This history of sport in Ireland, locates it within Irish political, social, and cultural history, and within the global history of sport. There are aspects of Ireland's sporting history that are uniquely Irish, but it is a history of play shared with other societies, near and far. This book offers a unique insight into the British Empire in Ireland; it also assesses the relationship between sport and national identity, and the manner in which states make policy in respect of sport. The manner in which sport has been colonised by the media and has colonised it, in turn, is also examined.

Jerrold Casway coined the phrase "The Emerald Age of Baseball" to describe the 1890s, when so many Irish names dominated teams' rosters. But one can easily agree--and expand--that the period from the mid-1830s well into the first decade of the 20th century and assign the term to American sports in general. This book covers the Irish sportsman from the arrival of James "Deaf" Burke in 1836 through to Jack B. Kelly's rejection by Henley regatta and his subsequent gold medal at the 1920 Olympics. It avoids recounting the various victories and defeats of the Irish sportsman, seeking instead to deal with the complex interaction that he had with alcohol, gambling and Sunday leisure: pleasures that were banned in most of America at some time or other between 1836 and 1920. This book also covers the Irish sportsman's close relations with politicians, his role in labor relations, his violent lifestyle--and by contrast--his participation in bringing respectability to sport. It also deals with native Irish sports in America, the part played by the Irish in "Team USA's" initial international sporting ventures, and in the making and breaking of amateurism within sport.

This book examines the development of a nationalist agenda within Irish sport and searches for a definition of nationalism in this context. The question of what Irish nationalism is, and what forces shape it, has stretched the minds of generations of Irish historians and political scientists. For some the answer has been found within the realms of political history, while others have examined how the cultural impact of Irish literature and drama has shaped nationalism. These genres relied on elites, be they political or literary, within Irish society to understand the evolution of nationalist thinking and the operation of nationalism as an ideal. Sport offers a new way of looking at nationalism as it offers mass-consumed low culture as a vehicle. Since the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884 through to the current popularity of soccer, sporting events have been played by tens of thousand and watched by hundreds of thousands of Irish people both at home and as part of the diaspora. This means that sport has a greater resonance and meaning for the experience of the multitude of the Irish in stark contrast to the operation of Dublin-centred politics and literature. This book defines sporting nationalism through the experience of Gaelic games and soccer as examples of mass spectator sport. The choice of a mass spectator sport which a nation chooses to support will demonstrate the perceived place of that nation within the world and the trends prevalent within its society, thereby intrinsically defining the state of its nationalism.

Sir Shane Leslie once wrote that 'Country life was entirely organized to give nobility and gentry and demi-gentry a good time.'0Throughout Ireland and Britain the country house was a centre of hospitality, entertainment and leisure, with the hosting of house parties, soirees and balls. Pastimes included photography, painting, astronomy and taxidermy. Outdoors the parkland was used for a variety of sporting activities including archery, cricket, croquet and shooting, as well as local sports events, and beyond the demesne activities included hunting, horse racing and yachting. In Ireland demesne lands were developed as golf courses and estates offered land to the nationalist-dominated Gaelic Athletic Association for football and hurling.0This volume provides fresh and original insights into how leisure and sport underpinned the social hierarchy of country houses and their local communities in Ireland and Britain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Irish sportswomen have been breaking the mould for a very, very long time. In 1956, Maeve Kyle became our first female Olympian, and in 1978 rally driver Rosemary Smith broke the country’s land-speed record! Through the 1990s and 2000s we had world champions in Sonia O’Sullivan, Derval O’Rourke and Olive Loughnane, and more recently, the fantastic Katie Taylor, Kellie Harrington and Annalise Murphy have been among those who have put Irish sportswomen on the map. This book breaks the mould once more, as a first ever compendium of stories for children about our best contemporary sportswomen. With a fairytale touch, RTɒs Jacqui Hurley tells the stories of women who have proved that being a girl is not a barrier to sporting success. Each story is one of overcoming big challenges, and the role models celebrated here are sure to inspire the next generation of Irish sportswomen. Featuring twenty-five dazzling athletes, and with delightful drawings by five wonderful female Irish illustrators, Girls Play Too is a celebration of some of our brightest and best sporting stars, and of all that you can achieve if you try your best and never give up on your dreams.

Hired by a no-nonsense Common Pleas judge to track down a con man who has been stealing from local residents, Milan Jacovich and his client become suspects when the man is found dead with Jacovich's name on a paper at his side.

In the early 1900s, the Olympic Games track and field throwing events were dominated by a group of Irish-born weight throwers representing the United States. Of immense size and with a larger-than-life presence, these athletes came to be known as the “Irish Whales.” In The Irish Whales: Olympians of Old New York, Kevin Martin shares the untold story of these Irish American athletes who competed with unparalleled distinction for the United States. James Mitchell, John Flanagan, Martin Sheridan, Pat McDonald, Paddy Ryan, and Con Walsh won a total of eighteen medals in the Olympic Games between 1900 and 1924 and completely dominated the world stage in their chosen athletic disciplines. They were lionized in the American and Irish press and became folk heroes among Irish-American immigrant communities. Almost all of these men were further distinguished by their membership in the fabled Irish American Athletic Club of New York and careers with the New York Police Department. The story of the Irish Whales is the very embodiment of the American Dream and exemplifies the triumph of many Irish emigrants in the New World. Featuring a wonderful collection of original photographs, The Irish Whales tells the dramatic stories of these international athletes and their extraordinary sporting successes.