At that time, Lynch said, the Irish played hurling, a game they’d enjoyed for three thousand years. But the English banned the game.
In response, Irish athletes took out the parts of hurling that were specifically forbidden and came up with a new game. That game eventually became Gaelic football.
Source: An American news website.
This is not a claim I've ever heard before. Is there any truth to it?
I'm certainly no expert in this field but I have heard of something along these lines taking place so I researched it. The best evidence I can find is the 'Liber A' or 'Galway Corporation Statute Book' which lists all the local laws passed in Galway by year. The Statute of 1527 banned hurling, hockey and handball but permitted "the great foote balle". There was also a similar statute in Kilkenny in 1336. However football had existed long before the laws banning hurling and medieval football bore little resemblance to the modern game of soccer. Running with the ball was common and there was no such thing as fouls. On the other hand, given the similarity between many of the rules in Hurling and Gaelic football it is entirely possible that the Irish version of English football was played according to hurling rules, albeit without a hurley. As far as I know, hurling was never outlawed across Ireland, only in local laws so although the bans may have influenced its evolution, they were not the direct cause of the development of Gaelic football.
Caid or its modern equivalent, Gaelic football, is not related to the bans on hurling. It developed independently out of a number of hand ball games played in Ireland and often played between rival parishes or villages. It's not as old as hurling but it dates to at least the 14th century.
When Michael Cusack founded the GAA [Gaelic Athletic Association] in the 1880s he promoted both games as quintessentially Irish. The purpose of the GAA was to promote Irish sport and de-Anglicise sport in Ireland.