Commissioned by the GAA and carried out by a team based at Boston College-Ireland, the GAA Oral History Project is now drawing to a close. The project, which began its work in 2008, has since travelled across Ireland and overseas recording oral history interviews with the grassroots of the GAA. The final deadline for submissions to the project is 31 December 2011.

All experiences of the GAA are valid, no matter what your role in the Association. If you wish, please log on to www.gaahistory.com and fill in the questionnaire provided, detailing your experiences of the GAA.

How you and your club can get involved:

• Forward the link www.gaahistory.com to everyone in your club – everyone knows somebody who is involved in the GAA in some way. Forward this link to as many people as possible, even to people who aren’t involved in the GAA.

• Tell us your story – fill in the questionnaire or simply write down your story and send it to the project (see website). Postal and electronic contributions are welcome. Encourage other members of your club to do the same.

Hundreds of interviews have been carried out by the project team and a diligent group of volunteers both in Ireland and abroad over the last three years, and an extraordinary collection of recordings, documents and photographs has been put together. This unique body of material will ultimately be stored at the GAA Museum in Croke Park where it will be made accessible to the public from early 2013. Some of the material has already been used in the best-selling book, The GAA: A People's History which was written by the project's directors, Mike Cronin, Mark Duncan and Paul Rouse and also in the recently published book, The GAA: County by County also written by the project directors.

The GAA Oral History Project aims to preserve the story of the GAA and its members. It wants to make sure that the GAA’s history is recorded so that future generations will know the contribution that clubs and individual members have made to the GAA. Take this final opportunity to be involved in the largest sport’s history project in the world today and have your story preserved in the GAA Museum in Croke Park.

This is not just a story about the famous players and famous matches, but about the grassroots who are responsible for keeping the Association alive. This project aims to be a representative survey of attitudes to and experiences of the GAA among people.

People from every parish, from every club and from every school have the opportunity to contribute their stories. The project also aims to collect the memories of the members of all the organisations under the umbrella of Gaelic games, including Ladies Football, Camogie, Handball, Rounders and Scόr. The material collected will ensure that these stories will now live on.

This project is an opportunity for GAA members across Ireland to record for future generations the work that they, their families and their fellow club men and women have contributed to ensure that the GAA has grown to be the successful organisation it is today. It will greatly enrich future generations’ understanding not only of the GAA but more broadly their understanding of the social, cultural and political history of Ireland in this period. The 31st Dec 2011 deadline is fixed.

Unfortunately, any material received after this date cannot be included in the project.

For further information on any aspect of the project, please contact the office of the GAA Oral History Project Team on +353 1 662 5055. You can write to the project at GAA Oral History Project, 42 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, or send an email to info@gaahistory.com.