Analysis: Gaelic games have become embedded in popular culture in ways that we may not even consciously realise
Popular culture involves the aspects of social life most actively involved in by the public. Known as the 'culture of the people', popular culture is informed by the mass media and is determined by the interactions between people in their everyday activities: the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, the things we read, watch and listen to. With the GAA intersecting into Irish life to a degree unlike any other sporting endeavour, it comes as no surprise that it has crossed over into popular culture in many varying ways.
Music
Both professional musicians and enthusiastic fans have written songs about Gaelic games, with varying degrees of success. GAA songs serve several purposes. They can celebrate the game like in Fields of Glory by the High Kings or document particular achievements such as Dancing at the Crossroads by The Wild Swans or even honour individuals like the catchy Jimmy's Winning Matches by Rory and the Island in honour of Donegal manager Jim McGuinness.
Rory & The Island's Jimmy's Winning Matches
Most songs with GAA as the subject are connected to a particular county or individual. Generic GAA songs rarely capture the public imagination because Gaelic games are so intricately linked to a place and its people.
Songs from the 1992 album All the Way from Tuam by famed Irish band The Saw Doctors are littered with GAA references. My Heart is Living in the Sixties Still is a ballad that laments for a simpler time 'when Johnny Donnellan held the Sam Maguire'. Broke My Heart tells the story of a player who is mulling over why his teammate didn’t pass the ball when he was in a position to score a sure-fire goal. In case you’re wondering how on earth you can find a way to rhyme parallelogram, the answer is of course ‘pass it in sham’.
The Sunday Game has been a mainstay on our TV screens since it was first broadcast in 1979. Its theme tune has become iconic and ingrained into Irish consciousness. Jagerlatein by James Last has become the ringtone for many GAA fanatics and the entrance song at many a wedding before the bride and groom sit down to their first meal as husband and wife. It has even been given a dance remix so it can light up dancefloors from Ballybofey to Ballylooby.
Television
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More recently, Normal People brought Gaelic football to a global audience. In the adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel, Connell, played by former Kildare minor footballer Paul Mescal, is a Gaelic footballer. The on-pitch scenes have been praised for exposing GAA to a new and captive viewership and also for Mescal’s execution of a crucial goal.
Normal People also saw thigh-high GAA shorts take on cult fashion status and even led to luxury Italian brand Gucci designing imitation pairs. GAA sportswear has become a popular style choice, with brands like O'Neills creating clothing lines that appeal to both athletes and fashion-conscious consumers.
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Games
The table-top soccer game Subbuteo has been a mainstay of entertainment and popular culture since it was created in 1946. The three-dimensional, hand-painted plastic figurines set on a felt soccer pitch reached the peak of its popularity in the 1980s.
But far be it from GAA entrepreneurs to let soccer have the entire sports themed board game market to themselves. A mutant offspring Pairc was created in 1985 with a promise on the front of the box to be "a thrilling Gaelic board game". While the lengthy rulebook and flimsy cardboard players never emulated its soccer counterpart, it did lay the groundwork for other GAA board games such as Bainisteoir, Breaking Ball and League Leader. Gaelic football and hurling even made a brief but below par entry into the world of computer games.
Film, novels and theatre
Gaelic games have been part of the film genre for quite some time. From Rooney, a 1956 depiction of the life of bin collector and hurler James Ignatius Rooney to the 2011 film Blitz where Jason Statham uses a hurley during a fight scene, representations of GAA on film have been varied. Seán Crossan's research examines the history of GAA on film and how it provides extraordinary examples of attempts to capture, communicate and understand Gaelic Games, particularly hurling.
In 1955, Paramount Pictures produced a short film about how a promising young hurler from the fictional village of Ballykilly is invited to play for his county. Three Kisses was nominated for an Oscar, but failed to satisfy the home crowd as the Cork Examiner in 1956 deemed it 'a farce’ and not representative of the Irish scene
How many of you reading this article at one point thought ‘We have that at home’, ‘I know that song’ or ‘I’ve watched that before’? Therein lies the impact of the GAA’s intersection with popular culture. Gaelic games have been commercialised, advertised, merchandised, set to music, written about in novels and poetry, captured in photographs, performed on stage and broadcast over radio, podcast and television. In doing so, Gaelic games have become embedded in popular culture in ways that we may not even consciously realise.
The GAA: People, Objects & Stories exhibition open at the National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin on September 14th.
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