What attracts people to play Gaelic Football?

A strange subculture of girls in baggy branded shorts and Gaelic Football jerseys running around on a public green can be witnessed in affluent outer London…accompanied by a variety of accents that follow with a cluster of laughter and sporadic shouting. The shouting and laughter are ignited by the Gaelic Football activities…Their training space seems to be shared amongst members of the public, who use the park for other leisure and recreational activities including cricket, walking and running…

Why does this research matter to me?

I Hold a keen interest in sociological issues concerning sport.

My Interest was inspired by my role as Gaelic President for the University Gaelic Club (Ollscoil).

I have played Gaelic Football for approximately twenty years.

Hold experience playing Gaelic Football in Ireland and oversees, notably in London.

Curious to gain a deeper understanding about the sports culture I am part of

Aims of the Research

To explore the influences behind people’s motivation to become involved with Gaelic Football.

To develop a better understanding about the subculture of Gaelic Football.

Using Goffman’s symbolic interactionism/dramaturgy to examine the behaviour and interaction between players to explain the subculture (Charon, 2009; Turner and Behrndt, 2008).

To provide a unique insight into this subculture using specific theoretical lenses

Key Concepts

Erving Goffman

Irish DiasporaOrganisationa

l ValuesSymbolic Interactionism

(Dramaturgy)

Performance

Culture and Values

Irishness

Organisational Values It is suggested that organisations encompass differentiating cultures

(Fitzgerald and Desjardins, 2004; Sabri, 2008).

Embedded within the realms of culture is the concept of values, norms and beliefs (Sabri, 2008).

An organisations culture can produce a distinctive sense to its members about ‘’how things are done around here’’ (Aviram and Erez, 2016; Fitzgerald and Desjardins, 2004:122).

An organisations culture is produced based on people’s societal values and beliefs thence why organisations contain various cultures within them (Sabri, 2008).

Irish Diaspora As emigrants living abroad, the Irish people made it their duty to locate fellow Irish

natives (Bunreacht na hÉireann – Constitution of Ireland, 2014; Gavin, 2010; McCarthy, 2012).

Sport helped the Irish to adjust to the new ways of living in a new setting (Darby, 2006).

One group to appear from Ireland were Irish students studying in British University’s, otherwise known as the temporary diaspora (McAnallen, Mossey and Moore, 2007).

Due to growing numbers of Irish students attending British Universities this paved the way for Gaelic Games to emerge overseas (Darby and Hassan, 2008).

Gaelic games are known to be a significant mechanism in allowing Irish students in British Universities to express their Irishness (McAnallen et al, 2007).

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism dates back as early as the 19th century based on the original work of George Herbert Mead (1863-1931) (Charon, 2009).

Blumer pioneered this concept by incorporating Mead’s work, as well as other scholars including John Dewey (Blumer, 1969; Charon, 2009).

Symbolic interactionism consists of three premises:

1. People act towards things or certain entities based on the meanings that these entities or things have for that individual.

2. The meaning of these entities or things originates, or evolves, from the social interaction.

3. These same meanings are managed and changed by the individual using an interpretative process

(Blumer, 1969)

Theoretical lens

Erving Goffman Epistemology and Ontology• Interested in studying groups of people to

understand everyday human interactions (Coakley and Pike, 2014).

• Used Symbolic Interactionism as a lens to examine the daily behaviour and interactions between individuals to facilitate the explanation of society (Charon, 2009; Turner and Behrndt, 2008).

• Goffman often viewed Symbolic Interactionism as a Dramaturgical model - a theory that regards social life as a staged drama (Charon, 2009; Giulianotti, 2005).

• Goffman believed in using the metaphor of life as a theatre - perceived all human interactions as a performance(Goffman, 1959).

• The understanding of culture and values are interpreted through the relativist experience of the participants and the researcher.

• Knowledge collected within the study is from a subjective perspective but from a knowledge being socially constructed (Carter and Little, 2007).

• Epistemologically, the research relied on human experience and subjective interpretation (Lever, 2013).

• Without these participants the knowledge and understanding concerning the subculture of Highfield’s is limited (Lever, 2013).

Goffman’s Idea of Performance It is believed we play certain roles when we (the actors) communicate and present

ourselves to others (audience) in everyday life (Goffman, 1959).

‘’All the World Is a Theatre… All the World’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players’’ – William Shakespeare (Kivisto and Pittman, 2007:272).

The concepts of front and backstage performances were central to Goffman’s outlook.

The front stage performance concerns how the individual (performer) knows they are being observed and therefore carries out certain actions adhering to the things that hold meanings to the audience (Goffman, 1959)

The backstage performance is as an area where the performer can step out of character and relax without disrupting the performance.

Presentation of Self (Goffman, 1959)

The encounters we make with people are known as scripts that include not only the use of words, but also the use of gestures and actions

(Turner and Behrndt, 2008).

Methodology Interpretivist Inductive

• Gives priority to social interaction as the foundation for understanding (Bryman, 2012; O’Donoghue, 2007).

• Theoretical perspectives, such as symbolic interactionism, are embraced by the interpretivist theory (O’Donoghue, 2007).

• Research engaged within an interpretivist paradigm is primarily interested in understanding how people perceive and comprehend their world (Thanh and Thanh, 2015).

• Interpretivism adds support to the researcher with regards to examining their world by deciphering the understanding of individual players (MacKenzie and Knipe, 2006).

• This approach is a form of reasoning traditionally associated with interpretivist research (Thomas, 2013)

• The main theoretical concepts were extracted from the data collected rather than being formed before the collection of data took place. Thus, making this study an inductive research (Bryman, 2012; Matthews and Ross, 2010).

Methodology continued

QualitativeOntology and Epistemology•Relativist•subjectivist

Interpretivist•Inductive

Focus Ethnography

Traditional Ethnography Focused Ethnography

Long term study

Time extensity

Writing

Experientially intensive

Open

Short Term study

Time Intensity

Recording

Data/Analysis intensity

Focused

Comparison between Traditional and focused ethnography

(Knoblauch, 2005)

How I went about the study

Participants Data Collection AnalysisA purposive sampling method was chosen.

My position within the club provided accessibility to the club environment (Jones and Gratton, 2003).

Nine participants were chosen based on:

(i) Playing experience of one to twelve months.

(ii) Playing experience of one to five years.

(iii) Playing experience of five plus years

Naturalistic observations were conducted for one hour, three times a week over a twelve-week period.

Field notes allowed me to take note of immediate happenings whereas vignettes (narrative technique) were used to exhibit stories about the setting (Barbour, 2008; Hughes, 1998; Smith, 2010).

Focus groups were then used to gain a deeper understanding behind the content observed (Lynch, 2010).

A Thematic analysis was used.

This method is synonymous with inductive qualitative research (Crowe, Inder and Porter, 2015).

Coding was used to identify the key ideas as themes (Dawson, 2009; Guest, MacQueen and Namey, 2012).

Codes were compiled, summarised and later catalogued into sub-themes (Aronson, 1995; Rothwell and Clark, 2010).

The Main Findings

‘The People’ ‘Something Different’ ‘The Craic is ninety’‘’…it was more the crowd that got me into the sport…’’ – Adiba

‘’…girls were just so so nice’’ - Aoife

‘’ We had also welcomed a new addition to the training session…’’ – Fieldnotes

Current players seemed to make an effort in being friendly and welcoming – Goffman’s (1959) Performance concept.

Gaelic allowed Irish players to meet other Irish people:‘’…a lot of girls had experienced the same thing I have and we all bonded through Gaelic…’’ – Mona

Gaelic allowed Irish students to perform their Irishness (McAnallen et al, 2007).

‘’I think it's just very different…other clubs get a lot of drama and stuff’’ – Amanda

‘’There's rarely any negativity on the team’’ - Nicole

The group felt strong about how there is ‘no drama’.

‘’Gaelic is real nurturing’’ - Siobhan

Highfield seems to be a culture that holds certain values, norms and beliefs (Sabri, 2008).

The group illustrated elements of togetherness, fun and inclusivity.

Emphasises ‘how things are done around here’ (Aviram and Erez, 2016; Fitzgerald and Desjardins, 2004:122).

‘’…it was just the humour, the Craic that does be at training…’’ – Siobhan

‘’… we love to have a laugh’’ – Amanda

‘’Some even deliberately pushed each other over, which was welcomed with roars of laughter’’ - Fieldnotes

Humour is a trait often associated with Irishness, where Irish people commonly use the word ‘the craic’ (Gantham, 2009).

Yet it seemed evident that both the Irish and non-Irish players used this terminology – Performing Irishness

Future orientation of the research

Using Goffman’s ideas to investigate other Gaelic Football settings to see whether there are similar or contrastable features to Highfield.

Using a full ethnographic design to investigate Highfield from the start of their season until their season concludes, or, during a PhD study consisting of a three year research.

investigate subcultures other than Gaelic Football using these methodological and theoretical principles, such as, sport and non-sport organisations, or departments of work in general

Conclusion The purpose of this focused ethnographic study was to gain a better understanding about the subculture of

Highfield.

Gaelic Football cultures seem to offer unique yet complex concepts.

Telling rich stories using Goffman’s symbolic interactionism/dramaturgy was key to examining the behaviour and interaction between players to explain the subculture (Charon, 2009; Turner and Behrndt, 2008).

This study adds a different perspective to using Goffman’s symbolic theories about performance.

Both Irish and non-Irish players recognised that humour and having fun (the craic) were part of the norms of Gaelic Football at Highfield.

Ultimately, Goffman’s dramaturgical lens allowed me to unravel how the players used techniques, such as these, as part of their overall performance (Giulianotti, 2005).

Some consideration is the fact that I observed a club that has a feeder club that illustrates a warm and caring environment. However, to some extent there needs to be consideration that some people may have attended training and not returned either at Highfield or Ollscoil.

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