This paper will discuss the ethnographic study that I conducted. It will describe the symbol that I chose and explain why I chose it. It will discuss the interview that I conducted with a man from my local GAA club and his take on the symbol that I chose. Finally, it will relate the symbol and findings to Ortners article and also the work of Ingold and Geertz.
To me a symbol can be described as representing an idea or concept. The symbol that I have chosen is the GAA. I think this is a key symbol and has significance to me personally and to a lot of other people, including my research participant. The GAA has huge culture significance in my opinion and has a rich history. It promotes Irish cultural activities running competitions in music, singing, dancing and storytelling .One could say that the GAA has a huge impact socially.
The GAA is an extremely powerful symbol in my opinion because it is has such significance to the vast majority of the country. As I said before a symbol can be described as representing an idea or concept, and the GAA represents a nation. It’s evident that it’s part of our culture and how popular it is. Whether it’s playing for your local GAA club or watching your county in Croke Park with 80,000 it has an impact socially and there is a real togetherness about the GAA and that is why I think it is such a powerful symbol.

I will now discuss the interview that I conducted with my research participant. My research participant that I chose is a man from my local GAA club who is extremely passionate about the GAA. He was very keen to help with my research and I asked him a variety of questions about the GAA and what it meant to him. He talked for a long time about several different topics, which included his playing days and what it means to be part of the GAA. When I asked him what the GAA meant to him he first replied with ‘It’s my life’.