THERE are some aspects of sport which are forged in human irony. The situation of Irish Gaelic sport in Scotland is one.

Joseph Bradley in his Sport, Culture, Politics and Scottish Society (John Donald, #11.95) has a symmetry which occasions a wry smile in the midst of what is a sober and well-argued case.

The author, quoting from the Irish Post, records: ''For many of them (Irish immigrants) the only link with Ireland is supporting Glasgow Celtic, flying the Tricolour and singing patriotic songs at Celtic Park. Most of them forget about Ireland for the rest of the week.''

This prosecution of one case of Irish identity in Scotland finds a powerful witness in the appendix to Bradley's work which is a book primarily concerned with Irish immigrants and the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Ayrshire Gaels, participants in the ancient rites of Gaelic sport, were dealt a fatal blow. The cause of death?

''The main reason for the dissolution of the club was the onset of Sunday afternoon live televised soccer. With a majority of the Gaels players also Celtic supporters, football matches on Sunday involving the Glasgow club steadily eroded attendances,'' writes the author.

Thus the upstart sport of association football could wound the legacy of the mighty Cuchulain.

Irish Gaelic sport survived the Great Famine but has found it difficult to thrive in Scotland.

The first GAA club in Scotland was founded in 1897. The Glasgow Examiner reported that ''a large and enthusiastic meeting'' endorsed that the Red Hugh O'Neil Gaelic Athletic Club was set up ''to include all brands of Irish national pastimes - hurling, football, running, jumping, boxing and dumb-bell and Indian club exercises''.

The presence of the GAA in Scotland is meticously recorded by Bradley. The sport was almost a casualty of the Second World War and by the 1960s ''the only Gaelic sport manifest amidst the large Irish community in the West of Scotland took place at Eastfield Park, Cambuslang.'' This seemingly low point was, as Bradley reports, a prelude to the regeneration of the sport in the 1980s.

This solid dish of historical fact is spicened by Bradley's quest to place the sport in a cultural context. The Great Famine in Ireland of 1845-49 almost destroyed a nation and scattered many of its surviving inhabitants to the four winds. This diaspora alighted, in part, in Scotland.

Bradley is at his best when he coldly assesses the alien and often downright hostile terrain that faced these immigrants.

Immigration raises fascinating, enduring questions. Does the incomer assimilate, denying his traditions? Or does he celebrate his own identity, risking the wrath and contempt of the inhabitants of his new-found home?

This dilemma has marked Scottish, political, sporting and cultural life for the past century.

It is considered unseemly to raise it in polite society. For many of the Irish immigrants their feelings of affection for their homeland was a love that dare not speak its name.

The immigrants' suppression of identity in the face of hostility took various forms. A positive affinity for Ireland withered beneath a storm of ridicule.

Some ''abandoned their native language and customs, in the belief that the civilisation they had found was superior to their own''.

This lack of self-esteem was bolstered by a pernicious sectarianism which ran through Scottish society.

This river of suspicion and fear of Irishness may have dwindled to a trickle. It would be naive, however, to underestimate its enduring importance and, in some cases, its potent virulence.

Bradley does not dodge issues such as the GAA being described ''as the sporting wing of the IRA''. His refutation of such an allegation is almost an epitome of his clear, concise style.

One witness testifies that supporting Celtic was the only way to display his Irishness with confidence. Slowly, ''the scales fell from his eyes'' as he saw another route and ''investigated the spiritual values of the past''.

The GAA is a comparitively weak organisation, but some sports can punch more than their weight.

The importance of Irish Gaelic sport in Scotland can not be guaged merely by the number of participants.

Irishness has been obscenely celebrated in daft jokes and dafter theme pubs. Bradley's researches proudly redresses the balance.

It asserts without rancour the importance of a cultural identity. Thus sport becomes more than a game.