The combination of sports and politics might seem like a modern social media-driven craze as sporting commentary finds itself increasingly roped into cultural battles. Physical sport, and even the body itself, however, has been shaping the nation for hundreds of years.
“At the beginning of the 1905–1906 season, the ‘soccer’ Council in Belfast prepared for some striking propagandist work to enlighten the boys upon the advantages attendant upon playing the game of the foreigner, instead of their own. Source: Gaelic Athletic Annual 1907-08
The game represented more than cultural influence or even imperial rejection. It reflected a bodily essence.
“First, the basis of strength, the race-cradle powers of the people; second, their physical and mental disposition, recreational customs, and general habits; and third, their moral, social, and domestic regimes.” Source: Gaelic Athletic Annual 1907-08
Here, the mental and physical dispositions serve as manifestations of a nation.
“The Irish athlete was unconsciously but naturally developed through generations of hurling and handball-playing ancestors. The deft arm stroke, the swift, supple wrist, the lightning swing and driving force in arm blows, are inherent in generations of athletes.” Source: Gaelic Athletic Annual 1907-08
Conceding to a racial framework, the coloniser language had been adopted for an opposite purpose. Only unique Irish physicality could endure their native sports. The body would become a decolonial battlefront that the GAA was determined to win.
“It was conceived in the belief that the revival connoted a re-birth of racial self-esteem and an increase of national endeavour. It espoused the doctrine of the inter-dependence of racial well-being and freedom: of the inseparable unity of all phases of native culture and of the essential integrity of all native institutions.” – Source: Gaelic Athletic Annual 1927-28
The seemingly paradoxical nature of the use of ‘racial self-esteem’ here invokes a reversal of subaltern whiteness. This attempts to absorb the internalized concept of inferiority that sustained subjugation on a generational level. Their race, their supposed inherited vitality and vigor, would capture their oppressor’s vocabulary and reclaim their bodies.
But this rhetorical resistance adopts a grammar that never could completely escape the problematic influence of whiteness. Even as “race cradle powers” turned into weapons against colonialism remain stuck inside categories sharpened by imperial anthropology.
“National consciousness and aspiration survive a Cromwell in Ireland and a Suwarrow in Poland. Those who determine to destroy a nation must supplement the Sword by the Bribe, and the Bribe by the Lie. Without the aid of the Lie the Nation cannot be slain, To enslave a people’s mind…” – The Spark 1915
As Poland survived Alexander Suvorov’s conquest, so did Ireland survive Cromwell’s. But their real enemy, the one that infiltrated and subverted every essence of being, is maintained by The Lie, a primordial force that is capable of taking a nation’s soul.
“Moulding the mind, the muscle, and the manhood which will fill the ranks of Gaeldom, despite foes who would poison our race’s vitality at its source.” Source: Gaelic Athletic Annual 1907-08
This rejection of foreign games in favour of native identity laid the groundwork for nascent national and separatist pride exemplified in the GAA’s strict ban of the English garrison from the games.
“What white man envies the modern English for their character. England has been a favoured nation in the material sense. Everything she has handled has turned into gold; but it is deep-rooted, fervent patriotism, not gold, that wins it.” – The Leader 1915
Using optical character recognition (OCR) to convert hundreds of old microfilm Limerick archives into text, we constructed a searchable index that helped find these quotes.
See here for the link to our system.