SNIPPET: Long before the Great Famine (1845-52)running, jumping, and the throwing of weights were well-established peasant pastimes, while the cross-country nature of some hurling and football (caid) contests, spiced with interparish or intercounty rivalry, added a further dimension to this sporting fervor. These activities, though governed by local rules, lacked any central controlling organization. Such a structure only emerged in the second half of the 19th century with the establishment of the Irish Champion Athletic Club, although this was more of an offshoot of the English Amateur Athletics Association, confining its membership to "gentleman" and the professional classes. The ICAC had a lease on a field at Lansdowne Road, but at the end of 1870s was beset by many problems: falling standards, betting and increasing professionalism, as well as class antagonisms. Consequently, the Gaelic Athletic Association was founded to introduce a democracy into Irish sport and to dispel any fears that traditional Irish sports might be neglected. The GAA ensured that Irish sport would be organized by Irishmen and that rules were drafted to aid the revival of Irish pastimes. It is not known exactly how many men responded to Michael CUSACK's invitation and met in Hayes' Hotel, Thurles, Co. Tipperary, November 1, 1884, to establish the Gaelic Athletic Association. Some accounts put the number as high as 13, but it is generally accepted that the organization was launched by a group of seven: CUSACK,, a native of Co. Clare with a keen interest in hurling, track and field and having played cricket and rugby as a schoolteacher in Dublin, the first secretary; the international athlete, Maurice DAVIN, Carrick-on-Suir, first president; John McKAY, a Belfast-born journalist with the "Cork Examiner;" John Wyse POWER, a Waterford-born journalist with the "Leinster Leader" in Naas; J. K. BRACKEN, a stonemason from Templemore whose son, Brendan BRACKEN, became a Cabinet Minister in Winston CHURCHILL's war-time government in Britain; Thomas St. George McCARTHY, an RIC inspector from Kerry who played rugby for Ireland; and a Tipperary solicitor, Joseph O'RYAN. Dr. Thomas CROKE, Archbishop of Cashel, Charles Stuart PARNELL,, Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and Michael DAVITT, Mayo, founder of the Land League, were invited to become patrons of the new association and they accepted. The infant GAA devoted all of its attention to the promotion of athletics for two whole years before the first All-Ireland hurling and football championships were played in 1887. The name adopted at the initial meeting was the Gaelic Athletic Association for the Preservation and Cultivation of National Pastimes. From the beginning it was more than a sports organization. Strongly nationalistic from its inception, it also was and still is, a social and cultural movement. The social revolution it created transfigured the face of rural Ireland. The GAA survived a brief take-over by the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the late 1880s and reasserted its own nationalistic stance. It also survived the political controversy around PARNELL, though badly shaken by it. Through the comradeship of its games it has played a major role in healing many of the wounds of the worst split in Irish history, the civil war of 1922/23. The expense of traveling far from home as well as allegiance to radical GAA ideals prevented some athletes from competing at the Olympic Games until 1908. Although not without flaws, the London games of 1908 established the festival firmly in the sporting calendar. Tipperaryman, Tom KIELY, Carrick-on-Suir, was all-round decathlon gold medal winner at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics, having refused the offer of expenses to represent the English AAA and competed as "Tom KIELY of Tipperary and Ireland." - Excerpts from "History of Ireland" and "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazines.