YOU know the way it is. You get a book and look forward to reading it. You leave it aside and it is forgotten for a time until it is unearthed again. No sooner have you opened it than you are captured. That is what happened to me in regard to Maurice Davin - first President of the GAA, by Seamus O Riain.

At a time when the GAA is going through an exciting period of its existence, with a huge building programme under way in Croke Park and the games of hurling and football more popular than ever, it is appropriate to take a close look at how the association came into being and how it has developed.

Although Michael Cusack is often given most of the credit for its foundation, Seamus O Riain's book puts Davin very firmly in the driving seat for many aspects of the GAA's birth and development.

Davin was a considerable athlete in his youth, being an expert oarsman and boxer before he took to the high jump and weight throwing.

Although from a well to do family, he was a man of the people and was irked by the snobbery which prevailed at the time. Pre 1884 that is. Davin saw at first hand how working class people were shunned by the athletics authorities of the day.

O Riain writes: The Civil Service club confined its membership to the `gentleman' class, including university people, the learned professions, officers of the army and navy, government officers, gentlemen of independent means and `others who may mingle in society with them'. There was no place for artisans, labourers and the lower ranks of the army or police forces.

In his first competitive outing in Dublin, he threw the hammer three feet farther than the champion of the day. His younger brother, Tom, won three events, making the organisers sit up and take notice of these Tipperary men.

About that time, athletics and big sports meeting were in vogue with the gentry and its popularity brought about the purchase of a ground which later became known as Lansdowne Road. It is rather amusing to hear that, at the time, there was criticism of this move because Lansdowne Road was regarded as being too far from the city centre.

It was at Lansdowne Road, however, that Maurice Davin was to shine, winning no fewer than 10 national titles between 1875 and 1879. His brothers, Pat and Tom, also figured prominently in these years.

All three Davins were chosen on a team to represent Ireland in an international match against England. The match took place on Whit Monday, 1876. Ireland won four of the 14 events on the card, with all three Davins winning their events.

Towards the end of the 1870s, however, athletics began to tear itself apart. Many abuses arose, handicaps were being manipulated, betting was rife, money prizes were creeping in and clubs were disintegrating.

What irked Davin more than anything was its elitism. Artisans, labourers and their families were not allowed to compete. Athletics was dominated by people of a unionist bent, while English rules prevailed. A ban was introduced, pre dating the GAA's foreign games ban.

The Irish National Athletics Club (INAC) was formed and one of its first rules enacted said: "If a gentleman runs at an athletic meeting in Ireland, not under the rules of the INAC, he is disqualified for all races under INAC rules".

This was at a time when many ad hoc sports meetings were held throughout the country by clubs which were not affiliated to the INAC. It was natural that in rural areas these sports days were invariably held on Sunday, prompting the INAC to state: "The holding of meetings on Sundays is detrimental to the interests of amateur athletics in Ireland ... and those who may take part at such meetings shall be disqualified to compete at any meeting held under INAC rules".

It was a clear effort to ban from official athletics all horny handed sons of toil. The white collar and cravat brigade were in control.

It was in these circumstances that the seeds of the GAA were planted. According to O Riain, it is pretty clear that the games of football and hurling were well down the list of priorities at first, but Cusack, having fried to bring about reforms from inside some Dublin clubs, "abandoned his connection with them and struck out on a new course that was to lead to Hayes Hotel in Thurles on November 1st, 1884".

Before then, however, Maurice and Pat Davin took the English athletics scene by storm. In July of 1881, Maurice (39) and Pat (24) travelled to Dublin from Carrick on Suir by train, took a 17 hour journey by boat to Liverpool and then travelled by train to Birmingham. They returned with four English titles - Maurice taking the shot and hammer and Pat the high and long jumps. Pat was later to hold world records in both these events at the same time, a feat which has never been equalled.

Maurice set his mind to the politics of sport and inspired by Cusack's enthusiasm and determination, the GAA came into being. Things did not run at all smoothly. The games themselves prospered under rules drawn up for the most part by Davin, but soon tensions within the organisation began to grow.

The Land League movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the Parnell Split all had profound effects on the infant GAA. Davin resigned as president, was re appointed, but resigned again as the IRB took a grip on the organisation.

O Riain's book records faithfully, with clarity and understanding, these affairs. As a man who was later to be one of Davin successors as president, his love of the GAA and of Tipperary does not lead him into blindness about the failings of the association. It is rather that his closeness to his subject gives the reader a clearer insight into the beginnings of one of Ireland's most powerful bodies.

Davin emerges as a man of great honesty and character. He once refused to ratify a high jump record set by his brother because there was a slight rise in the take off. He was a highly skilled leader and a man of great dignity. History is indebted to Seamus O Riain for telling his fascinating story.