Lessons on Innovation from the GAA (January 2009)

The current world-wide campaign of IDA Ireland, The Irish Mind, with its tagline of Knowledge is in our Nature, sells international investors an image of a flexible and agile Irish mindset.  This theme brands Ireland as particularly suited for creative and innovative ventures founded on distinctiveness.  It recognises that imagination, intuition and inspiration, in other words, self-knowledge, is as central as science and technology to the innovation process. 

It may seem paradoxical, but the evidence is that in a world of global markets, rapid transportation, and high-speed communications, local cultures and places are becoming more, not less important.  Sustainable competitive advantage lies in difference captured by special places and shared values, resources that are unique or too difficult for others to imitate.

A sense of place represents an emotional attachment to a particular geographical and cultural space, a connection embedded in relationships and social networks.  There is a dynamic interaction between a sense of community, civic culture, creativity and innovation.  Social capital is generated by feelings of belonging and trust, a sort of glue holding a community together.  Communities with strong social capital tend to be happier places to live, with positive implications for employment and learning.  Such places are especially well-equipped to attract and keep the most creative people, thereby generating a high quality of life. 

Contemporary Ireland is badly in need of the driving vision that characterised the three decades before Independence, a period which spawned the GAA.  The Irish Revival was an exhilarating era of pioneering spirit, cultural cohesion, prodigious idealism, self-help and self-discovery, or to use a modern expression, national innovation.  The Revival encompassed a range of initiatives all relating to a common theme: an awakening interest in Irish identity, broadly defined.  The GAA and organisations such as the Gaelic League, the Co-operative Movement and the Irish Literary Theatre, were cut from a similar cloth.  Common to all was a sense of place and pride, both at national and local level.  Overriding all else was the sense of being uniquely Irish, possessors of a proud history and endowed with a rich culture.

The GAA fostered patriotism and rootedness through creating highly charged, local sporting contests that captured the emotions, especially of young people, adding colour and excitement to rural social life.  It promoted a robust form of Irish identity through teamwork and co-operation, deeply rooted in a hierarchy of local communities and conducive to cultural self-knowledge and self-reliance.  Today, even with the GAA’s relative affluence, this sense of identity, attachment to one’s native place, and grassroots democracy, persists.   The Association remains a locally rooted, grassroots community-centred organisation, dependent on volunteerism, and based on democratic principles of governance. 

In attempting to foster a sustainable competitive advantage, Ireland could benefit by drawing on the inspiration and ideals of Revival movements, especially the GAA.  It is fascinating to consider where such a marriage of capability, innovation, culture, identity, and sense of place might lead.  Combining creativity and a self-help ethos could produce development that is rooted in place while socially, economically and environmentally sustainable; a nation globally competitive while distinctively Irish.  By marrying the global with the local, Ireland has a great opportunity to forge a unique development path, one other countries might emulate.

No nation can be truly innovative if its people do not know and appreciate who they are, where they come from, and where they are trying to go.  People grounded in their own culture appreciate diversity and the cultural values of others with whom they must co-operate.  While remaining open to outside influences, they learn to identify difference and appreciate distinctiveness.  They absorb many different ideas, yet are not dominated by globalised cultural influences.  This helps generate an innovative mind frame.

Policies that recognise the nature and feelings of a people provide a powerful and inimitable competitive advantage.  Ireland’s strength lies in a coherent approach founded on distinctiveness, difference and national identity.  This country’s wisdom and self-knowledge give it breadth, purpose and confidence, critical components in generating a prosperous innovation society.  Inspired by GAA principles, such a society could lead to an Ireland that is self-reliant and utterly unique while eminently cosmopolitan, well positioned to compete in the turbulent global economy.

Foinsí uathúla le buntáistí iomaíochta thar cionn is ea acmhainní cultúrtha na hÉireann.  Ní dearcadh cumhach ná saonta é seo.  Go deimhin, cé gurb é Seán Lemass an duine a bhí freagrach, níos mó ná aon pholaiteoir eile, as Éire a oscailt do thrádáil agus infheistíocht idirnáisiúnta, thuig sé go maith an tábhacht a bhaineann le sainiúlacht.  Chreid Lemass gurb iad tréithe dúchasacha a spreagann pobal chun obair ar son dul chun cinn tíre.  Is é an tuiscint céanna a bhí ag an CLG óna laethanta tosaigh.  Tá sé fós fíor gur tríd a bheith fréamhaithe i gcultúr, i traidisiún agus i mórtas cine is ceantair a chruthaítear an deis is fearr atá ann chun sochaí rathúil iomaíoch a bhaint amach d’Éirinn.  

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Finbarr Bradley (Fionnbarra Ó Brolcháin) has been a professor of finance at a number of Irish universities.  He set up and was first Director of the Irish-medium centre, Fiontar, at DCU.  He was also a faculty member at NUI Maynooth and UCD.  He is co-author of the book Capitalising on Culture, Competing on Difference [Blackhall Publishing, 2008].