Croke Park Stadium, Central Dublin. September 26, 1998. That figure brought the total attendance for the Gaelic football championship in 1998, which runs from May to September, to a little over one million. Such is the appetite of the Irish supporter that almost half the games played were watched by a capacity audience. Those statistics from a nation with a population of about five million illustrate the place that Gaelic football holds in Irish society.
Gaelic football is, quite simply, the game of the people.
A nation that is proficient in all the major field sports is besotted by the game that is indigenous. Over the century in which the game has flourished, rivalries have been established that bring the country to a standstill. For example, when Dublin and Kerry or Dublin and Meath come face to face in the championship, there is hardly a soul in Ireland who is not aware of what is going on. The names of former stars such as Sean Purcell, Dan McCartan, Kevin Heffernan, Mick O Dwyer and Mick O Connell are known in every household. In more modern times, individuals such as Jack O Shea, Peter Canavan, Colm O Rourke and Maurice Fitzgerald have assumed the status of superstars so regularly attached to sporting heroes.