Sep 29, 2026 · 57 min · 13 segments
By the end of the 1990s, the demands being placed on inter-county players had changed dramatically. Training commitments were increasing, the GAA was becoming more commercial, and yet the players…
Ciaran O'HaraHostMichael FoleyHost[laughs] We are talking about the origin story of the Gaelic Players Association, the GPA, an organization that probably feels like it's part of the furniture now at this stage.
It's kind of for a, for one generation, or a couple of generations of, of, of GA players, it's always been there.
But for those of us of a slightly more advanced age, it still represents something [laughs] extremely revolutionary.
I'd say largely because of when it came along, because we were seeing so much change in the country, in the GAA.
You know, we're a good few years into sponsorship on jerseys and sponsorships of championships, and money is begain- beginning to...
Money is beginning to play a bigger part in the GAA as an association, and it's born out of...
Yeah, all that stuff's coming in, but the lot of the player largely isn't seen to be improving.
Before we get to the question, right? Uh, you've, y- like, you've laid it out quite well there.
I mean, this is an era when the GAA are looking really seriously at, you know, football championship reform.
There are sponsors, as I said, for the intercounty championships, you know, sponsorship on the jerseys.
Do you think the GPA could have existed without the Celtic Tiger? Because, uh, personally, I, I'm not sure it could have, because whilst there may have been a need for some kind of players' representative body back the years, I'm not sure that the finances and the, the kind of imagination almost was there for it, but particularly the finances.
But where the finances were certainly there by the late '90s and definitely into the noughties.
There's a confluence of the change in the GAA, and, and that's largely driven by just the cost of redeveloping Croke Park.
[laughs] We are talking about the origin story of the Gaelic Players Association, the GPA, an organization that probably feels like it's part of the furniture now at this stage.
It's kind of for a, for one generation, or a couple of generations of, of, of GA players, it's always been there.
But for those of us of a slightly more advanced age, it still represents something [laughs] extremely revolutionary.
I'd say largely because of when it came along, because we were seeing so much change in the country, in the GAA.
You know, we're a good few years into sponsorship on jerseys and sponsorships of championships, and money is begain- beginning to...
Money is beginning to play a bigger part in the GAA as an association, and it's born out of...
Yeah, all that stuff's coming in, but the lot of the player largely isn't seen to be improving.
Before we get to the question, right? Uh, you've, y- like, you've laid it out quite well there.
I mean, this is an era when the GAA are looking really seriously at, you know, football championship reform.
There are sponsors, as I said, for the intercounty championships, you know, sponsorship on the jerseys.
Do you think the GPA could have existed without the Celtic Tiger? Because, uh, personally, I, I'm not sure it could have, because whilst there may have been a need for some kind of players' representative body back the years, I'm not sure that the finances and the, the kind of imagination almost was there for it, but particularly the finances.
But where the finances were certainly there by the late '90s and definitely into the noughties.
There's a confluence of the change in the GAA, and, and that's largely driven by just the cost of redeveloping Croke Park.
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