2014 – the year the GAA took over the UK (or at least confused a lot of people on Twitter)

If they didn't think we were all a bit mad over here before they certainly do now

The decision to hand over key matches of the GAA hurling and football championship to a UK broadcaster on pay TV was about as close as we got to another civil war this year. There was outcry as we were told children would be forced into pubs by their parents just to see their native county exit the championship in a haze of Sunday afternoon booze. Imagine the agony of someone being 'forced' to go to the pub on a Sunday. Disgrace we screamed. Regardless of your own thoughts on it the GAA hailed it a massive success as millions of sports fans who had never seen hurling and football were intrigued by our 'Gaelic Games'. And they took to twitter to tell the world of their fascination at those crazy Irish and their mix of lacrosse and quidditch. Even Joey Barton and Stan Collymore were converted. The opening game of the coverage was Kilkenny v Offaly on June 7th and it took some people by surprise: https://twitter.com/micky220406/status/475343049393201152

Dear Sky Sports. What the hell is this nonsense on Sky Sports 3? — Chris Rann (@crstig) June 7, 2014

No longer a total GAA virgin! Watching Kikenny v Offaly hurling on sky sports. Scary stuff, are they brave or crazy? — David Fordham (@davidfordham) June 7, 2014

The first football game of the Championship broadcast to the UK on SKY was the meeting of Galway and Sligo on the 21st of June: https://twitter.com/Rossall123/status/480411349265420289 https://twitter.com/ash_cfc89/status/480414618956091392 But what did top level sportspeople think of GAA Well Stan Collymore appeared to be a big fan even before SKY started broadcasting games https://twitter.com/stancollymore/status/428542254509457408 As did one Joey Barton:

Watching this GAA some pace and intensity to the game... DUBvMON #skysports3 — Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) August 9, 2014

In July GAA fans across the water were treated to their first double bill of hurling action. And it went as predicted: https://twitter.com/niknulty/status/490565567427125249 https://twitter.com/SLifeDaveJohn/status/490561609262452737 And clearly the promotion of hurling worked as Barton and Kevin Davies settled down to watch the very first All-Ireland final available to a UK audience on SKY on September 7th https://twitter.com/Kevin__Davies/status/508638177880723456 https://twitter.com/Joey7Barton/status/508632056666927104 The replay also grabbed some people's attention https://twitter.com/lostmertonian/status/515912692260167681 https://twitter.com/orientmick/status/515913818149761024 We hope that the reaction won't be quite as outlandish when the GAA returns to their screens in 2015