Sport: Relationship Between Sport And Identity

Sport and identity are two very broad and complex topics that play major roles in society. Throughout the history of sport, sport has been very effective in helping communities, cities and even countries establish and/or maintain an identity. This essay will discuss how sport contributes to the development of an identity. This paper will be divided into two main parts; first, the relationship between sport and identity will be discussed, then, using one national and one regional example, sport as a means of developing an identity will be examined.

Sport is a huge part of society. It is not a natural phenomenon, it was invented by humans; people give meaning to sport and ‘we’ agree to believe in the concept of sport. For a long time now, it

Towards the last quarter of the 19th century there was a rise in organised British sports; rugby and football associations were created and cricket was generally widespread throughout the entire country. British ideologies were spreading throughout Ireland, especially with regard to sport, but many Irish people wanted to bring back similar sports to the ancient Irish folk games. While Ireland was under the control of the British, the Irish experienced tough times (ÓhAnnrachain, 2008), but the creation of GAA was a way to inspire the nation and bring hope to the people. One man in particular, Michael Cusack, had an enormous impact on bringing back Irish sport traditions and helping Irish people feel identified with Ireland. Cusack’s main aim was to keep the Irish culture and put an end to the diffusion of English ideologies (Byrne et al., 2008). Michael Cusack was an Irish teacher, cricketer and rugby player and recommended cricket to discipline school boys. After becoming a journalist in 1882, Michael Cusack started to promote hurling and later that year as, newspapers were one of the most popular ways in which writers could promote and share thoughts and beliefs (Morash, 2010), Cusack started to use weekly columns to promote Irish sport. Cusack had such a big impact on Irish sport that soon after becoming a journalist and promoting hurling, Clubs like the Dublin Hurling Club and the Metropolitan Hurling Club were created. As there was a rise in Irish sport and Irish nationalism, a few years later, in 1884, the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) was created (Connolly et al., 2010) and one year later, in 1885, the first series of rules were applied to the games. Michael Cusack continued to use weekly columns in newspapers to promote the GAA and eventually started interacting with local parishes to promote the Gaelic Athletic