Picture Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty“The GAA was the pioneer body in the defence of the national interest,” Collins wrote in September 1921. Mr Coogan notes that “the GAA was initially mainly concerned with athletics”, as the organisation’s name suggests. The author emphasises the role that Cork and Kerry played in both the War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. Those outrages were never forgotten, but the GAA in Kerry helped to alleviate the bitterness. Tim Pat Coogan’s The GAA and the War of Independence is out now, €23.99.

Source: Irish Examiner October 07, 2018 22:52 UTC