Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Gaelic games

As with other sports, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruption to Gaelic games, primarily in Ireland but also elsewhere in the world. Competitions have been cancelled, postponed or restructured, while some teams have withdrawn or been unable to participate in those that have gone ahead.

The sports (football, hurling, camogie, and ladies' football) saw all competitions suspended from 12 March 2020. The National Hurling League, National Football League, National Camogie League and Ladies' National Football League, which were all running at the time, were suspended, with competitions not intended to resume until 29 March at the earliest.[1] This proved to be an optimistic assumption.

The Football and Hurling Leagues, as well as a revised 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship were completed rapidly (and behind closed doors) between October and December of that year, in the period corresponding roughly to the gap between the second and third waves of the pandemic.[2][3] Sligo (due to an outbreak), London and New York were forced out of the football by the pandemic, the English-based teams out of the hurling. The Camogie and Ladies' Leagues were cancelled.

Timeline

March

Following Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's 12 March announcement from Washington, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), alongside the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and Football Association of Ireland (FAI) all immediately announced the two-week suspension of games.[4]

On 13 March, Ireland's Minister for Health Simon Harris said people returning from Spain or Italy would have to "not quite self-isolate" but "restrict their movements" upon returning to Ireland; this affected the Tipperary county hurling team, the reigning All-Ireland Champions, who had flown in advance to the Costa Blanca in Spain for a training camp.[5] Tim Floyd, Secretary of the Tipperary County Board, also contracted the virus but recovered.[6]

On 17 March, the GAA confirmed that the opening fixture of the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship, due to have taken place at Gaelic Park in The Bronx on 3 May, had been postponed.[7] Also that day, Michael Carton, the former Dublin hurler who won the 2013 Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, revealed he had been in hospital since the previous weekend after testing positive for COVID-19.[8]

Four-time All-Ireland football winning manager Seán Boylan also contracted COVID-19 at around this time and was in hospital until 31 March, according to an interview he gave on RTÉ Radio the following January.[9]

On 18 March, the GAA confirmed that its Féile na Gael 2020 hurling and camogie event (jointly to have been hosted by Dublin, Kildare and Meath in early June), Féile na nÓg National football tournaments (jointly to have been hosted by Donegal, Derry, and Tyrone in late June), the Celtic Challenge under-17 hurling development competition and every event intended to have involved academy squads, would be cancelled in 2020 as a result of the damage done by the virus to its other competitions.[10]

On 30 March, the Irish Independent reported that Ard Stiúrthóir Tom Ryan had told employees through a conference call that their wages would be reduced by between 10 and 20% for the month of April; the GAA confirmed the following day that the report was accurate.[11]

April–May

Former Offaly county football team manager, Fr Tom Scully, who led the team to the 1969 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final, died in Dublin of COVID-19 on the morning of 7 April.[12] Other GAA figures reported to have been infected by the virus around this time included Club Aontroma Chairman Niall Murphy (who narrowly survived) and Ulster Camogie Chairman Jennifer Cultra.[13][14][15] On 29 April, the administrator Noel Walsh (i.e. "Mr Clare Football")[16] died of pneumonia resulting from COVID-19.[17]

On 13 April, the All-Ireland winning hurler Jonathan Glynn announced that himself and his fiancée had tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States, where he was working as a coach with the New York team, but both had isolated for two weeks and recovered.[18]

On 14 April (the day after the Easter Monday public holiday), the GAA announced that—following the government's Good Friday three-week extension of restrictions—the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and 2020 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship would be postponed "until further clarity on the current situation is available. However, it is the Association's view that it is highly unlikely these will be rescheduled any time before the beginning of July, at the earliest".[19] The Ulster GAA also announced the immediate cancellation of the Ulster Club football leagues, the Buncrana Cup (under-16 Football League) and the Ulster Minor Football League.[20] The Ulster Minor Football Championship was changed to mirror the fixtures of the 2020 Ulster Senior Football Championship, so that both competitions could be played together if a suitable date arose.[21] The Leinster GAA announced that both the Leinster Minor Football Championship and Leinster Minor Hurling Championship would be run as knock-out competitions if they were to occur at all.[22]

On 17 April, a remote Special Congress occurred, the outcome of which granted the GAA emergency powers to change competition structures to respond to the pandemic (such rule changes would normally be decided at an Annual Congress).[23]

On 30 April, the GAA confirmed wage cuts for staff would continue into May and June.[24]

On 6 May, the GAA announced that it expected no inter-county matches would take place until October at the earliest and asked all counties to cease preparations until 20 July, while unveiling a COVID-19 Advisory Group whose members included Pat O'Neill.[25] The COVID-19 Advisory Group had its first meeting (online) on the night of 11 May 2020.[26]

Antrim football captain Declan Lynch told a newspaper in late May that he had experienced a mild form of COVID-19, from which the BBC said he had recovered by June.[27]

June–September

On 5 June, the GAA's COVID-19 Advisory Group unveiled details of a four-phase "Return to Play" roadmap.[28] On 12 June, the various sporting organisations unveiled details of a COVID-19 education programme for clubs.[29] As part of this a "COVID supervisor" would monitor every team at each club.[30]

On 26 June, the GAA announced that all inter-county competitions would commence in October 2020, with the football championship to feature a knock-out format for the first time since 2000, while the hurling championship retained the possibility of a second chance for losing teams. The GAA opted not reshedule New York in the Connacht championship.

On the night of 9 July 2020, the GAA's management committee updated match regulations ahead of the resumption of club games, restricting the number of substitutes and officials and introducing water breaks (one in each half).[31]

By late July, small numbers of spectators were permitted into games on both sides of the border.[32]

On 23 August, Wexford GAA club Shelmaliers defeated Naomh Éanna to win the first County Championship to be completed since the discovery of COVID-19.[33]

On 12 September, the GAA announced that the emergency administrative powers agreed in April had been extended until 4 December.[34] On the same day London withdrew from playing in the remaining Leagues and Championship fixtures.

On 19 September, Donegal GAA announced that one of its county footballers had tested positive for an asymptomatic case of COVID-19.[35] The players were tested just before the squad began training for the resumption of inter-county play, with one positive result returned.[36] The rest of the squad entered isolation.[37] Among those to praise the decision to make public the result was Monaghan player Darren Hughes.[38] Two months later, Conor Morrison spoke of receiving a COVID-19 test in advance of surgery on a long-term leg injury in Santry on a Monday morning in September, with a positive result received that night (matching descriptions in reports at that time, he was also asymptomatic); Morrison, however, said he had not been in contact with other members of the county team (the injury having occurred during a game for his club St Eunan's the previous month) but his surgery had to be postponed until October and he had had to isolate.[39]

October–December

On 2 October, the Armagh county football team suspended training after several COVID-19 positive tests within the squad.[40][41][42]

The PSNI launched an investigation after receiving reports of inadequate social distancing between spectators at the Derry Senior Football Championship final, held on 4 October after being moved to an alternative ground due to a rise in COVID-19 cases close to the original venue.[43] Cork GAA also addressed an absence of social distancing on streets in South Cork after Blackrock won the Senior Hurling Championship for the first time since 2002.[44] The GAA, in a decision endorsed by the Ladies' Gaelic Football Association (LGFA), suspended all club fixtures with immediate effect on 5 October, stating: "In particular, post-match celebrations and a lack of social distancing at certain events have proved disappointing and problematic. This directive applies to all ages and all grades across the island".[45] Later that day, the Government of Ireland excluded spectators from all games under new restrictions that applied those then in effect in Dublin and Donegal to the rest of the country (this did not affect counties north of the border where limited numbers were still permitted to attend.[46] Any remaining club fixtures were postponed until the respective county's inter-county season had finished.[47]

On 7 October, the Fermanagh county football team suspended training after several COVID-19 positive tests within the squad, and the decision was also taken to suspend the activity of the county hurlers and minor footballers, as well as the training of club players which was still permitted following the GAA directive of two days previously.[48]

On 15 October, Wexford GAA confirmed four of its senior footballers and two of its senior hurlers had tested positive for COVID-19.[49]

League and championship resumed on 17 October (see that section for further details).

According to Colm O'Rourke in his Sunday Independent column of 15 November, the former Cork player and manager Billy Morgan had recently been seriously ill after contracting COVID-19.[50]

On the evening of 30 November, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn told a press briefing that the GAA was not at fault for the virus's resurgence in Ireland.[51]

January

On 1 January, the GAA gave advice on which activities were permitted under the restrictions which had been imposed following increased COVID-19 transmission over the Christmas period, i.e. individual training but no collective training, no club games and no access to club grounds.[52]

On 5 January, GAA director general Tom Ryan issued a letter to county secretaries barring inter-county teams from collective training for at least the rest of the month and also stating that club and county gyms should be shut until further notice.[53] Collective training had originally been scheduled to resume on 15 January.[54] However, Ronan McCarthy's Cork county football team were filmed earlier that month training on a beach in Youghal, "crawling on their elbows and lumping logs above their heads", as described in The Irish Times.[55]

On 1 February the Irish Independent reported about would London return when safe. Like Roscommon were scheduled to host London in 2020 & Galway for New York even for Sligo to return to playing in the upcoming year things will need to be safe. In 2021 Connacht football championship Mayo will approved to host London while it will be Roscommon that's lined up for New York the draws held on February 8th in every other year took place in October to November. The Galway vs Sligo Connacht semi-final was also not allowed to be played in 2020 football championship. The Galway vs New York, Roscommon vs London, & Galway vs Sligo Connacht championship fixtures that would have been played in 2020 will rescheduled as challenge games when its safe to play. London & New York resume to Connacht championship in 2021 if only happen if fixtures are delayed or a return to Sligo to as well. But it will safe for London, New York & Sligo to return in 2022 Connacht championships.

Impact on competitions

Club

On 26 June, the GAA announced its decision to cancel the 2020 Provincial and All-Ireland Club Championships, which had taken place annually since 1971, due to the need to "build in a rest period for people".[56]

On 4 July, shortly after clubs resumed contact training, Kilkenny GAA club James Stephens announced it had ceased all activity for one week after one of its hurlers tested positive for COVID-19; he had by then recovered.[57][58]

In mid-July, three GAA clubs in West Cork (Argideen Rangers, Ballinascarthy and Oliver Plunketts) suspended their activities due to uncertainty whether its members had had contact with someone found to have COVID-19.[58] The Agrideen Rangers chairman later informed RTÉ Sport that each of the club's players had subsequently tested negative.[59]

On 12 July, a member of Dublin GAA club Man-O-War tested positive for COVID-19 and Cork GAA club Glanworth confirmed that a player had tested positive; both clubs suspended activities.[59]

On 14 July, Down GAA club Atticall became the first GAA club based in Ulster to confirm a member had tested positive for COVID-19; the club suspended activities until 19 July at the earliest even though the GAA said it could continue.[60] On 16 July, two Derry GAA clubs (Banagher and Craigbane) suspended all activities as a precautionary measure; they were joined by eight others (Ardmore, Claudy, Drum, Drumsurn, Foreglen, Glack, Limavady and Magilligan) the following day after a cluster of COVID-19 emerged in the Limavady area, in the north of the county.[61] The nearby Donegal GAA club Naomh Colmcille followed suit on 18 July, having played Glack in a challenge match the previous weekend.[62] Donegal GAA later clarified that it had not asked Naomh Colmcille to suspend activities, though it respected the club's decision.[63]

On 21 July, two Tyrone GAA clubs (Aghaloo O'Neills and Eglish St Patrick's) suspended their activities after an Eglish player, who had played in a league game between the clubs the previous weekend, tested positive for COVID-19; the entire Eglish squad then required testing to determine the presence or absence of the virus.[64] Eglish's other players were permitted to resume activities on 24 July.[65]

On 23 July, Armagh GAA club Killeavy and Down GAA club Longstone suspended activities with one player from each club having tested psoitive for COVID-19.[32] By 24 July, four other Killeavy players had tested positive for COVID-19.[66]

On 28 July, Donegal GAA club Naomh Conaill suspended activities while it awaited the outcome of a test result.[67]

On 18 August, Sligo GAA club Eastern Harps suspended activities as a precaution due to possible contact with a COVID-19 case.[68]

Dublin GAA club Clanna Gael Fontenoy forfeited a Dublin Junior Hurling Championship quarter-final against Ballyboden St Enda's due to be played on the morning of 23 August after the denial of an attempt at postponement following a COVID-19 positive test in the Ballyboden team.[69]

On 22 September, Donegal GAA postponed the Donegal Senior Football Championship final until 7 October after a player tested COVID-19 positive.[70] The game had initially been set to proceed but was then postponed.[71] On 26 September, Longford GAA postponed the Longford Senior Football Championship semi-finals and the Longford Intermediate Football Championship final due to the detection of COVID-19 cases.[72] On 26 September, Leitrim GAA postponed the Leitrim Intermediate Football Championship final due to COVID-19 issues.[73] A Galway Intermediate Football Championship semi-final was rescheduled at short notice when a player was informed that he had been a close contact of a COVID-19 case.[74] On 1 October, South Kerry GAA postponed 4 October's South Kerry Senior Football Championship final due to a COVID-19 issue.[40][75]

On 2 October, Armagh GAA suspended all club activity due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in the area.[40][76]

The Waterford Intermediate Football Championship final on 4 October featured a Dungarvan player who later tested COVID-19 positive and appeared for his club while awaiting the result of his test.[77]

After club games were suspended on 5 October, and the switch made to inter-county, many counties had not completed their competitions - the finals of the following went unplayed: the Carlow Senior Football Championship, Cork Senior Football Championship, Donegal Senior Football Championship and Waterford Senior Football Championship, the Laois Senior Hurling Championship, Meath Senior Hurling Championship and Offaly Senior Hurling Championship, as well as others at intermediate and junior levels.[47] These would not be played in 2020.[78][79]

2020 league and championship

The pandemic's arrival coincided with the playing of the National Leagues. Play was suspended from 12 March 2020. Ahead lay the 133rd All-Ireland Championships in football and hurling, annual competitions with an unbroken run stretching back to 1887. Though often delayed due to such incidents as outbreaks of polio and foot-and-mouth disease, the All-Ireland Championships had never previously been cancelled, even during the two World Wars. Following an interview given by GAA president John Horan on The Sunday Game on 10 May, RTÉ described the "the prospect of a fallow GAA year" as "very possible".[80]

On 12 September, the GAA announced it would formally go ahead with the year's All-Ireland Football and Hurling Championships at senior, under-20 and minor levels from October after receiving a promise of government funding to help stage the events.[34] Ulster GAA confirmed ahead of the 2020 Ulster Senior Football Championship that the final would not be held at its traditional venue of St Tiernach's Park due to the absence of floodlights.[81] The Athletic Grounds in Armagh was chosen instead.[82]

On 25 September, the GAA announced details of its rescheduled remaining fixtures in the National Football League and National Hurling League, to resume on the weekend of 17–18 October.[83] Ahead of the resumption, the GAA denied suggestions it would cancel the competitions, though it had cancelled the League finals.[84] 17 Fermanagh footballers were out for the resumption, ten COVID-19 positive and seven others self-isolating.[85] One of those who tested positive, Aidan Breen, spoke publicly about his experience as Fermanagh unsuccessfully attempted to have their first league game postponed.[86] With a "number of players... awaiting test results", Leitrim were unable to field a football team and conceded their opening fixture to Down, the first team forced to do so.[87] On 20 October, Longford GAA conceded their next football fixture, away to Cork, their manager Padraic Davis calling it a "dead rubber" (as Cork had previously secured promotion to Division 2) and both teams were scheduled to begin their championship campaigns the following weekend.[88] Longford's concession meant they surrendered an outside possibility of promotion and instead caused the promotion of Down.[89] Down's promotion was also assisted by the points secured following Leitrim's concession of their previous fixture.[90] On 21 October, it was reported that a Roscommon footballer had tested COVID-19 positive.[91] The team vowed to fulfil their fixture against Cavan, however.[92] On 22 October, Waterford GAA indicated it would concede its football fixture against Antrim due to the deteriorating health crisis north of the border.[93] Antrim suggested it instead concede home advantage and play the fixture in Dundalk, an offer which Waterford accepted.[94]

Also on 22 October, the entire Offaly county hurling team were ruled as close contacts of a COVID-19 positive player they had trained alongside, forcing the county to concede that weekend's 2020 Christy Ring Cup game against Kildare.[95] On 23 October, Sligo GAA announced that a player on the Sligo county hurling team had tested COVID-19 positive, meaning the team could not play Derry in the Christy Ring Cup that weekend.[96]

On 5 November, the Sligo county football team were forced to withdraw from the 2020 Connacht Senior Football Championship due to COVID-19, meaning their opponents Galway went straight into the final.[97]

On 8 November, Mark Keane of Collingwood Football Club (one of several players whose return to Ireland during the close of the Australian rules football season coincided with the delayed All-Ireland and provincial competitions) was brought on as a substitute for Cork against Kerry in the 2020 Munster Senior Football Championship. He scored the late goal that knocked Kerry out of the competition, in what was described as "one of the biggest upsets in recent championship history... a strike so late it had eerie echoes of Tadhg Murphy's 1983 goal at the same end of the ground that similarly put Kerry out of the championship".[98] On 22 November, Colin O'Riordan (another of those who had returned to Ireland during the close of the Australian rules football season) played for Tipperary against Cork in the 2020 Munster Senior Football Championship Final, winning a senior provincial medal in his first game for his county in five years.[99] Sydney Swans also gave O'Riordan permission to play in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo.[100] Three members of the Mayo backroom team were each suspended for three months after attending the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final "without accreditation".[101][102]

Both the Sam Maguire Cup and the Liam MacCarthy Cup, the premier football and hurling trophies, were withheld from 2020's winning teams to discourage crowds gathering and no homecoming celebrations were permitted.[103]

Following a sudden reintroduction of restrictions (announced on Christmas Eve and taking effect after the public holiday), the inter-county minor and under-21 championships, specifically in Leinster and Ulster, came to a halt once more.[104] Roscommon did manage to win the Connacht Minor Football Championship on Saint Stephen's Day though, after Kerry had won the Munster Minor Football Championship.[105]

College

The 2020 Sigerson Cup and 2020 Fitzgibbon Cup were both played to completion, two of the few competitions unaffected that year as they had been played in January and February.[106]

On 13 January 2021, the GAA confirmed that the year's Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cups had been cancelled due to pandemic restrictions.[107]

School

The final of the 2020 MacRory Cup, due to have been played between St Colman's College, Newry and St Patrick's College, Maghera on 17 March, was postponed.[108] After an unsuccessful effort to play the match on 7 October, the game was cancelled and the trophy shared between the finalists.[109]

The 2020 Corn Uí Mhuirí was ? The 2020 Connacht Colleges Senior Football Championship was also abandoned. The 2020 Leinster Colleges Senior Football Championship was completed.

The pandemic also affected the 2020–21 season, with (for instance) no schools or college games occurring during November 2020.[50]

14 January 2021 brought confirmation that the Hogan Cup and the Croke Cup would not be played for in 2021, though the possibility of competitions at provincial level was retained.[110]

International

The UK government did not permit London GAA clubs to resume contact training until the evening of 25 August.[111]

London, Warwickshire and Lancashire were excluded from the 2020 All-Ireland Senior Football and Hurling Championships.[34]

Irish players based in the Australian Football League (AFL), including Conor McKenna, returned home following the suspension of play there.[112] In addition, the AFL announced on 5 April that they would not be travelling to Ireland for the planned International Rules Series in November 2020 due to the disruption that the virus had caused to their season.[113]

On 11 May, the Camanachd Association issued a statement that it had agreed in consultation with the GAA to cancel the 2020 Shinty-Hurling International Series between Ireland and Scotland, scheduled for October.[114]

By May 2020, Gaelic games administrators in France (where most players—particularly in Brittany—are French natives and the French language is common) had concluded that, with the stricter lockdown in force there and the government's announcement that mass gatherings would not be permitted before September, their 2020 championship could not occur. The French finals had been scheduled for Bordeaux.[115]

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SFC	Completed in 2020?	Played in 2021?
Carlow		N/A
Cork		N/A
Donegal		N/A
Waterford		N/A
SHC	Completed in 2020?	Played in 2021?
Laois		N/A
Meath		N/A
Offaly		N/A