Most popular Irish sport today

Irishcrx

Was talking with a work colleage the other day about how certain sports have become more popular in Ireland and others have dropped off. For a small island we do have a lot of differant sports , in fact when you think about it on a whole were high into our sports football , rugby , GAA , golf , boxing.

He mentioned that his young lad was a decent footballer but had recently caught the rugby bug as it seems to be the sport of choice these days and that he had started playing that insetad. Que beads of sweat running down my head thinking the impossible....what if my soon to be son choose rugby over football , the horror , a young lad from the north side of Dublin choosing Rugby INSTEAD of football, no no I'll have to make sure that he never even knows of it's existance , a bit like myself I find rugby about as interesting as watching paint dry but we do seem to be a lot better at it on a national scale.

So whats your sport of choice? Do you think Rugby and GAA take away from what could be a pool of much better footballers? Do you think Rugby should take over , prefer golf on a Sunday afternoon? be interesting to see what the general after hours people follow.

Tipsy McSwagger

Dole Bashing

WesternZulu

Gaelic football followed closely by soccer, then hurling.
Tbh I find it hard to get into the whole rugby thing.

Each to their own I suppose.

Hande hoche!

Urban freestyle drinking.

iDave

Gaelic football for me, followed by Soccer then Rugby. Love hurling too but being from a football county its hard to get passionate about it when your team is Christy Ring standard. I also love F1.
As for the biggest, well I think the growth of Rugby is overstated and somewhat masked by the strong attendances the provinces get. The fact is the GAA has more clubs in Cork than Rugby has in all of Ireland. I would venture a guess Gaelic football and Association football are neck and neck in terms of participation.

Ellis Dee

Pocket billiards.:D:D:D

LordSutch

Football (association) followed by athletics for me . . . .

Then Rugby.

Mahogany

Personally football, debateable really what the countries most popular sport is altogether.

Depends on the area I suppose.

HalloweenJack

My favourite is football, without a doubt. After that, I have a huge interest in hurling and a smaller one in Gaelic. I have no interest in rugby whatsoever.

As for which is most popular, I'd imagine it's football. Look at what happened in the summer, I've never seen anything like that from rugby fans.

As long as Trapattoni is in charge, however, the gloryhunters are going to be put off the football, whereas the rugby side, to the best of my understanding, are in the upper echelons of world rugby. Gloryhunters will find more reason to get behind the rugby side.

As for the GAA, there's kind of a ceiling on how big they can grow. The International rules is no proper competition so it's like baseball in America, the best you'll ever be is the best in that respective country, unlike in rugby or football. As we are a nation of gloryhunters, this is going to effect the GAA more. There will never be periodical swells in support for these teams (the Dubs aside) as there are with the football and rugby.

RikkFlair

Hoofball

CardBordWindow

With the amount of rain today, I'd say swimming!

mickey1979

I think I have seen stats on this before Soccer has the highest participation and Gaelic has the highest attendance not much in difference participation wise , Rugby distant third. As you can see not a major Football fan but in Ireland I would think unlike most countries you could have the same people at all three. I also hate this bandwagon thing people like winning teams world over actually the funny thing is the die hards would not enable any sport to survive the bandwagon makes the coffers flow hence enable the sport to grow and prosper.

9959

I foresee some difficulty here, with the nomenclature of Irish sport.
Most Dubliners would take 'Football' to mean Association Football or 'soccer', as our rural brothers and sisters prefer.
Whereas a sizeable proportion of people from 'outside the Pale' would regard 'Football' to mean Gaelige Football, or 'Bogball' as some wags in the capital would say.

'Stick Fighting' is Stick Fighting, I don't believe that anyone now refers to it as 'Hurling', though some Dubs still say 'Hurley', which is quaint.

This should keep your thread going for a while, it shouldn't take before you hear the collective groan of the sons of Erin as they rise as one to smite the running dog lackey of the British oppressor, or something?

mitosis

I'm pretty sure the only one of your poll options that is an Irish sport is GAA - and it's not a sport but an organisation.

More people play Association football in Ireland, but more attend Gaelic Football.

EDIT: My favourite sport is cycling

h2005

I voted for football and then realised that I had voted for soccer

Ando's Saggy Bottom

You'll have fads like soccer or rugby that get a boost from the bandwagoners when things go well like the Leinster "brand" is doing at the moment, but the GAA will always have a solid core fanbase in dozens of clubs in every county of the land, that stays loyal no matter what.

9959

h2005 wrote: »

I voted for football and then realised that I had voted for soccer

See what I mean OP.
To quote a line from 'Miller's Crossing', "I never say I told you so, and I hate people who do, but I told you so".

GLaDOS

Football, at Bohs matches at least every second week

keith16

Why don't you let your son play whatever sport he wants?

9959

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Football, at Bohs matches at least every second week

'Dirty Bohs' you mean.
Keep On Hooping'.

antodeco

F1 for me. Then Soccer "football". Then riding.

LordSutch

FAI = Football Association of Ireland = Football = Traps lads )

> http://img.rasset.ie/000537c5-642.jpg

SEPT 23 1989

Pete Campbell wrote: »

You'll have fads like soccer

Football(Soccer) has never been a "fad" in this country,its been there since before the foundation of the state,surviving even though it had the power of the Church and State against it

McBain11

To the OP, GAA isn't a sport in fairness!! The GAA is a sporting organisation. Hurling, gaelic football and handball are all sports though.

So, it's an interesting poll alright, but that issue alone makes it a bit skewed.

Also the reason Ireland are more successfully internationally at rugby than most other sports is simple - most countries in the world haven't a notion what rugby is, let alone play it

9959

antodeco wrote: »

F1 for me. Then Soccer "football". Then riding.

antodeco 99,999 posts, just one more and you're there.
Stick it in the net son, and you'll get more thanks here than Brian Cowan did when he uttered the immortal line "Where's me coat".

padd b1975

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Football, at Bohs matches at least every second week

So where do you go to watch football?:P

padd b1975

I voted GAA.

Poll needs horse racing.

Wacker The Attacker

In ireland its usually the sport in which the international side is currently on the best run of results.

walrusgumble

Irishcrx wrote: »

Was talking with a work colleage the other day about how certain sports have become more popular in Ireland and others have dropped off. For a small island we do have a lot of differant sports , in fact when you think about it on a whole were high into our sports football , rugby , GAA , golf , boxing.

He mentioned that his young lad was a decent footballer but had recently caught the rugby bug as it seems to be the sport of choice these days and that he had started playing that insetad. Que beads of sweat running down my head thinking the impossible....what if my soon to be son choose rugby over football , the horror , a young lad from the north side of Dublin choosing Rugby INSTEAD of football, no no I'll have to make sure that he never even knows of it's existance , a bit like myself I find rugby about as interesting as watching paint dry but we do seem to be a lot better at it on a national scale.

Isn't Brian O'Driscoll from Clontarf, the North Side? What is the problem. I doubt you will have much say in what your young fells plays, at the end of the day.

(GAA man myself, though soccer comes a close second then rugby)

Xavi6

Real football.

No bogwars or D4 egg chasing for me :cool:

admiralofthefleet

horse racing is brilliant, even if you arent into it. i brought my father in law racing for the first time in killarney a few weeks ago. he didnt even do a bet but enjoyed the day so much that he is dying to go again

walrusgumble

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Football(Soccer) has never been a "fad" in this country,its been there since before the foundation of the state,surviving even though it had the power of the Church and State against it

Alot earlier that the foundation of the State , even. You can thank the British Army for at least, one decent thing that they have provided.

Ah yes, being told not to attend a match against Soviet Union, hilarious, stuff from McQuiad

Tens of Thousands use to go to League of Ireland Games. 50,000 and more for FAI Cup Finals, before the advent of Premership Football in England and TV coverage of the English Football League.

WesternZulu

Xavi6 wrote: »

Real football.

No bogwars or D4 egg chasing for me :cool:

Yet you're mod of the aussie rules form.
A sport which is similar to 'bogwars' and played with a 'D4 egg' shaped type ball

GLaDOS

padd b1975 wrote: »

So where do you go to watch football?:P

The Home of Irish Football

blue note

My favourite by a distance is hurling, both to play and watch. Then golf, likewise I play and watch.

I like football too and played a bit growing up.

Soccer would be next, I still play the odd 5 a side and watch a bit. I have grown out of it a lot though - too little happening in games and too much nonsense associated with the sport.

Then there are a few sports I'd enjoy to watch - tennis, darts, the bigger rugby matches, snooker.

The popularity of rugby is definitely vastly overstated. If you were to go on coverage you'd think it's the biggest in the country, but in reality far more people play soccer and GAA. When the Championship season is on it gets very large attendances and viewership and soccer gets massive viewership throughout the year. The rugby has grown massively, but it's still not near soccer / GAA. The only thing which I disagree with though when people talk about the band wagon. We still aren't at all successful in rugby - 1 six nations in this golden period and have we gotten as far as a quarter final in the world cup (with about a dozen countries that actually play the game)? I think it's fairly genuine growth in the sport.

Xavi6

WesternZulu wrote: »

Yet you're mod of the aussie rules form.
A sport which is similar to 'bogwars' and played with a 'D4 egg' shaped type ball

Don't worry, the irony is not lost on me

Thankfully it's vastly superior to both though.

ahnowbrowncow

I wouldn't really class horse racing as a sport, maybe that's just me

9959

walrusgumble wrote: »

Alot earlier that the foundation of the State , even. You can thank the British Army for at least, one decent thing that they have provided.

Ah yes, being told not to attend a match against Soviet Union, hilarious, stuff from McQuiad

Tens of Thousands use to go to League of Ireland Games. 50,000 and more for FAI Cup Finals, before the advent of Premership Football in England and TV coverage of the English Football League.

I think 'McQuaid's folly' was a proposed game against Yugoslavia, but your point is well made.

Irishcrx

keith16 wrote: »

Why don't you let your son play whatever sport he wants?

When he's 18 and gets his sticky hands out of my fridge and off my sandwich then he can..

CruelCoin

You should add a poll option for "extreme funeral attendance"

Seriously though, it's field archery for me.

Mr. CooL ICE

Has to be football (soccer).

Even though I'm a culchie living in Dublin, I know very few people who actively play GAA, but quite a few who did when younger. I know a few who played rugby in teenage years and still do, but pretty much anybody I know who are somewhat active play some form of soccer, be it evening 5-a-side or weekend 11-a-side.

IMO, soccer, while is probably the more favoured sport, is played more because all you need is a flat area and you can improvise a game with any number of people. You can do it to a lesser extent with football, but when it comes to hurling and rugby, you can forget about it.

Another thing aiding the popularity of soccer is the amount of immigrants who play. Very few of the fardiners I play with understand the rules of rugby, let alone have any interest in it but the universal game that everyone knows is soccer.

Scanlas The 2nd

Tennis

9959

Anyone for Cricket?

kfallon

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

I wouldn't really class horse racing as a sport, maybe that's just me

And why not?

squod

No ball games for me.

neil_hosey

my favourite sport is badminton, or gay tennis as my friends call it, followed closely by hurling and football (GAA). And im a dub

enda1

GAA's not a sport it's an association.

blue note

LordChessington wrote: »

Has to be football (soccer).

Even though I'm a culchie living in Dublin, I know very few people who actively play GAA, but quite a few who did when younger. I know a few who played rugby in teenage years and still do, but pretty much anybody I know who are somewhat active play some form of soccer, be it evening 5-a-side or weekend 11-a-side.

IMO, soccer, while is probably the more favoured sport, is played more because all you need is a flat area and you can improvise a game with any number of people. You can do it to a lesser extent with football, but when it comes to hurling and rugby, you can forget about it.

Another thing aiding the popularity of soccer is the amount of immigrants who play. Very few of the fardiners I play with understand the rules of rugby, let alone have any interest in it but the universal game that everyone knows is soccer.

A lot of it depends on how you define "popular". In terms of viewing figures, I'd say GAA & soccer would easily be top and rugby would probably be comfortably third. Even in terms of playing numbers it depends on how you define playing. It's very common for lads to keep playing for a club in GAA as they get older, but not that common to keep it up in a casual capacity. In soccer however, I don't think I know anyone that still plays for a team, whereas plenty of lads play a weekly 5 a side or go for an occasional kick-about. The commitment for these is nowhere near playing for a club.

If you're including playing soccer so casually, should you also include all the people who go for a jog or two a week? I don't really see why not to be honest. Or the huge numbers that play golf? Pretty much all of these playing competitively throughout the year.

In terms of playing numbers rugby would be way down the list, I don't think there's a chance it would be top 5.

And I have no idea why boxing is listed on it's own. I'd say it's streets behind golf in any measure.

07Lapierre

Cycling..becoming very popular now. The Bike to work scheme has really taken off.

Heroditas

walrusgumble wrote: »

Tens of Thousands use to go to League of Ireland Games. 50,000 and more for FAI Cup Finals, before the advent of Premership Football in England and TV coverage of the English Football League.

Yeah, it was the World Cup in 1966 and BBC showing Match of the Day that did the real damage to the league here.

Lapin

Flawed poll.

GAA isn't a sport. They administer various vastly differing sports.

And no mention of Horse Racing or Golf.
Two extremely popular sports in this country, and both are sports we excell at as a nation.