‘Cody is as good as any manager in the world’

The thorny subject of the economic realities for the GAA need to be addressed. My new book GAAconomics raises key issues about hurling — the cost, the progress, the snobbery and the urban areas that need careful tending.

Historian Paul Rouse points out that one of Michael Cusack’s objectives in founding the GAA was to gain control of Irish athletics, which were hugely popular in the late 19th century.

Obviously that was an aim that couldn’t be put on the new organisation’s prospectus, but a wish to revive the old Irish game of hurling was a stated objective. Though the game is very successful in some counties, it doesn’t enjoy the far more widespread popularity of