Muscular Catholicism: Nationalism,Masculinity and Gaelic Team Sports, 1884–1916

This article examines the highly gendered nature of the games of hurling and Gaelic football as propagated by the Gaelic Athletic Association from 1884 to 1916 and the relationship of these games to conceptions of nationalism, the body, anti-colonialism, and memories of the Great Famine. Through the discourses surrounding these games, and other facets of the Irish renaissance, a nationalist conception of Irish masculinity emerged which distinguished Irish men from English men, Irish boys and Irish women. In this moment of self-definition, nationalist goals were sought not in parliament or on the battlefield but on the playing fields.