 Cork’s Kieran Murphy and Clare’s Brian Lohan during the All-Ireland senior hurling semi-final in Croke Park in August.
At this time of the year it's sometimes easy to forget that there's more to the Gaelic Athletic Association than its big championship matches. With crowds of up to 82,000 attending Croke Park, the GAA's widely admired main stadium in Dublin, the colour and excitement can distract from the wider presence the association has in the community.
Since it was founded in 1884 by Clare man Michael Cusack and others in Hayes's Hotel in Thurles, Co Tipperary, the GAA has built an infrastructure for the native sports of hurling and Gaelic football. This has provided recreation and leisure facilities for vast numbers of the population.
Hurling is the national game of Ireland in the sense of being ancient and unique to this country. Less widely played than Gaelic football, it is the fastest field sport in the world and one of the most skilful. Codified and promoted by the GAA, the game has existed in one form or another for more than three millenniums, with the earliest literary reference dating back to 1272 BC.
Gaelic football was also codified by the association and its original rules drafted by the GAA's first president, Maurice Davin, to distinguish it from early forms of soccer and rugby. It has become the more popular of the sports and has a genuinely national profile, being played at the top level in all four provinces. Other sports promoted by the GAA are handball and rounders.
Although the Croke Park redevelopment received public funding, levels of Government support for sport have traditionally been low and that shortfall has been partly met by the GAA's organisational success and the voluntary efforts of its countless coaches and club members across the country.
Despite the inevitable influence of the evolution of organised sport in Britain, sport in Ireland hasn't relied as much on elite education. This is largely because one of the GAA's original missions was to take control of sport and athletics from the existing social elites as part of its revival of hurling and Gaelic football.
In that, the association has been very successful but its influence on Ireland has been deeper than that of just a sports organisation. The point has been made that of all the cultural movements that emerged in the late 19th century, only the GAA is still thriving.
Members of the organisation were prominent in the struggle for independence and the Bloody Sunday massacre at Croke Park turned the association's headquarters into a nationalist shrine. The Hogan Stand in the ground is named in memory of Tipperary footballer Michael Hogan, who was shot dead that day.
But since independence the GAA has become less overtly political - although its members have been prominent in national politics, with Jack Lynch, the Cork All-Ireland winner and taoiseach in the 1960s and 1970s, probably the best known.
The northern troubles created a strain within the GAA from the 1970s onwards, especially during the H-Block hunger strikes of 1981. There were also controversies over the organisation's bans on its members playing other sports (a prohibition that was removed in 1971), joining the northern security forces (removed in 2001), and finally on other sports being played in Croke Park (which was relaxed earlier this year).
But the emphasis for the GAA has been on its presence in the community. Its playing fields provide recreational facilities and its clubhouses have become focal points for social activities.
Three years ago, the Strategic Review Committee (SRC) report was themed "enhancing community identity", and reflected the way the GAA sees its future.
In recent years there has also been a coming-together with the women's sports organisations controlling football and camogie. Women's Gaelic football is the fastest growing sport in the country, with crowds of more than 20,000 attending its All-Ireland senior finals.
The longer-established sport of camogie is also widely played. This means that young men and women of all ages can enjoy the games.
Even overseas the GAA has a presence among Irish people living abroad - in the past it provided community advice as well as work opportunities for the many emigrants who had to leave this country to find work elsewhere.
Happily that problem is no longer as widespread, but Gaelic games and the GAA continue to provide a recreational outlet for Irish communities abroad and also a link with home.
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