Report in the Irish News this morning that Croke Park is finally to act and rubber stamp a financial plan to rejuvenate Gaelic Games in Belfast. The GAA have finally got the message that Gaelic Games are in a dire way and that a plan is now required to deal with this. As a Belfast and Antrim man I welcome this long overdue action. My main concern now will be tbe nasty begrudgery and jealousy that will come our way from within Ulster especially from Tyrone.

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9702 - 15/06/2017 17:30:59    2000051

benched (Tyrone) - Posts: 534 - 15/06/2017 17:48:14    2000055

Ulsterman (Antrim) - Posts: 9702 - 15/06/2017 18:02:41    2000057

Why did you have to add that negative little bit at the end?

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4225 - 15/06/2017 18:26:57    2000067

GameOfTyrones (Tyrone) - Posts: 469 - 15/06/2017 18:43:28    2000074

benched (Tyrone) - Posts: 534 - 15/06/2017 18:43:46    2000075

Not from Belfast so I could begrudge but I am delighted at this news.

Self sufficiency not that straight forward for Belfast and if you are familiar with Antrim county you will know that generally the clubs with the best facilities a biggest number of active members are the country clubs.

St Endas, a city club took the decision a number of years ago to enter their juvenille teams in the South West leagues as they seen this as a better way to aid their development.

A big part of this is because of the community focus and the central part GAA clubs play in rural life.

Yes there are proud and achieving city clubs but when you consider the untapped potential there could be a real hot bed of talent.

Not being a successful county side does not help as kids do not have what Dublin kids have to aspire to and a lack of members makes matched funding futile.

Where Belfast needs help is to attract kids to the sport and to keep them at it. There are a lot of alternatives so you either accept you have lost them or else you try everything to attract them.

This is where outside help will be vital. Hopefully it is successful as it is a real challenge.

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 15/06/2017 18:57:59    2000078

catch22 (USA) - Posts: 2148 - 15/06/2017 19:00:29    2000080

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4225 - 15/06/2017 19:45:26    2000098

when they sort out the inter club rivalry and poaching of the better player to play for the bigger clubs, maybe they might be able to start working on the promotion of gaelic games in the city. Clubs from tyrone Armagh etc playing in the antrim leagues know well what the problems are as they are hearing it week in week out from the clubs themselves, yet you have posters on here who would beny there is any animosity amongst teams

bulmccabe (Tyrone) - Posts: 361 - 15/06/2017 20:31:15    2000115

Good news. It's vital for the GAA as a whole to be strong in the second city.

MesAmis (Dublin) - Posts: 13707 - 16/06/2017 08:24:58    2000205

I hope Croke Park don't forget that there's a sizeable chunk of Belfast in Down like the Ulster Council have when they allocated out their hurling coaches who's seldom seen south of the Lagan.....

Evidently Saffron Vision have been able to put together a plan and fair play to them as for years the frankies were always gurning about what Dublin got and that, but the Dubs are a very different kettle of fish and the clubs themselves fund as much towards coaches as Croke Park do, something the clubs in Belfast won't be capable of doing.

Best of luck to the Frankies with their new found revenue source, I really hope it isn't squandered.

bricktop (Down) - Posts: 2503 - 16/06/2017 08:55:35    2000215

Listen I am all for needing a strong Antrim. But if this plan is for the GAA to hand a pile of money over to Antrim GAA to follow a plan they are nuts. I am recently involved in Antrim GAA and its a mess.

They have more commercial opportunity than anyone in ulster if they sorted themselves out. But they can't, they fight and squabble and nobody steps up to take responsibility. They just don't care. To hand them over a lump of money is a big mistake in my opinion.

Get them to sort themselves out first and get men to stand up in the county and take responsibility

redhanddefender (Tyrone) - Posts: 913 - 16/06/2017 09:31:16    2000219

I didn't even read the first message in this and dig at tyrone. Tyrone have constantly reached out to counties in Ulster and beyond including Antrim to help them out in learning to become self sufficient. We have always opened our doors. Until antrim learn to do that the money will be a compete waste.

Sad fact is in Belfast, you have no club spirit, no community feeling around your clubs and the players just don't care. See how much it costs to change that

redhanddefender (Tyrone) - Posts: 913 - 16/06/2017 09:35:44    2000221

Friday morning Quiz.

What do the following clubs all have in common?

Ballycran
Ballygalget
Portaferry
Carryduff
Bredagh
Dungannon
Na Magha
Naomh Colum Cille
Ballinascreen
Slaughtneil
Swatragh
Kevin Lynch
Lavey
Banagher
Eoghan Rua, Coleraine
Le Chéile

Offside_Rule (Antrim) - Posts: 4058 - 16/06/2017 09:45:24    2000225

Should maybe have employed Bricktop and redhanddefender instead of looking for all this cash as they seem to know the ins and outs of Belfast GAA better than anyone :)

Look Belfast is probably pretty unique as a City in terms of GAA where there is a massive amount of the potential population not buying into it. As the aforementioned boys pointed out this might only be achievable from within but SV is only in office for over a year, they appear to be working hard in sorting out the mess the inherited - in fact they have their detractors because folk are not seeing results in front of their face plus the old boys network is still lurking but this is not an overnight solution and some of the guys in there come from backgrounds where they have operated with the highest level of professionalism so I would be confident if anyone in recent times is capable of spending this money wisely it is them.

There is of course a massive risk that it will not get the desired results but it has to be attempted as population wise relatively speaking you are looking at a pretty high proportion of the entire country's potential sportsmen and women.

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 16/06/2017 09:54:31    2000228

No squabble like a local squabble.

MuckrossHead (Donegal) - Posts: 5028 - 16/06/2017 10:04:35    2000231

Whammo86 (Antrim) - Posts: 4225 - 16/06/2017 10:10:34    2000233

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 16/06/2017 10:17:47    2000238

Naysayer (Antrim) - Posts: 2071 - 16/06/2017 10:19:15    2000239