4 ideas
The association put its rule against 'foreign games' above the head of state and the country's most revered cultural revivalist. The episode shows how a nationalist organization's boundary rule can outrank the nation it claims to serve.
The GAA's rule against playing or attending 'foreign games' such as soccer, rugby, hockey and cricket defined Irishness negatively, by what a member refused to do. Vigilance committees were set up to spot members at foreign matches, which turned identity into something policed through surveillance and informing.
GAA clubs map onto parishes, and parishes build up into counties, so attachment to the nation is built from loyalty to a specific place and its neighbors. When you see Gaelic games this way, local rivalry and feuding look less like a distraction from the national project and more like the fuel it runs on. People commit to Ireland through their parish team first.
The GAA's hold on Irish life came from fusing with institutions that already organized people: the Catholic clergy, who acted as patrons, chairmen and moral legitimizers, and the pub, where matches were relived, argued over and administered. By grafting onto church and bar instead of competing with them, the association gained both authority and daily social presence. It also inherited their conservatism, authoritarianism and drinking culture.