The connection between gaelic games and Irish nationalism has been strong for centuries in Ireland. Drawing on research from several historians and primary documents from as early as 1367, I have a traced this trend throughout Irish history. For the sake of this first overview, I have ended this history at 1920, just a single year before the establishment of an independent Ireland. This foregrounds the role of gaelic games in setting up/representing the Anglo-Irish tensions that reached a fever pitch in 1920, with the November 1st Croke Park massacre.

A brief chronology:

• 1367 – Statues of Kilkenny forbid the playing of Hurling
• 1667 – British Lord complains that “Irish Papist Rebels” are meeting under the “pretence” of Hurling
• 1829 – Reports of hurley/caman (Hurling bat) being used as a weapon
• 1882 – Michael Cusack establishes Dublin Metropolitan Hurling Club
• 1884- Gaelic Athletic Association developed to organize Gaelic Games throughout Ireland
• 1920 – Croke Park Massacre

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