Allen Guttmann has developed an ideal type descriptive of the transformation from medieval leisure to modern sport. His method of type construction and its substantive components are replicas, shaped for the study of sport, of Weber's concept of Western rationalization. The rise of the Gaelic Athletic Association in late 19th-century Ireland represents the principal empirical universe used to assess the validity of Guttmann's ideal type. The Irish case study suggests that modern sport, at its historical moment of incorporation, was as much a project of irrational elements and affective rationality as it was instrumental action. Using the writings of Weber as a source and the early history of Irish sport, it is suggested that modern sport be conceived as a multidimensional institution existing in tension with bureaucratic and charismatic forms of control.
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