How did the Irish Americans Become Irish? Gaelic Sports and the Organization of Irish Ethnicity in New York City

Abstract

This paper examines the construction of ethnic ties between immigrants from different counties in Ireland in New York City. Specifically, it explores an attempt to foster Irish unity and pride through the playing of Gaelic sports in New York City (1904–1916). Rather than treating Gaelic sport as a cultural resource that ethnic entrepreneurs harnessed, the paper treats both Gaelic sports and Irish ethnicity as delicate organizational accomplishment. This paper traces a delicate process of experimentation, spanning more than a decade, at the end of which the organizers of the sport managed to produce gripping, but friendly, rivalries between the different teams. This accomplishment created ethnic institutional scaffolding within which immigrants were more likely to see themselves as Irish Americans rather than merely immigrants from particular counties on the island.

Citation

Lainer-Vos, D. (2017), "How did the Irish Americans Become Irish? Gaelic Sports and the Organization of Irish Ethnicity in New York City", On the Cross Road of Polity, Political Elites and Mobilization (Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0895-993520160000024002