Gaelic games are a variety of games such as handball or football that have been modified and played in Ireland.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (The GAA) (Irish: Cumann Lúthchleas Gael) is an organisation which is mostly focussed on promoting gaelic games.

The man directly involved in the founding of the GAA was a Clareman named Michael Cusack.

The perception of the GAA in unionist circles in Northern Ireland made its members and clubhouses targets for loyalist terrorists during the Troubles. A number of GAA supporters were killed and clubhouses damaged.

The GAA is the largest amateur sports association in Ireland.

In Gaelic football, teams consist of fifteen players (a goalkeeper, two corner backs, a full back, three half backs, two midfielders, three half forwards, two corner forwards and a full forward) plus up to fifteen substitutes, of which five may be used. Each player is numbered 1–15, starting with the goalkeeper, who must wear a different colored jersey.

Gaelic Football - “the all-round game” of hand, foot and round ball skills - has been played across Australia and NZ for several decades by Irish immigrants, visa workers and backpackers keen to play the national sport of their youth.

In football, the game is played with a round leather ball, similar to a soccer ball, but heavier, and with horizontal stitching rather than the hexagon and pentagon panels often used on soccer balls, and similar in appearance to a standard volleyball.