The Gaelic Athletic Association and the 1981 H-Block Hunger Strike.

This paper looks at how the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), Ireland’s largest sporting organization and one perceived as nationalist in outlook, reacted to the republican hunger strike that took place within the H-Blocks prison in Northern Ireland in 1981. Using the official records of the GAA (some of which remain classified), newspapers and having conducted interviews with key people from the period, the paper investigates how GAA members and units reacted to the hunger strike, the pressure that was placed upon the governing bodies of the GAA to publicly support the aims of the hunger strikers and the affect the hunger strike had on the GAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]