Up until this time, it was largely only the gentry and aristocracy who were allowed to participate in athletics. Until then all that was Irish was being steadily eroded by emigration, intense poverty and outside influences. The Gaelic Athletic Association was founded to to revive and nurture traditional, indigenous sports and pastimes, and make athletics more accessible to the masses.
Now the "Shannon Gaels", Croghan's thriving GAA Club has a history that can take you all the way back to 1889.
