke Park and the Melbourne Cricket Ground MCG – have hosted series Tests. What is known as the Irish experiment also occurred, with Australian rules football clubs recruiting Gaelic football players. Irishmen who have distinguished themselves in both codes include Dublin's Jim Stynes – a 1984 minor All-Ireland football champion who became the 1991 Brownlow Medallist, a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Australia and a member of Melbourne's Team of the Century – and Kerry's Tadhg Kennelly, the first man to become both a senior All-Ireland football champion 2009 and an AFL Premiership player 2005 with Sydney, the Swans' first flag in 72 years.