Belfast GAA is dying...

[Dunloy realist]

i know from being involved in the camogie that its also really bad as well. theres not a single belfast club competes in the county minor championship and only 1 in div 1 at U16 level as well.

For some reason the girls football is doing really well in belfast so something is being done right on that end.

It's the girls football that's killing the camogie.
Nature of the sports is it's easier to teach and learn.

makes sense. I know ladies football was talked about a few years ago around ours but was shot down due to the camogie struggling at that point.

They do seem to have a good structure in place and i notice that they play a speed league at the moment which seems popular, so the football is doing something right.

[Hectic]

Yeah fff knows, for the size of the population in the city is it certainly not being anywhere near maximized for Gaelic games.  I still feel the primary schools need to be the bedrock but the clubs then play a massive part in taking this forward but there are so many competing priorities across the board these days that parents are putting a limit on the activities that they will take their children to and this is not just in the city. My kids go to swimming, martial arts, football and hurling before trying to fit in the other things we have to do week to week.  I would like them to try soccer and other sports also but something has to give.  I also know other parents are less enthused about running at all in the evenings.  For this reason I think the primary schools are of vital importance as that way every child gets the opportunity to learn and develop and hopefully put pressure on their parents to take them to a local club even if it is not something the parents care too much for.  Further to that within the school you have good numbers rather than training sessions with a handful of kids where even playing a training game cannot be much fun if it is 4 a side let alone competing in blitzes etc.  How do we kick this on - funding - if it is good enough for Dublin then it should be good enough for Belfast/Antrim with clubs then working closely with schools.

[NAG1]

Yeah fff knows, for the size of the population in the city is it certainly not being anywhere near maximized for Gaelic games.  I still feel the primary schools need to be the bedrock but the clubs then play a massive part in taking this forward but there are so many competing priorities across the board these days that parents are putting a limit on the activities that they will take their children to and this is not just in the city. My kids go to swimming, martial arts, football and hurling before trying to fit in the other things we have to do week to week.  I would like them to try soccer and other sports also but something has to give.  I also know other parents are less enthused about running at all in the evenings.  For this reason I think the primary schools are of vital importance as that way every child gets the opportunity to learn and develop and hopefully put pressure on their parents to take them to a local club even if it is not something the parents care too much for.  Further to that within the school you have good numbers rather than training sessions with a handful of kids where even playing a training game cannot be much fun if it is 4 a side let alone competing in blitzes etc.  How do we kick this on - funding - if it is good enough for Dublin then it should be good enough for Belfast/Antrim with clubs then working closely with schools.

So what do you do with the kids then after they have had their couple of hours of football and hurling per week? Where do they go?

How do you make it sustainable? How do you stop it from just replacing the schools PE for a few weeks?

This has been a myth for a long time now, it is not as simple as just going into schools and running coaching sessions.

[Hectic]

That is where the clubs have to then be stepping in and working at engaging the kids and crucially their parents but from my experience unless the parents have a real interest in Gaelic games a lot of them are not overly motivated to bring their children along.  The schools is where you have them all in one place and can sew the seeds.  Good proper coaching in schools and many blitzes to reinforce learning gives you a better chance of the kids getting educated in the games than waiting for them to rock up at their local club.

[Last Man]

That is where the clubs have to then be stepping in and working at engaging the kids and crucially their parents but from my experience unless the parents have a real interest in Gaelic games a lot of them are not overly motivated to bring their children along.  The schools is where you have them all in one place and can sew the seeds.  Good proper coaching in schools and many blitzes to reinforce learning gives you a better chance of the kids getting educated in the games than waiting for them to rock up at their local club.

The only schools engagement that has a chance of working is on a few fronts. Representation by local club members on the board of govenors.(Sadly gaa members from rival clubs involved with the school quite often have little positive effect)
Local clubs must engage directly with the schools to forge the link back to the club. This is far from easy and involves a massive sacrifice from the club coaches who give so much of their time already. County coaches going into the schools every now and again, well lets just say I am not convinced. Worth a cost/benefit analysis perhaps? Could the CB support club coaches in this role??

[Hectic]

Agree with all of what you are saying and funding for me is the crucial link. Whether that is attainable I do not know.

[Belfast GAA man]

It's clear there are a lot of people with Antrim GAA at heart and loads of good suggestions for making steps forward. The one issue that stands out for me that could be improved fairly quickly is that of fixtures at u14 and u16 as that seems to be the problem age group. The divisional boards all seem to work independently i.e SA / SW / NA. Surely the County board could bring them together in Jan/Feb and ask them to co-operate in ages/codes that one of them is struggling in and they could share best practices? That way we would have a better chance of every juvenile getting a good amount of games. Maybe the county should set a mandatory number of games for each team at juvenile level and when a divisional board can't make that number of games they have to approach the County for support?

[JimStynes]

320 children in the school I teach in. Before I started over a year ago, two played for a club. It's not a traditional GAA stronghold to be fair but good potential there. I have 40 odd going to training now and some starting to go to the local club. The local club to be fair have sent a coach to help me with an after schools club and are giving me as much backing as I need. But we badly need more coaches in the school, especially at foundation and KS1 age groups. The county coaches are completely snowed under and are very hard to get hold of. I managed to get 6 weeks coaching for KS2 PE lesson times. That's it for the year for those classes. I will take my own class for football but I know the other teachers won't be bothered with it. The soccer coaches on the other hand, can come in as much as you want them for the school's particular area (deprived area). They have arranged a league for us and arranged buses to take them to the tournaments. If we want a league/blitz organised then the teachers have to organise it. More can be done!!

[Hectic]

320 children in the school I teach in. Before I started over a year ago, two played for a club. It's not a traditional GAA stronghold to be fair but good potential there. I have 40 odd going to training now and some starting to go to the local club. The local club to be fair have sent a coach to help me with an after schools club and are giving me as much backing as I need. But we badly need more coaches in the school, especially at foundation and KS1 age groups. The county coaches are completely snowed under and are very hard to get hold of. I managed to get 6 weeks coaching for KS2 PE lesson times. That's it for the year for those classes. I will take my own class for football but I know the other teachers won't be bothered with it. The soccer coaches on the other hand, can come in as much as you want them for the school's particular area (deprived area). They have arranged a league for us and arranged buses to take them to the tournaments. If we want a league/blitz organised then the teachers have to organise it. More can be done!!

That is exactly the situation I am witnessing and why I believe that all efforts should be made to get as much funding out of headquarters as we possible can to try and provide all the help schools need.  A lot of money was spent/ is being spent in Dublin and a lot of the justification for it would be similar to what we have in Antrim, particularly in Belfast.  Good for the goose, good for the gander.

[johnneycool]

320 children in the school I teach in. Before I started over a year ago, two played for a club. It's not a traditional GAA stronghold to be fair but good potential there. I have 40 odd going to training now and some starting to go to the local club. The local club to be fair have sent a coach to help me with an after schools club and are giving me as much backing as I need. But we badly need more coaches in the school, especially at foundation and KS1 age groups. The county coaches are completely snowed under and are very hard to get hold of. I managed to get 6 weeks coaching for KS2 PE lesson times. That's it for the year for those classes. I will take my own class for football but I know the other teachers won't be bothered with it. The soccer coaches on the other hand, can come in as much as you want them for the school's particular area (deprived area). They have arranged a league for us and arranged buses to take them to the tournaments. If we want a league/blitz organised then the teachers have to organise it. More can be done!!

That is exactly the situation I am witnessing and why I believe that all efforts should be made to get as much funding out of headquarters as we possible can to try and provide all the help schools need.  A lot of money was spent/ is being spent in Dublin and a lot of the justification for it would be similar to what we have in Antrim, particularly in Belfast.  Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Dublin went to Croke Park with a coherent plan and the ability to fund these coaches to the tune of %50 of their income.
Until Antrim and the Ulster Council who are responsible for funding the current coaches do that with buy in from clubs you're on a hiding to nothing.
The fact that there's quite a few Antrim/Belfast lads already involved in full time coaching roles for the Ulster council should have made this easier but that doesn't seem to have been the case.
Their piecemeal approach isn't showing any dividend that I can see and we're pulled into the Belfast region in this regard. It says it all when during a hurling development meeting in Down the full time RDO was asked by the secretary of a hurling club exactly what does he do as he didn't know.

[Hectic]

320 children in the school I teach in. Before I started over a year ago, two played for a club. It's not a traditional GAA stronghold to be fair but good potential there. I have 40 odd going to training now and some starting to go to the local club. The local club to be fair have sent a coach to help me with an after schools club and are giving me as much backing as I need. But we badly need more coaches in the school, especially at foundation and KS1 age groups. The county coaches are completely snowed under and are very hard to get hold of. I managed to get 6 weeks coaching for KS2 PE lesson times. That's it for the year for those classes. I will take my own class for football but I know the other teachers won't be bothered with it. The soccer coaches on the other hand, can come in as much as you want them for the school's particular area (deprived area). They have arranged a league for us and arranged buses to take them to the tournaments. If we want a league/blitz organised then the teachers have to organise it. More can be done!!

That is exactly the situation I am witnessing and why I believe that all efforts should be made to get as much funding out of headquarters as we possible can to try and provide all the help schools need.  A lot of money was spent/ is being spent in Dublin and a lot of the justification for it would be similar to what we have in Antrim, particularly in Belfast.  Good for the goose, good for the gander.

Dublin went to Croke Park with a coherent plan and the ability to fund these coaches to the tune of %50 of their income.
Until Antrim and the Ulster Council who are responsible for funding the current coaches do that with buy in from clubs you're on a hiding to nothing.
The fact that there's quite a few Antrim/Belfast lads already involved in full time coaching roles for the Ulster council should have made this easier but that doesn't seem to have been the case.
Their piecemeal approach isn't showing any dividend that I can see and we're pulled into the Belfast region in this regard. It says it all when during a hurling development meeting in Down the full time RDO was asked by the secretary of a hurling club exactly what does he do as he didn't know.

Yeah and again why good governance is vital.  I do not know enough about the 'Vision' here in Antrim and they have been getting mixed views on the other thread but where I do feel that they deserve time and in my view are taking the correct approach is in that they appear to be hitting the administration side of things first.  Even at club level if you can show good governance you are much more likely to be able to attain grant aid from a number of different sources so it makes sense to get the house in order first in order to try and get the further funding that can be focused on the sporting side of things.  Logical steps and all that.

[Dunloy realist]

your spot on there hectic. We have applied sucessfully for a number of grants, recently there we gained £20k to have our changing rooms renovated. This will start shortly to have the place painted and cleaned up again back to a new state.

As you say, having good governance in place at the club has enabled us to avail of this and other types of funding.

[bogieman]

Amalgamation is the way forward, it's needs to be embraced. It will certainly help with the single pitch issue in Belfast...

Some cry they're not getting money/funding and/or help from ulster/Croke, davitt's aren't short of a euro or two, but can't field what should be the most enthusiastic age group of players, the medium-term future of the GAA.
If you think your club needs county board involvement and leadership, this maybe where your club is going wrong...
 

Money will not correct the poor attitudes that have developed of the past 15 years, or more maybe.

Most of the divisional boards are doing very well.

You seriously want u16's to travel the county, been done with minor and clubs can't field during important exam times, they are all children, and parents have got their priorities, and it's what's best for their wanes, it's not on a pitch playing or training.

Children want to play games, not train to exhaustion, because coaches think they need fitness and defensive players to win games, and not have study time - less training and more games in all age groups - simple.

Are there no parishes in Belfast ?

Sounds like someone in stgalls is worried where stbrigits will be in a few years, they must be doing some good work there, as are ardoyne.


I putting a smiley here to cover all of the above, so I don't get shouted at.... 


Ps. HS, I would like to read the Ardu Bheal Feirste, can you post a link to it if you know one please. I wonder if you caught as many crabs beside that bridge as me...
Pss. DR, there seems to be interest in you starting a girls football thread...
Psss. Hectic, you could start a funding and leadership thread....

[Milltown Row2]

Amalgamation is the way forward, it's needs to be embraced. It will certainly help with the single pitch issue in Belfast...

Some cry they're not getting money/funding and/or help from ulster/Croke, davitt's aren't short of a euro or two, but can't field what should be the most enthusiastic age group of players, the medium-term future of the GAA.
If you think your club needs county board involvement and leadership, this maybe where your club is going wrong...
 

Money will not correct the poor attitudes that have developed of the past 15 years, or more maybe.

Most of the divisional boards are doing very well.

You seriously want u16's to travel the county, been done with minor and clubs can't field during important exam times, they are all children, and parents have got their priorities, and it's what's best for their wanes, it's not on a pitch playing or training.

Children want to play games, not train to exhaustion, because coaches think they need fitness and defensive players to win games, and not have study time - less training and more games in all age groups - simple.

Are there no parishes in Belfast ?

Sounds like someone in stgalls is worried where stbrigits will be in a few years, they must be doing some good work there, as are ardoyne.


I putting a smiley here to cover all of the above, so I don't get shouted at.... 


Ps. HS, I would like to read the Ardu Bheal Feirste, can you post a link to it if you know one please. I wonder if you caught as many crabs beside that bridge as me...
Pss. DR, there seems to be interest in you starting a girls football thread...
Psss. Hectic, you could start a funding and leadership thread....

Apparently St Brigits were to do that 6/7 years ago!

[Belfast GAA man]

What a great plan that was to revive the GAA in Belfast ! Not many of the actions appear to have been completed which makes me think it has been put in the bin. When a new county board takes over perhaps they want their own plan but that's a real shame given the work that clearly went into this.

I wonder if the Antrim Vision county board have a plan to revive the GAA in Belfast?