Impact of Covid-19 on GAA part of new first lockdown study

Contribution of GAA nationally and locally recognised in a new study of the impact of Covid-19 on Gaelic games in Ireland during the first lockdown from March to May 2020.

The study has been published by NUI Galway academic Dr Seán Crosson and Dr Marcus Free, lecturer with Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.

The study, entitled ‘“This Too Shall Pass”: Gaelic Games, Irish Media, and the Covid-19 Lockdown in Ireland’, is included in a new collection, Time Out: National Perspectives on Sport and the Covid-19 Lockdown which examines the impact of Covid-19 on sport across a broad range of themes.

“As amateur sports that dominate the Irish sporting calendar each year, typically attracting the largest attendances and occupying a key role within communities, Gaelic games provide a unique focus in a collection such as this," commented Dr Crosson.

“The pandemic has highlighted the importance of sports’ organisations and sport media in facilitating and encouraging responses at local and national level to the challenges Covid-19 has brought.

"In the Irish context, the rhetoric of shared sacrifice and collective discipline that was evident during the early months of the Covid-19 crisis signifies the GAA’s unique role as an amateur organisation touching every part of Irish society through its players’, administrators’, volunteers’ and supporters’, family and social connections," he added.

The study provides a comprehensive overview of the immediate consequences of the Covid-19 lockdown on local and national sport in a broad range of contexts.

Focusing on the period from 12th March, 2020, when the Irish government announced initial Covid-19 restrictions (followed shortly thereafter by the suspension of Gaelic games fixtures,) to 10th May (the broadcast date of the first 2020 episode of RTÉ’s “The Sunday Game”), Dr Crosson’s and Dr Free’s contribution examines Covid-19’s impact through an analysis of the media discourses surrounding these sports.

As with other sports internationally, the gaps in sports media programming left by the absence of fixtures were filled with retrospective items focusing on classic moments and players from the past.

Apart from retrospection, the authors identify two prominent themes that dominated Gaelic games coverage in this time period.

Firstly, there was a recurring focus on the serious impact on the GAA, its athletes, and national sports-media of the cancellation of its elite and local level events over its peak Spring-Summer season.

However, a second major theme was the GAA’s key role in responding to the crisis and in articulating a discourse of overcoming, both in terms of the Association’s challenges and wider Irish society.

Dr Seán Crosson is from NUI Galway's Huston School of Film and Digital Media and leader of the Sport and Exercise Research Group in the Moore Institute.

Dr Marcus Free is a lecturer in media and communication studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.