Future of the GAA

[seafoid]

Last week the Irish Times reported that 62% of children in the 26 counties under the age of 14 live in 4 counties- Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

This is a serious issue for the GAA . What is going to happen to hurling if the trend towards population growth in only one part of Leinster continues? What will it mean for Kerry football?  Or, come to think of it , Munster rugby?  Will the 6 counties teams be at an advantage? Apart from Meath I can't see any of the other  4 counties dominating long term although maybe Kildare will get closer to the top and win the odd all-Ireland.

[Jinxy]

We will crush all before us.

[Zapatista]

Don't worry they'll all be emigrating. Nows the time for the GAA to invest in Gaelic Games abroad.

[lynchbhoy]

Last week the Irish Times reported that 62% of children in the 26 counties under the age of 14 live in 4 counties- Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

This is a serious issue for the GAA . What is going to happen to hurling if the trend towards population growth in only one part of Leinster continues? What will it mean for Kerry football?  Or, come to think of it , Munster rugby?  Will the 6 counties teams be at an advantage? Apart from Meath I can't see any of the other  4 counties dominating long term although maybe Kildare will get closer to the top and win the odd all-Ireland.

if these counties look after the kids and structures properly then all of them could be future GAA power houses.
However, Dublin have a massive pick already and are annually underachieving.
So there is no guarantee of success !
Still its a hell of a lot easier than the likes of poor Leitrim have it though !

[dublinfella]

Some very sombre reading for Gaelic Games in the capital in here.

http://www.esri.ie/UserFiles/publications/20091216163532/BKMNEXT155.pdf

[Rossfan]

I'm sure such a geat GAA man as you won't let Gaelic games die 

[Kerry Mike]

What will it mean for Kerry football? 

Those 4 counties may have the population but we have the tradition and the breeding plus other sports are still and will remain a minority in Kerry, nice to see a Kerry lad winning a FAI medal with Rovers tonight. Must be the only time a crowd of dublin skangers have cheered a Kerryman... 

Correction: there have been many Kerry men who have won All Irelands for and with the jackeens over the years.

[GalwayBayBoy]

Last week the Irish Times reported that 62% of children in the 26 counties under the age of 14 live in 4 counties- Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

This is a serious issue for the GAA . What is going to happen to hurling if the trend towards population growth in only one part of Leinster continues? What will it mean for Kerry football?  Or, come to think of it , Munster rugby?  Will the 6 counties teams be at an advantage? Apart from Meath I can't see any of the other  4 counties dominating long term although maybe Kildare will get closer to the top and win the odd all-Ireland.

Well Dublin have always had a huge population advantage but it's not like they pick up All-Ireland's every year.

I'm sure though that a far bigger population base won't hurt any of the counties named.

[Zulu]

I always thought it strange that the GAA don't seem to have a plan to develop GAA in the counties surrounding Dublin, especially in Wicklow, and I don't mean leaving the local CB's do it. These are clearly hugely important counties for any sport to be strong in yet Wicklow are not targeted for special funding and attention. We have a decent profile in all of those counties but we need to make sure we are the number one sport in the counties which will always have a significant young population. Not only have the big populations but they are all close to Croke Park and if they are strong we could have a number of 60K+ games every year that would capture the imagination of more than just traditional GAA supporters.

[INDIANA]

Some very sombre reading for Gaelic Games in the capital in here.

http://www.esri.ie/UserFiles/publications/20091216163532/BKMNEXT155.pdf

I would refer you to the following.

The first general issue is that telephone surveys can be subject to sample biases caused by over-representation of
social groups that are more easily reached by telephone in their own homes. This possibility is controlled for by
a selection rule that determines which member of a contacted household is interviewed and then by reweighting
the data by six socio-economic and socio-demographic variables, to match the 2008 population profile as
supplied by the Central Statistics Office (CSO). This improves our confidence that the results are genuinely
reflective of groups defined by gender, age, region, marital and socio-economic status. However, there remain
difficulties in truly representing groups that the CSO also finds hard to measure, such as non-Irish nationals.
The second general issue is that any household survey relies on the respondents accurately and truthfully
relating their behaviour. There is no way to be sure that this is what they do, and hence it is helpful to bear in
mind that all the results contained herein relate to responses given by interviewees, not to measurements of their
actual behaviour. Nevertheless, the results produced by the ISM conform accurately to figures produced through
other surveys, including those conducted face-to-face (Lunn et al., 2009).

[INDIANA]

Last week the Irish Times reported that 62% of children in the 26 counties under the age of 14 live in 4 counties- Meath, Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow.

This is a serious issue for the GAA . What is going to happen to hurling if the trend towards population growth in only one part of Leinster continues? What will it mean for Kerry football?  Or, come to think of it , Munster rugby?  Will the 6 counties teams be at an advantage? Apart from Meath I can't see any of the other  4 counties dominating long term although maybe Kildare will get closer to the top and win the odd all-Ireland.

Well Dublin have always had a huge population advantage but it's not like they pick up All-Ireland's every year.

I'm sure though that a far bigger population base won't hurt any of the counties named.

The problem in Dublin is simple. The super-clubs are the problem. Its not their fault its the DCB's fault.

Crokes have a catchment area of 250,000. There should be 4 GAA clubs in that district not one or two (olafs). I have no doubt potential inter county players get lost in Crokes. You could farm that out and include Boden. I have no doubt potential senior inter county hurlers also get lost in Boden.

I'd point out it neither of those clubs fault. They are fantastic for Dublin GAA. However there success underlines the problem in Dublin. Crokes have actually had to not tap into certain primary schools because they cant cater for the numbers.

And the DCB should step in. There was s study commissioned by Peter Quinn and a number of town planning consultants some years backs. And it highligted that the south Dublin clubs were too big. And that the DCB needed to pull the finger out and create more. Plenty of cash in the DCB coffers as anyone knows. Probably one of the richest county boards in Ireland - if not THE richest.

[Rossfan]

Ye need to look at geographic boundaries/catchment areas for clubs in Dublin and try getting a bit of local pride going with the kids.
It's what makes Gaelic games the no.1 sport in Ireland. Eve if you don't care a whole pile about the game ...it's your own place that's playing so people will at least turn up for the bigger games if nothing else.

[Lar Naparka]

Ye need to look at geographic boundaries/catchment areas for clubs in Dublin and try getting a bit of local pride going with the kids.
It's what makes Gaelic games the no.1 sport in Ireland. Eve if you don't care a whole pile about the game ...it's your own place that's playing so people will at least turn up for the bigger games if nothing else.

It just can't be done...
Down the country the parish is clearly defined area and the GAA club is a focal point for community activities but there is no real sense of parish loyalty in Dublin City. People living a couple of hundred yards from a club premises might not even be aware of its existence!
Schools in the catchment area of a club used to feed a lot of kids through to it but nowadays schools' participation in any sort of sports activity is dropping off as the number of men in the teaching professions is declining and kids have too many distractions to keep them otherwise occupied. Sure, some clubs have huge numbers alright but they are drawing members in from a wide area and they still attract only a very small percentage of the total population.
What Indiana says about Crokes applies to four or five other clubs as well. Peter Quinn's report claimed that 5 (or it might be 6) Dublin superclubs had more underage players that a total of four counties combined. The counties mentioned were Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim and I think Monaghan. Yet all of the clubs had only one senior team so the dropout rate is truly appalling.
No doubt about it, the future of the GAA in Dublin looks bleak unless radical steps are taken to sort out the problems there.

[lynchbhoy]

jeez Lar, I wouldnt say its bleak !
A lot of kids drop out - that is true, but given the other distractions in Dublin theres not a lot can be done. However the cream of the crop usualy stay playing football (and Hurling) and graduate to adult teams- if they dont all make it to the top tier (which they all wont).

the natural atrition rate is actually welcome - as there is no way that clubs can cater for all the players that could come through.
As long as the club looks after these kids well until they decide to quit football/hurling - then at least they will be pro-GAA and potential club and county supporters thereafter.

As a member of a 'superclub' I know that its almost impossible to get the structure right - and imo we are still way off doing this !
If however Dublin clubs and then the Dublin county team ever get the structures and balance right - they wil dominate for a very long time !

Plenty of towns around Meath and Kildare have experienced large population growths in the past 20 years but apart from Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin in Meath and hesitantly nominating Clebridge in Kildare - there are no others with increased populations that have prospered as they could or shoud have.
Its down to someone in each club planning it out properly - or even someone from the county boards. Thats way too much coordination for our organisation though !!

[Lar Naparka]

jeez Lar, I wouldnt say its bleak !
A lot of kids drop out - that is true, but given the other distractions in Dublin theres not a lot can be done. However the cream of the crop usualy stay playing football (and Hurling) and graduate to adult teams- if they dont all make it to the top tier (which they all wont).

the natural atrition rate is actually welcome - as there is no way that clubs can cater for all the players that could come through.
As long as the club looks after these kids well until they decide to quit football/hurling - then at least they will be pro-GAA and potential club and county supporters thereafter.

As a member of a 'superclub' I know that its almost impossible to get the structure right - and imo we are still way off doing this !
If however Dublin clubs and then the Dublin county team ever get the structures and balance right - they wil dominate for a very long time !

Plenty of towns around Meath and Kildare have experienced large population growths in the past 20 years but apart from Dunboyne and Dunshaughlin in Meath and hesitantly nominating Clebridge in Kildare - there are no others with increased populations that have prospered as they could or shoud have.
Its down to someone in each club planning it out properly - or even someone from the county boards. Thats way too much coordination for our organisation though !!

You're right; I was being a bit OTT in my summing up.
What I had in mind was that I feel that Dublin GAA folk are making a woefully bad job of using the potential resources at their disposal and as time goes on, they will lose more and more youngsters. A high dropout rate is to be expected and rugby and soccer heads experience the same problem but it's the GAA that concerns me here.
As the inexorable drift of people and resources to Dublin and the other areas you mention picks up speed, the hold of the GAA on the local communities is lessening. Many kids now come from non-national backgrounds and clubs can't rely on family tradition to entice those youngsters to automatically join the nearest club.
Country clubs are suffering also because of the imbalance between the eastern seaboard areas and the rest of the country. I know quite a few who now have to repay huge loans when they splashed out in the Celtic Tiger years and don't have the same amount of fundraising money coming in. For many, it's a case of bank managers baring their fangs!
I know it's not a case of total doom and gloom all the way but it's not a case of boom and bloom either. I'm not sure what can be done to arrest those disquieting trends but we are facing long-term problems if things are allowed to drift along as they are.