Emigrant Players by Paul Darby David Hassan

Author:Paul Darby, David Hassan [Paul Darby, David Hassan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138880436
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2015-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

In the years between 1900 and the beginning of the Second World War, hurling represented an important expression of Irishness in Argentina. The inception of the game was part of a broader strategy, initiated by Archbishop Murray and Fr. Fahy in the mid-nineteenth century, aimed at arresting the assimilation of the Irish into broader Anglo-Argentine society. For a period of around 30 to 40 years, hurling, as part of a broader diet of Irish cultural practices that were promoted amongst the émigré, was relatively successful in this process. Those occasions when the game was played allowed Catholic Irish immigrants, particularly young members of the landless proletariat, to mark out, in a highly visible way, their differences with their fellow ingleses and Argentine neighbours. The use of hurling in this process was not accidental. The game was quintessentially Irish and was laden with nationalistic significance in both a cultural and political sense. [40] Those Irish priests who did so much to get the game started in Argentina and subsequently endeavoured to keep it alive recognized this and chose this particular cultural practice specifically because it had been seen to be a valuable tool for mobilizing strong senses of Irish nationalism not only amongst the Irish at home but also in those who had chosen or were forced to seek out a new ‘home’. It is also likely that the choice of hurling as a bulwark of Irishness in Argentina was also underpinned by a recognition, on the part of the Irish clergy, of the role of British sports forms such as association football, rugby and cricket in helping the Anglo-Protestant émigré to retain and celebrate their identity.

When the Silver Jubilee of the Buenos Aires Hurling Club was celebrated on 18 October 1925, Gerald Foley of Co. Offaly, Bulfin's successor as editor of The Southern Cross and supporter of the GAA in Argentina, paid tribute to all those who had worked so hard to keep hurling alive in Argentina. His words reveal much about the place of hurling in the country and the value of the game in the broader drive to reinforce Irishness there. But, they also lead us to a fuller appreciation of the reasons for the game's decline in Argentina. Foley comments that,

Many circumstances contributed to the survival of the caman in Argentina and one of them is that… Hurling is saturated with the spirit of Irish nationalism Irlanda Libre – and so long as it maintains this spirit vital and flaming, it will live. If it ever loses this spirit it will no longer be hurling, it will have no justification for its existence. [41]

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