Early History of the GAA (1884-1891) Quiz

Answer: 1 November 1884

The GAA was set up on 1 November 1884. About 13 people were present at the meeting where Maurice Davin was chosen as the President of the new organisation. The man who was involved in the establishment of the GAA more than anyone else was Michael Cusack. On 11 October 1884 he wrote an anonymous article in the United Ireland newspaper called "A Word About Irish Athletics".

In it he urged Irish people to reject English sports and to "take the management of their games into their own hands". The article was soon followed by the Maurice Davin's letter where he supported Cusack and agreed to help with the running of the new organisation. Maurice Davin at the time was the most famous Irish athlete.

Answer: Thurles

The GAA was set up in the Hayes' Commercial Hotel in Thurles, County Tipperary. The notice about the meeting in Thurles was posted by Michael Cusack and Maurice Davin in the United Ireland as well as the Freeman's Journal and the Irish Sportsman.

Answer: Michael Cusack

Michael Cusack was appointed the Secretary of the GAA at the meeting in Thurles. However he was asked to resign in 1886 due to the poor management. He was replaced by the IRB man. Nevertheless Cusack continued to take a keen interest in the "native games". In 1887 Michael Cusack founded "The Celtic Times" newspaper which was devoted to the Irish games and culture in general.

Answer: Parnell, Croke, Davitt

Charles Stewart Parnell, Archbishop Croke of Cashel and Michael Davitt became the patrons of the GAA.
Parnell was a leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party or Home Rule party as it was also called (from 1880 to 1891), which represented Ireland in the British Parliament. Its main aim was to get the self-government for Ireland.
Michael Davitt was a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He helped Parnell to set up the Irish National Land League. When the Home Rule party split over the Parnell's divorce in 1890, Davitt sided with the anti-Parnellites.
Archbishop Croke strongly supported Parnell and the Irish nationalism in general. However after the Parnell's divorce case he withdrew from the politics. The main GAA stadium, the Croke Park, in Dublin is named after him.

Answer: 17 January 1885

The first rules were drawn up and presented by Maurice Davin at the meeting in Cork on 17 January 1885. At the meeting it was also decided to form one GAA club in each parish and to forbid the members of the GAA to play games which were organised by the other sporting organisations.

Answer: IRB (Irish Republican Brotherhood)

The Second Annual Convention was held in November 1886 in Thurles. After the 1886 Home Rule Bill was rejected in the British Parliament, the IRB began to take over the control of the GAA. The IRB viewed the GAA as an excellent place to recruit young men for the possible future rebellion against the British.

The RIC was an armed police force which consisted of ordinary Irishmen. However their leaders were British. The Special Branch of the RIC spied on the IRB's penetration of the GAA.

The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Army did not exist at that time.

Answer: E.M. Bennett

By the time of the Third Annual Convention in 1887, the IRB almost completely took over the control of the GAA. However many members of the GAA were moderate nationalists and they opposed to the actions of the extreme IRB. The meeting in Thurles turned into chaos when the delegates could not agree on the Chairman.

The IRB members proposed the candidature of P.N. Fitzgerald arguing that "Only men ready to die for their country should be at the head of the GAA". Father Scanlan and another 200 moderate nationalists were forced to go away from the Convention, thus leaving the IRB delegates in the majority.

The latter used this advantage in order to elect the new President. E.M. Bennett was elected by 316 votes to 210.

Answer: 28

On 4 January 1888 Maurice Davin was re-elected the President. But by that time many clubs had left the organisation due to the IRB involvement. This and the inexperience and mismanagement led to the financial problems. By 1888 the GAA owed £400. Trying to raise funds, Davin took 50 athletes and went to the US to play exhibition matches.

But the idea was not successful as the players did not even have money to pay for their hotel bills. Out of 50 men, only 28 returned to Ireland. Due to the American trip some of the matches in Ireland were not played and by November 1889 the debt increased to £1,000. Davin was blamed for it and he soon was forced to retire.

Answer: Birr

The match was played in Birr, Co. Offaly. Tipperary won by 1 goal 2 points to nil.

Answer: Charles Stewart Parnell

The guard of honour was formed at the Parnell's funeral.

In 1890 the Home Rule party sided with the Gladstone's Liberal party in the British Parliament. After the Parnell's divorce case, preachers in the British Protestant churches began to attack Gladstone forcing him to break the alliance with the party led by Parnell. When Gladstone found out that Parnell was re-elected as the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party he sent a letter to Justin McCarthy, the Home Rule MP, where he stated that if the party does not abandon its leader, the Liberals would have to end their union with the Home Rulers. The meeting was organised for 1 December 1890 in the Committee Room 15 of the House of Commons, however Parnell did not allow the vote on the leadership to take place for 6 days. On 6 December, 45 Home Rule MPs finally left the meeting and formed an anti-parnellite faction with McCarthy as their leader. The section that supported Parnell consisted of 27 MPs. They were later supported by the Fenians (IRB) and Parnell himself turned to the IRB in his final days. He died on 6 October and his funeral in Dublin was attended by 200,000 people, some of whom were the members of the GAA (at that time penetrated by the IRB) who formed the guard of honour with hurleys held like rifles.