This book is the first academic all-island history of either rugby union or association football, two of the three most popular male sporting pastimes in Irelan

This book is the first academic all-island history of either rugby union or association football, two of the three most popular male sporting pastimes in Irelan

Covering the period from the game's origins in Ireland in the 1870s through to the onset of professional rugby in the twenty-first century, this book seeks to e

Sport has played a central role in modern Ireland’s history. Perhaps nowhere else has sport so infused the political, social and cultural development and iden

Consides the relationship between sport, national identities and gender in a contemporary Irish context