‘Please make it easier for a new club to form’
GAA DEMOGRAPHICS
PAUL KEANE
GAA President Jarlath Burns says that important lessons were learned from the foundation of the Eastern Gaels club in Meath.
Speaking at the launch of the GAA's report on demographics, which deals with the problems of rural depopulation and urban overload, described as an 'existential threat' to the association, Burns said that new clubs are now needed in certain areas of the country.
Nearly half the population of the island lives on the eastern seaboard, in a region stretching from 'Larne to Wexford', yet just 18 percent of the GAA's clubs are located here.
The GAA report, titled 'No One Shouted Stop - Until Now', states that many under pressure urban clubs have experienced 'rapid membership growth without adequate club capacity', leading to 'facility shortages,' 'volunteer burnout' and children being excluded.
Burns pointed to Munster club SHC champions Ballygunner, who have won the last 12 Waterford SHC titles, as well as this year's premier intermediate hurling championship, as a club benefiting from a population boom close to Waterford city. His feeling is that a new club in that area may be required.
But noting the 2023 foundation of Mornington outfit Eastern Gaels, alongside St Colmcille's, he said it is important that lessons from that period are heeded.
"If you're setting up a new club, the only way you can set it up is if it's around an existing club," said Burns. "One of the newest clubs formed in Ireland is Eastern Gaels. That whole area has had a population explosion. But that club was formed out of a little bit of dissension within the other club. And they had to go then to the Meath Co Board for a majority of people to vote. And that got mired into the whole politics of the area.
"When I visited that club, they said, 'Please make it easier for a new club, in an area that needs a new club, to form'. One of the things that you could do there, in that situation, is that that should not go to the Co Board. That should go to maybe a central demographics unit that would decide, is there scope for a new club, do we need a new club? And what are the motives behind those people setting up a new club? And they would dispassionately vote on it."
The national demographics report notes Eastern Gaels as the 60th GAA club in Meath, with 49 ladies football units and 20 camogie clubs.
A total of 1,040 teams of u-13 age and above - football (348), hurling (312), ladies football (302) and camogie (78) - are accounted for in Meath, utilising 161 pitches, 102 of which are full sized and 42 floodlit. This is broken down as 8.4 teams per pitch.
From a total population of 220,826 in the county, Meath has 8,917 youth male players and 3,821 full male players. There are 7,991 youth female players and 2,171 full female players.
Under a section of the report titled 'urban clubs', a table lists Dublin as the county with the most clubs possessing 1,200 members or more. There are 34 such clubs in Dublin. The next three counties are Meath, Kildare and Cork, each with six clubs of 1,200 members or more.
Meanwhile, in South Kerry, the home of All-Ireland winning manager Jack O'Connor, the scale of rural decline was laid bare by a statistic that just 83 children started junior infants, across a total of 13 primary schools, in that region last September.
"If we don't act now, Ireland won't just lose clubs, it will lose pieces of itself," warned Burns.