Sport in Ireland
Sport in Ireland plays an important role in Irish society. The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games, association football, horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, motorsport, boxing, tennis, hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, and rugby union.
In terms of participation, association football is the most popular team pursuit for males at 8.8% with Gaelic football attracting 3.4%. Personal exercise and running are the most popular individual male activities. Traditionally, team sports do not figure highly amongst females, with a greater percentage of post-school-age women choosing individual sports and fitness activities. As of 2018, additional funding and focus was afforded to females in sport, with a number of successes in women's international sporting competitions. Association football is the most played team sport in Ireland. Gaelic football, hurling, golf, aerobics, cycling, swimming and billiards/snooker are the other sporting activities with the highest levels of participation in the Republic of Ireland.
In terms of support and attendance, Gaelic football accounted for 34% of total sports attendances at events in the Republic of Ireland in 2003, followed by hurling at 23%, association football at 16% and rugby at 8%. In 2005, Initiative's ViewerTrack study measuring sports audiences showed that Gaelic football's highest-profile match, the All-Ireland Football Championship Final, was the most watched event of the nation's sporting year.
In terms of funding, of the €62 million allocated in the Irish government's 2017 Capital Sports Programme, approximately €25 million was allocated to hurling, Gaelic football and other games overseen by the Gaelic Athletic Association, €7.7 million to soccer, €3.3 million to rugby, €2.8 million to tennis, golf €2.4 million, sailing and rowing €1.3 million each, boxing and athletics over €1 million each, swimming €0.5 million, with the remainder allocated among other sports and sporting groups.
As Northern Ireland is a constituent nation of the United Kingdom, it also sends a Northern Ireland Team to the Commonwealth Games. At the Olympic Games, a person from Northern Ireland can choose to represent either Ireland or Great Britain.
Gaelic games
In a survey released in January 2021, Gaelic games were collectively identified as "Ireland's favourite sport".Gaelic football
The sport may be referred to as Gaelic football or Gaelic, if confusion might otherwise arise with association football, but is referred to simply as 'football' within the sport itself, such as the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship. Though it has existed for centuries in Ireland as Caid, Gaelic football was formally arranged into an organised playing code by the Gaelic Athletic Association in the late nineteenth century. In terms of support and attendance, it is the most popular sport in Ireland.The game is played at underage, minor, under 21 and adult levels. All players are amateur, although players at a high level may receive income from sources such as sponsorship and grants. Gaelic footballers play for a local club or parish team, with the best chosen for the inter-county sides. County players may be chosen to play in inter-provincial Railway Cup games or for the 'International Rules' team to face Australia. The main national competitions are the inter-county All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and National Football League, also known as the NFL.
A Gaelic football year starts with pre-season competitions and the National Football League. In early summer, the Championship begins. Each of the four provinces has its own tournament, and teams which are knocked out must do well in the 'qualifiers' if they are to gain a spot along with the four Provincial Champions in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. The All-Ireland Senior Football final is traditionally held on the third Sunday in September. Kerry are football's most successful team, with 39 All-Ireland senior titles. There are a number of rivalries within the game – an example is that between Dublin and Meath. Other notable derbies or rivalries include Cork v Kerry, Mayo v Galway, Kerry v Dublin and Tyrone v Donegal.
Hurling
is a sport native to Ireland for several thousand years, organized by the Gaelic Athletic Association. In terms of attendance figures, hurling is second only to Gaelic football. Hurling is sometimes described as the "fastest field sport in the world", as the ball is continually played at high speeds.The game has similarities to shinty and hockey. However the ball is rarely played along the ground. Hurling is played on a large grass pitch.
Many aspects of the organisation of hurling are similar to football, as both sports are organised by the GAA. Amateurism and the club/county/province structure are similar. Gaelic football has a larger footprint in terms of top-level competition, but in several counties where both sports are played, hurling sometimes holds precedence, and in certain parts of the country, it is the dominant game. Hurling is well-attended at elite level and the highest-level games fill Croke Park to its capacity of over 82,000. The main competitions are the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, the Leinster and Munster provincial championships and the National Hurling League.
Hurling and camogie are both included on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Camogie
, played exclusively by women, is similar to hurling although a smaller sliotar is used, there is the option to hand-pass into the goal. The first game of camogie was played in County Meath in 1904.Gaelic handball
, or simply 'handball', like the related sport of American handball, somewhat resembles squash or racquetball, but with the ball played or struck with the hand or fist instead of a racquet. It has no connection with the Olympic sport of handball which has limited following in Ireland, where it is generally known as Olympic handball.In Ireland, there are four main types of handball. These are 40x20, the traditional 60x30 Softball and Hardball and One-wall handball. Handball is played with a variety of balls. Gloves and eyeguards are compulsory for some competitions. The sport is managed and promoted by GAA Handball, a subsidiary body of the GAA.
Rounders
is regulated by the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ireland, and is similar to baseball. Game-play centers around innings where teams alternate at turns being batters and fielders. Points are scored by the batting team by completing a circuit around the field through four bases.Association football
Association football is a popular sport in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland but while international matches play before large crowds, and are passionately followed, domestic league games typically attract smaller attendances. English football leagues are also popular in Ireland, with a survey in February 2020 indicating that up to 40,000 Irish fans travel to games in England on a "regular basis".The national body in the Republic of Ireland is the Football Association of Ireland while the national body in Northern Ireland is the Irish Football Association.
The domestic leagues are the League of Ireland and the NIFL Premiership . Some of the major teams in Ireland include Shamrock Rovers, Dundalk FC and Shelbourne FC in the Republic, Glentoran and Linfield in Northern Ireland, and Derry City, a team from the North who play in the League of Ireland. Due to the financial incentives abroad, most of Ireland's top players, such as Damien Duff, John O'Shea, Aiden McGeady and Jonny Evans, play in the leagues of larger European countries, particularly in England and Scotland. This, along with the Irish media's huge coverage of the English league, is one of the reasons why Irish people tend to support leading British clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic. Only occasionally does a League of Ireland or Irish League player make either of the national teams, despite the fact that the leagues sometimes produce some of Ireland's top players including internationals Kevin Doyle, Shane Long and Gareth McAuley and players like Roy Keane in the past.
On the international stage, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland teams have both competed in three FIFA World Cups, with the Republic also appearing in three European Championships, most recently in 2016.
The Milk Cup is an international youth tournament held annually in Northern Ireland, in which clubs and national teams from elsewhere in the world may compete. Northern Ireland also played host to the 2005 UEFA Under-19 European Championships.
Rugby union
is played and supported throughout Ireland, and is especially popular in urban areas such as Dublin, Limerick, Belfast in Northern Ireland, and Cork. Rugby union is played at club, province and national levels. The Ireland national team is composed of players from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the Irish Rugby Football Union governs the sport throughout the island. The sport is organised at all levels on an all-island basis through a provincial structure of four unions, with each province organising one professional team in elite competition.Success at international level and the establishment of four professional teams has increased interest in rugby union as a sport in Ireland, particularly as a spectator sport. At the 2018 World Rugby Awards, Ireland had been presented with a 'hat-trick' of awards, with Johnny Sexton winning the Player of the Year, Joe Schmidt the Coach of the Year, and the national squad the Team of the Year awards. As of July 2022, following two defeats of New Zealand, the Ireland national rugby union team was ranked 1st in the World Rugby Rankings, but has never progressed beyond the quarter finals of the men's Rugby World Cup.
School rugby union is also played at primary and secondary level, and traditional rugby playing schools include: St Michael's College, Blackrock College, Belvedere College, Castleknock College, Clongowes Wood College, St Mary's College, and Terenure College in Dublin, Crescent College, Castletroy College, St Munchin's College, Glenstal Abbey and Ardscoil Rís in Limerick, Rockwell College in Tipperary, Presentation Brothers College, Bandon Grammar School and Christian Brothers College in Cork, and Campbell College, Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Methodist College Belfast in the north.