Eimear Ryan: What does GAA reveal about who we are?

It’s hard to think of another organisation that lays more claim to the pulse of the nation, that prides itself on being the one constant through-line in every parish and community in Ireland.

KIT-CHANGE: The Cork team line up against Dublin in the Lidl ladies national football league division 1 at Pairc Ui Rinn. Pic: Eddie O'Hare

I recently read Gabrielle Zevin’s excellent and much buzzed-about novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which follows two young computer programmers as they navigate friendship, fame, parenthood, tragedy and grief throughout their young adulthoods. 

In one scene, while making a pitch for a new video game, a character quotes the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan: "The games of a people reveal a great deal about them." Immediately I thought – what does the GAA reveal about us?