Athletic Events in Celtic Times (1887)

Masayuki ENOMOTO (Seiryo Women's Junior College)

Abstract

　　The purpose of this study is to consider the GAA's athletic meetings in early GAA era,
especially in 1887. Because the GAA's athletic meetings were innovated from Irish original
athletic events, they were considered to be pure Irish athletic meetings. The historical ma-
terial used in the present study is Celtic Times, the first GAA sports' newspaper.
The results of the present study are summarized as follows.
　　　1) Running events were similar to British running events.
　　　2) Jumping events were mainly divided into 'Running Jump events', 'High Jump events',
　　　　'Triple Jump events', and 'Pole Jump events', which were similar to British jump
　　　　events.
　　　3) Throwing events were of various styles and weights and it was hard to point common
　　　　points therein. However, almost all athletic meetings had throwing events.
　　These results lead to the conclusion that early GAA's athletic meetings did not have
only pure Irish athletic events, but they also included British athletic events. However, by
announcing GAA events as pure Irish athletics events, early GAA might have tried to at-
tract more Irish people to the events.