COVID-19, Irish media and the GAA

Drawing on methods in critical discourse analysis this paper identifies seven thematic strands and patterns of dialogical engagement within clusters of selected national and local print, broadcast and related social media threads at key moments in the unfolding crisis for the GAA and its participants. The period covered spans March 12th (when Covid restrictions suspended Gaelic games fixtures) to December 19th 2020, the date of the All-Ireland Gaelic football final, the conclusion of major elite level inter-county competitions. The findings are published in two books on the impact of the pandemic on sports suspension and restart while a third article (co-authored with Maedhbh N Chumhaill) and focused on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on womens sport in Ireland will shortly be published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living journal