The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA - Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael), is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which includes the traditional Irish sports of Hurling, Camogie, Gaelic football, Gaelic handball and rounders. The association also promotes Irish music and dance, as well as the Irish language.
The GAA is Ireland’s largest sporting organisation. It is celebrated as one of the great amateur sporting associations in the world.
It was founded in 1884 by a group of spirited Irishmen who had the foresight to realise the importance of establishing a national organisation and to revive and nurture traditional, indigenous sports and pastimes. At that time, it was largely only the gentry and aristocracy who were allowed to meaningfully participate in athletics.
Within six months of that famous first meeting, GAA clubs began to spring up all over Ireland and people began to play the games of Hurling and Gaelic Football and take part in Athletic events with pride.
Every summer the inter-county All-Ireland Championships in hurling and football capture the attention of the Irish public, and regional towns heave with the arrival of large numbers of supporters. In the region of 1.5 million people attend the GAA Championships from May to September.