East Belfast GAA

[6th sam]

I don't know much about Linda Ervine, and won't second guess the  "agenda" in proposing her as president. What I do know is that We need people from all sides contributing to breaking down barriers, whether they get paid for it or not. Quite rightly , there is money available for promoting Gaeilge, and though there are many have been Promoting Gaeilge for free for years, I have no problem with anyone getting paid for work associated the language.
Having said that I'd always be cautious/suspicious about any "new start" GAA club and I'd be interested  in the views of St Malachy's, Bredagh, Carryduff and St Paul's posters on this initiative. Anybody in the extended East Belfast area Wanting to play GAA , already has excellent options.
This initiative highlights a dilemma for the GAA going forward. For a variety of reasons, the GAA is still failing to attract members from outside the traditional "GAA" community. Undoubtedly, The GAA's identity remains a barrier for many. However if the GAA sheds that Irish patriotism and cultural connection , it becomes no different from any other sport . Losing the Irish connection would take away motivation for several of our best members . Some of our strongest clubs thrive on their "Irishness", and those well-meaning people who want to drop all the Irish trappings , should be careful
What they wish for.
Though We should aggressively promote inclusivity , it needs to be done within an Irish context. If we drop the Irishness I'd fear we'd lose many of our best, and gain very few. The historical origins of our association can not be ignored, and the challenge is to be welcoming and inclusive within that context, and many clubs already do that successfully .
A more productive step in improving inclusivity , would be GAA promotion in state and integrated schools in the North, and those schools linking in with existing clubs. The ethos of the Good Friday Agreement was to put Britishness and Irishness  on an equal footing, yet our supposedly neutral state/integrated education sector continues to marginalise Gaelic games.

[Milltown Row2]

So will it be a paid job this role? None of our presidents have been paid in the past and present and it's an amateur organisation (please no crap about managers for a bit)

So if she's doing it just for attention, it's a bit daft and unfair on the genuine volunteers. I'll hold judgement for a bit yet

Yeah, it's much more convenient to write that off as "crap". Otherwise, a very noble post.

I know it's a problem and don't deny it, but didn't want an side tracked point be brought up, that can be used on other threads 

[MoChara]

How a GAA club sprang up in east Belfast over Sunday breakfast
Dave McGreevy had no idea what was to follow when he sent out a Tweet from his kitchen table


Dave McGreevy was halfway through his Bran Flakes last Sunday morning when he set up a GAA club in east Belfast by mistake. He was watching Andrew Marr interview Dominic Raab and so stultifying did he find it all that his mind wandered over and picked up the thread of a conversation he'd had with his friend Richard Maguire a week or two earlier. What would it be like to try and set up a GAA club in one of the least GAA areas of the island?

So he got out his phone and set up a new Twitter account, @EastBelfastGAA. For the profile picture, he chose the famous Harland and Wolff cranes. And at 9.15am on a nothing Sunday morning at the end of May, he tied a boulder to his ankles and threw it off a cliff.

"A new GAA club for east Belfast, if you're interested in playing, coaching or admin (More than likely all 3!) All ages, genders and backgrounds welcome. Please email EastBelfastGAA@gmail.com to register".

"Within half an hour, the response was crazy," he says. "I got onto Tricky [Maguire] and said this has exploded here. My phone hasn't stopped. It seems to have grabbed people's imagination, or at least their attention. We thought we might get enough for an under-12 boys' team. But at this rate, it looks like we're going to have a men's team, a ladies' football team, a hurling team and hopefully a camogie team.

"Down GAA have been a big help. They've said they're going to enter us into the junior championship this year, the men's team. Ulster and Antrim have been onto us as well. They're talking about getting us coaching, sending them out to the schools. I would say that 80 per cent of the people who have said they want to be a part of this have never been involved with a GAA club before. That's huge that kind of stuff."


The club has one founding principle – it will be cross-community, open to any and all who feel they'd like to get involved. McGreevy played for London for seven years – he was corner back on the team that made the Connacht final in 2013 and has since returned to Belfast to work in recruitment. He and Maguire play club rugby for Instonians but come from GAA backgrounds as well.

East Belfast has been a GAA wasteland for close on 50 years. There was a club in the area called St Colmcille's up until the early 1970s but it folded after the father of one of the players was killed in a pipe bomb attack. Setting up a club in a community where not only has the GAA had no presence but where some regard it as an actively malign force is going to be delicate. Their stated intention is that it will be for all traditions or it will be for nobody.

"That's the only non-negotiable we have. It's cross-community and that's it. That's how we're going to do this here thing. Straight away, different integrated primary schools in east Belfast have got in touch and they want to set up a link with us. They've got in touch and said, 'Right, we really see the value in this and we want to be part of it. You believe in the same values as we do so let's do it'."

"Richard has worked with Linda Irvine [the Irish language campaigner, sister in law of former Unionist politician David Ervine]. She actually sent me a message 10 minutes after I put up the Tweet, just saying congratulations on the new endeavour. So on Monday, we asked her would she be the club president. She was over the moon about it. She asked what work it would entail and we said, 'Look, in the GAA, the club president doesn't really do a whole pile!'


"The likes of Linda getting involved hopefully shows that we're serious about it being cross-community. The very fact that we're setting up in east Belfast will show that too. It's looking at the moment like we're going to be using Malone rugby's grounds. We're meant to be meeting with Belfast city council to discuss facilities and pitches.

"However, Malone have already approached us and said, 'Use our pitches, use our clubhouse'. Malone rugby club are based on Cregagh Road. Now, Cregagh Road would be the last place you would find a GAA club. We could have gone and set up anywhere else but it looks like we're going to be setting up exactly where we want to be to show we're serious about it."

By midweek, they had upwards of 100 people signed up. For McGreevy, the enthusiasm has done two things above all. First, it has changed his perceptions of east Belfast and sparked his determination for the road ahead, however rocky it might be. Second, it meant he had to leave his home club, Teconnaught.

"I'm the minor manager for my home club! We were just sitting there on Monday and I was going, 'Here, I have to tell the chairman I'm leaving to set up a new club'. I rang him on Monday night and said, 'Look, I don't really know how this has happened but I'm setting up a GAA club in east Belfast. I didn't really intend for it to snowball like this but it has'. And he was so encouraging, so helpful, offering me advice. Usually, you don't get so much positivity when you're leaving a club."

He must be doing something right, so.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/how-a-gaa-club-sprang-up-in-east-belfast-over-sunday-breakfast-1.4270052?mode=amp

[6th sam]

How a GAA club sprang up in east Belfast over Sunday breakfast
Dave McGreevy had no idea what was to follow when he sent out a Tweet from his kitchen table


Dave McGreevy was halfway through his Bran Flakes last Sunday morning when he set up a GAA club in east Belfast by mistake. He was watching Andrew Marr interview Dominic Raab and so stultifying did he find it all that his mind wandered over and picked up the thread of a conversation he'd had with his friend Richard Maguire a week or two earlier. What would it be like to try and set up a GAA club in one of the least GAA areas of the island?

So he got out his phone and set up a new Twitter account, @EastBelfastGAA. For the profile picture, he chose the famous Harland and Wolff cranes. And at 9.15am on a nothing Sunday morning at the end of May, he tied a boulder to his ankles and threw it off a cliff.

"A new GAA club for east Belfast, if you're interested in playing, coaching or admin (More than likely all 3!) All ages, genders and backgrounds welcome. Please email EastBelfastGAA@gmail.com to register".

"Within half an hour, the response was crazy," he says. "I got onto Tricky [Maguire] and said this has exploded here. My phone hasn't stopped. It seems to have grabbed people's imagination, or at least their attention. We thought we might get enough for an under-12 boys' team. But at this rate, it looks like we're going to have a men's team, a ladies' football team, a hurling team and hopefully a camogie team.

"Down GAA have been a big help. They've said they're going to enter us into the junior championship this year, the men's team. Ulster and Antrim have been onto us as well. They're talking about getting us coaching, sending them out to the schools. I would say that 80 per cent of the people who have said they want to be a part of this have never been involved with a GAA club before. That's huge that kind of stuff."


The club has one founding principle – it will be cross-community, open to any and all who feel they'd like to get involved. McGreevy played for London for seven years – he was corner back on the team that made the Connacht final in 2013 and has since returned to Belfast to work in recruitment. He and Maguire play club rugby for Instonians but come from GAA backgrounds as well.

East Belfast has been a GAA wasteland for close on 50 years. There was a club in the area called St Colmcille's up until the early 1970s but it folded after the father of one of the players was killed in a pipe bomb attack. Setting up a club in a community where not only has the GAA had no presence but where some regard it as an actively malign force is going to be delicate. Their stated intention is that it will be for all traditions or it will be for nobody.

"That's the only non-negotiable we have. It's cross-community and that's it. That's how we're going to do this here thing. Straight away, different integrated primary schools in east Belfast have got in touch and they want to set up a link with us. They've got in touch and said, 'Right, we really see the value in this and we want to be part of it. You believe in the same values as we do so let's do it'."

"Richard has worked with Linda Irvine [the Irish language campaigner, sister in law of former Unionist politician David Ervine]. She actually sent me a message 10 minutes after I put up the Tweet, just saying congratulations on the new endeavour. So on Monday, we asked her would she be the club president. She was over the moon about it. She asked what work it would entail and we said, 'Look, in the GAA, the club president doesn't really do a whole pile!'


"The likes of Linda getting involved hopefully shows that we're serious about it being cross-community. The very fact that we're setting up in east Belfast will show that too. It's looking at the moment like we're going to be using Malone rugby's grounds. We're meant to be meeting with Belfast city council to discuss facilities and pitches.

"However, Malone have already approached us and said, 'Use our pitches, use our clubhouse'. Malone rugby club are based on Cregagh Road. Now, Cregagh Road would be the last place you would find a GAA club. We could have gone and set up anywhere else but it looks like we're going to be setting up exactly where we want to be to show we're serious about it."

By midweek, they had upwards of 100 people signed up. For McGreevy, the enthusiasm has done two things above all. First, it has changed his perceptions of east Belfast and sparked his determination for the road ahead, however rocky it might be. Second, it meant he had to leave his home club, Teconnaught.

"I'm the minor manager for my home club! We were just sitting there on Monday and I was going, 'Here, I have to tell the chairman I'm leaving to set up a new club'. I rang him on Monday night and said, 'Look, I don't really know how this has happened but I'm setting up a GAA club in east Belfast. I didn't really intend for it to snowball like this but it has'. And he was so encouraging, so helpful, offering me advice. Usually, you don't get so much positivity when you're leaving a club."

He must be doing something right, so.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/how-a-gaa-club-sprang-up-in-east-belfast-over-sunday-breakfast-1.4270052?mode=amp

Good to see the link up with integrated schools. Despite reservations regarding any "new start" club,  Fair play to those who seem genuinely motivated to get this off the ground. Great to see Malone Rugby club stepping up-could this mirror the Harlequins / St Brigids link which proved very successful . And as a "new start" if This initiative mirrors St Brigids , it could work well. From a selfish point of view , a new Down club is exciting, especially given the existing strength of Carryduff, Bredagh and St. Paul's. Though It's a massive task , a sizeable portion  of our population in Down is untapped , and if this works it could further strengthen GAA in North Down.

[APM]

It's occurred to me for a long time that Down GAA needed a strategy in South Belfast** and while there isn't much strategic in the thought process outlined in the Irish Times article above, it might be no bad thing for the wider area.  Given the numbers in that area, Down GAA's strategy in the area was basically Bredagh.  There are two massive clubs in the the broader area, in Bredagh and Carryduff, with huge numbers at underage and both teams have 3 senior teams.  They are extremely hardworking and a credit in the way they have developed youth structures which are now bearing fruit at senior level.

However, given the size of the area and the changing demographics, I've no doubt there is plenty of room for an extra club in the area and maybe it would create an extra bit of healthy competition, both in terms of attracting players and on the field of play (once a team gets established).  Personally I would see St Paul's as being in a different catchment, and if the new club is based at Malone on the Cregagh Road, they will basically be on or inside Bredagh's doorstep and taking from the same pool. However, that needn't be a bad thing.

** Edit: Maybe they do have a South Belfast Strategy and I don't know anything about it 

[Craigyhill Terror]

St Malachy's parish is centred on the Markets and would stretch up to the Ormeau Bridge

[general_lee]

So much cynicism in this thread. I don't know Linda Ervine other than from her Irish language activism. She's been asked by the founders of this club to be president but according to some on her it's her that has latched onto it? As for other clubs in the area, the only one I'd be worrying about is St Paul's in Holywood, the likes of Bredagh and Carryduff are huge, Carryduff especially. St Malachy's a different county who already have the strand for players interested in GAA. According to the fella behind this club 80% of the people interested in it aren't from GAA backgrounds so this could be a pioneering venture in the making.

[ardtole]

Good to see the link up with integrated schools. Despite reservations regarding any "new start" club,  Fair play to those who seem genuinely motivated to get this off the ground. Great to see Malone Rugby club stepping up-could this mirror the Harlequins / St Brigids link which proved very successful . And as a "new start" if This initiative mirrors St Brigids , it could work well. From a selfish point of view , a new Down club is exciting, especially given the existing strength of Carryduff, Bredagh and St. Paul's. Though It's a massive task , a sizeable portion  of our population in Down is untapped , and if this works it could further strengthen GAA in North Down.
[/quote]

A bit to go before Portavogie and Donaghadee are challenging for hurling honours.

[brokencrossbar1]

St Paul's would be a transitory club at the best of times. I know from people involved they have a core of good people but find it hard to retain others. That is changing though and there is definitely room in east Belfast for 2 clubs. The likes of St Patrick's in Knock has a good strong growing GAA base. Frankie Wilson doing a lot of work there as is Catherine McGourty. A lot to build on. 

[6th sam]

St Paul's would be a transitory club at the best of times. I know from people involved they have a core of good people but find it hard to retain others. That is changing though and there is definitely room in east Belfast for 2 clubs. The likes of St Patrick's in Knock has a good strong growing GAA base. Frankie Wilson doing a lot of work there as is Catherine McGourty. A lot to build on.

St. Paul's is an incredible club. Very "isolated" GAA wise, and have several challenges unfamiliar to most clubs, but very competitive especially at underage in East Down in recent years. Their main problem is that they have a widely spread urban demographic with rural numbers. Numbers and resources wise they are in the shadow of Down's 2 biggest clubs Carryduff and Bredagh. Perhaps a new start neighbouring club  with similar numbers and resources, will be a further boost to St Paul's recruitment and motivation. Interesting times

[Mourne Rover]

If the new club is going to bring more people into the GAA, particularly on a cross-community basis, it has to be a positive development. It was still a little surprising to see David McGreevy suggest the Cregagh Road was the last place you would find a GAA club. Bredagh's home at Cherryvale borders Ravenhill rugby ground and as the crow flies is a little over 500m away from the Cregagh Road, which, if we are going to be pedantic, is entirely in the political constituency of South Belfast anyway. There are already good links between Malone RFC and Bredagh, and the potential recruitment area for a new club would be more likely to be over towards Ballyhackamore and Knock.  However, there is no doubt that the GAA is seriously underrepresented across much of the northern half of Down and attempts to change that sad state of affairs deserve to be encouraged.

[The PRO]

County aside whats the deal with Bredagh and St Malachy's

Is it a class divide at the heart of it?

They're different catchment areas that just happen to both play on the same council pitches. I am not even sure if there is a specific bredagh parish. It would be Rosetta and whatever the one at the top of the ormeau road is. I *think* there is a st malachys parish though could be wrong.

George Best country, am I correct?

[APM]

County aside whats the deal with Bredagh and St Malachy's

Is it a class divide at the heart of it?

What does this mean? One club is based in the lower Ormeau and markets (Antrim) and the other in the upper Ormeau, Rosetta, Ravenhill etc (Down). Isn't St Malachy's the name of the chapel down in the markets (Alfred Street). Bredagh's catchment would cover both Holy Rosary and St Bernadette's parishes. 

[Eamonnca1]

How a GAA club sprang up in east Belfast over Sunday breakfast
Dave McGreevy had no idea what was to follow when he sent out a Tweet from his kitchen table


Dave McGreevy was halfway through his Bran Flakes last Sunday morning when he set up a GAA club in east Belfast by mistake. He was watching Andrew Marr interview Dominic Raab and so stultifying did he find it all that his mind wandered over and picked up the thread of a conversation he'd had with his friend Richard Maguire a week or two earlier. What would it be like to try and set up a GAA club in one of the least GAA areas of the island?

So he got out his phone and set up a new Twitter account, @EastBelfastGAA. For the profile picture, he chose the famous Harland and Wolff cranes. And at 9.15am on a nothing Sunday morning at the end of May, he tied a boulder to his ankles and threw it off a cliff.

"A new GAA club for east Belfast, if you're interested in playing, coaching or admin (More than likely all 3!) All ages, genders and backgrounds welcome. Please email EastBelfastGAA@gmail.com to register".

"Within half an hour, the response was crazy," he says. "I got onto Tricky [Maguire] and said this has exploded here. My phone hasn't stopped. It seems to have grabbed people's imagination, or at least their attention. We thought we might get enough for an under-12 boys' team. But at this rate, it looks like we're going to have a men's team, a ladies' football team, a hurling team and hopefully a camogie team.

"Down GAA have been a big help. They've said they're going to enter us into the junior championship this year, the men's team. Ulster and Antrim have been onto us as well. They're talking about getting us coaching, sending them out to the schools. I would say that 80 per cent of the people who have said they want to be a part of this have never been involved with a GAA club before. That's huge that kind of stuff."


The club has one founding principle – it will be cross-community, open to any and all who feel they'd like to get involved. McGreevy played for London for seven years – he was corner back on the team that made the Connacht final in 2013 and has since returned to Belfast to work in recruitment. He and Maguire play club rugby for Instonians but come from GAA backgrounds as well.

East Belfast has been a GAA wasteland for close on 50 years. There was a club in the area called St Colmcille's up until the early 1970s but it folded after the father of one of the players was killed in a pipe bomb attack. Setting up a club in a community where not only has the GAA had no presence but where some regard it as an actively malign force is going to be delicate. Their stated intention is that it will be for all traditions or it will be for nobody.

"That's the only non-negotiable we have. It's cross-community and that's it. That's how we're going to do this here thing. Straight away, different integrated primary schools in east Belfast have got in touch and they want to set up a link with us. They've got in touch and said, 'Right, we really see the value in this and we want to be part of it. You believe in the same values as we do so let's do it'."

"Richard has worked with Linda Irvine [the Irish language campaigner, sister in law of former Unionist politician David Ervine]. She actually sent me a message 10 minutes after I put up the Tweet, just saying congratulations on the new endeavour. So on Monday, we asked her would she be the club president. She was over the moon about it. She asked what work it would entail and we said, 'Look, in the GAA, the club president doesn't really do a whole pile!'


"The likes of Linda getting involved hopefully shows that we're serious about it being cross-community. The very fact that we're setting up in east Belfast will show that too. It's looking at the moment like we're going to be using Malone rugby's grounds. We're meant to be meeting with Belfast city council to discuss facilities and pitches.

"However, Malone have already approached us and said, 'Use our pitches, use our clubhouse'. Malone rugby club are based on Cregagh Road. Now, Cregagh Road would be the last place you would find a GAA club. We could have gone and set up anywhere else but it looks like we're going to be setting up exactly where we want to be to show we're serious about it."

By midweek, they had upwards of 100 people signed up. For McGreevy, the enthusiasm has done two things above all. First, it has changed his perceptions of east Belfast and sparked his determination for the road ahead, however rocky it might be. Second, it meant he had to leave his home club, Teconnaught.

"I'm the minor manager for my home club! We were just sitting there on Monday and I was going, 'Here, I have to tell the chairman I'm leaving to set up a new club'. I rang him on Monday night and said, 'Look, I don't really know how this has happened but I'm setting up a GAA club in east Belfast. I didn't really intend for it to snowball like this but it has'. And he was so encouraging, so helpful, offering me advice. Usually, you don't get so much positivity when you're leaving a club."

He must be doing something right, so.
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/how-a-gaa-club-sprang-up-in-east-belfast-over-sunday-breakfast-1.4270052?mode=amp

Fantastic. Just shows you the pent-up demand there is for GAA activity in places you'd least expect.

[nearlymad]

     Watched a piece there on UTV Live and wondering how can a person be appointed as President of a Club that hasn't even been formed?The report said they had 100 members signed up already.
  While I wish all involved well,I think they haven't started well with this Linda Ervine link. Freedom of Information will eventually show a ££££'s link to her.