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The 42FM
The Explainer
10 Jun 2025
How the GAA allowed hurling become a minority sport
00:00

Sinead spent the weekend at Croke Park, watching her beloved Kildare hurlers complete a stunning rise to win the Joe McDonagh Cup, and earn promotion to compete among Leinster's elite in the Liam McCarthy Cup next year.


On this week's pod, we discuss how Kildare completed their rise, and then discuss the GAA's biggest single failing of their history: the failure to grow hurling across the country.


We discuss why hurling is a minority sport, look at its biggest single impediment - Gaelic football - and explain what the GAA have got wrong, and what they are now trying to do to make it right.


Get in touch - email gavincooney@the42.ie and sinead@thejournal.ie