Sporting activities most commonly associated with the Irish in Britain are hurling, Gaelic football, boxing and horse-racing. However, many Irish people have proved to be outstanding sportsmen and women across a wide variety of disciplines.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), established in Ireland in 1884, successfully promoted a revival of traditional Irish sports such as Gaelic football, hurling and camogie. This spread to England, and by 1902 the GAA had about nine clubs in London, mainly in North London with sports grounds at Muswell Hill and Lea Bridge.

Important early members included Liam MacCarthy, born in London to Irish parents, who helped organise the bringing over of the Munster and Leinster Hurling teams to London in 1896, and Sam Maguire, originally from Mallabraga, Cork, who came to London in 1899 to work for the Post Office. He played for the Hibernian football club, captaining them to four consecutive London Championships (1901-1904).

The London GAA clubs would play each other and the winner would then play teams from other places such as Manchester and Liverpool, with the victor going on to play All Ireland for the championship.

The GAA, like the Gaelic League, Irish National Club and Cumann na Gaedheal, all of whom shared offices in Chancery Lane, London, was associated with the nationalist movement, and news of hurling and camogie matches were reported in nationalist newspapers such as The Irish Exile.

The main London GAA club was established in 1896 and is still going. We here in London are unique in GAA terms, our members are drawn from all thirty two counties of Ireland, plus second and third generation Irish born in this city and some people with no Irish origins. There is also a South London GAA club, The Cuchulainns, established in 1932.

The GAA web-site looks at the history of traditional Irish sports.

Irish football teams have also been formed in other areas. In Luton, Larry McGrattan was involved in Luton Celtic Football Club and took his children to Gaelic football matches at Lothair Road.

Boxing is another sport long associated with the Irish.

Dan Donnelly, born in Dublin in 1788, was the first Irish champion bare-knuckle fighter. In 1815, he beat English Champion George Cooper in 11 rounds and later gave sparring exhibitions in England.

Contemporary boxers Irish-born, of Irish descent or living in England include: Billy Schwer of Luton; Garry and Mark Delany of West Ham; Mark Baker of Farnborough; Edwin Cleary of Leamington; Graham Townsend of Eastbourne and Patrick Gallagher of Manchester.

Belfast born boxers, include Jonny Caldwell, who won a bronze medal at the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. He was Ireland's youngest ever Olympic medal winner, then gained the British Flyweight crown and finally became world bantamweight champion in 1961. Ray Close won the European super-middleweight title in 1993 and Wayne McCullough, 'the Pocket Rocket', represented Ireland in the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and won a Commonwealth Games gold medal in 1990, representing Northern Ireland.

Horse racing is said to be the favourite sport of the Irish, from both north and south, and there is a long tradition of betting. Mary Hickman has commented that 'In many Irish communities, betting on horse races serves at one and the same time as a source of excitement and as a potential (if rarely realized) economic opportunity'.

Horse racing in Ireland is said to date back to the third century when chariot races were held at the 'Cuireach', the Gaelic word for racecourse. Known today as The Curragh , it is the headquarters of flat racing in Ireland and is run by the Irish Turf Club, founded in Kildare in the 1760s to encourage horse racing as a sport.

Irish jockeys have long played a key role in horse racing in England too. In this picture O'Madden is shown wearing the colours of the future King Edward VII and Tod Sloan, those of his racing rival Lord Charles Beresford.

Most recently, the 2002 Epsom Derby was won by Irish jockey, Johnny Murtagh, riding High Chaparral and beating another Irish mount, Hawk Wing, ridden by Michael Kinane, who had won the Epsom Derby in 1993 on Commander in Chief.

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