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Where Are The 'New Irish' Hurlers?

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We got very few 'new' Irish hurling and for that matter playing rugby or Gaelic football. Are they all playing soccer? Cork had a very good polish wing back on the minors in Timmy Wilk but I know there's very few playing hurling or rugby in Limerick and Limerick has a massive Polish population. Suppose we don't have a great record reaching out to other communities.. I hurled with one irish Protestant in my whole career ...numero uno!

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 27/08/2021 12:11:54    2375196

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Funny I was only saying this to a friend of mine. In our club, we have no non-Irish adult player and we are a large enough club.
I don't know really. I think non-Irish families probably find the GAA a bit too tribal, cliquey, serious compared to the likes of soccer.
Before Covid hit I was playing soccer in Dublin, and after 1-2 training sessions I felt like one of them. After 1-2 "sessions", it was like I belonged!!
Sure, people who get involved with clubs where they are not from (even if only 5 miles away), are in some cases always treated like an outsider.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1736 - 27/08/2021 12:45:51    2375205

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The unique advantage that soccer enjoys over other sports is that you can play it almost anywhere and need very little by way of equipment. It also has global recognition.

I know many non-Irish who are impressed by hurling, but being impressed by something and committing to do it are two different things, especially given the amount of physical courage required to play hurling. Let's face it, there are large swathes of Ireland in which hurling is a minority sport.

There are also costs to playing hurling that don't come with other sports, such as having to buy several sticks a year, helmets etc.

It's not impossible, mind. There's a club called Darmstadt in Germany where they have created an entirely German team, arising from one fella's Erasmus trip to Ireland. In his words, he saw hurling for the first time and fell in love.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 27/08/2021 12:59:16    2375208

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Replying To bloodyban:  "We got very few 'new' Irish hurling and for that matter playing rugby or Gaelic football. Are they all playing soccer? Cork had a very good polish wing back on the minors in Timmy Wilk but I know there's very few playing hurling or rugby in Limerick and Limerick has a massive Polish population. Suppose we don't have a great record reaching out to other communities.. I hurled with one irish Protestant in my whole career ...numero uno!"
There are many young players of different ethnic backgrounds playing GAA at club level, especially underage. Most of the recent immigration to Ireland was in the mid-00s, so the majority of children of these immigrants would be quite young. We will hopefully see more at senior level in the coming years.
In saying that, there are other factors like such as GAA clubs not having as strong a community base in urban areas, where the majority of recent immigrants live. They might gravitate to more familiar sports like soccer, as a result.
I know there are many clubs making a strong effort, but it can be challenging. I know in Galway, we have a number of city clubs who have always had issues getting players to play and stick with GAA sports. This has been the case for decades, regardless of background.
This year's Irish U20 rugby team had a number of players from different backgrounds, including Eastern European and African.

WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 2045 - 27/08/2021 13:00:20    2375210

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It's a good topic, there's a profound demographic change taking place in Ireland, avd it's not unreasonable to assume that within the next 60/70 years the majority of kids in Ireland will come from African /Eastern European/Asian ancestry. With this in mind its important for clubs to get them involved or the GAA will struggle to remain relevant but as has been mentioned its easier said than done.
The GAA relies alot on tradition and there's not tradition of gaa among the new Irish.
My local club mervue utd is very mixed race while the gaa club at James is almost completely white.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1717 - 27/08/2021 14:04:47    2375222

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Most are going to be in cities so if you take Galway for example soccer is popular in there. As the ones above said it needs a lot of gear and you have to practice for years and years to really enjoy and get good at it. The basics are easier in soccer to pick up and plus it's universal. Go in to a pub in Galway chances are it will be premiership rather than hurling. Go to Kilkenny it is different you even notice when you go down to Nolan park hurling is king. But I know in my own rural club we are starting to see children who's parents were not born hear.

ecad123 (Galway) - Posts: 272 - 27/08/2021 16:39:01    2375257

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Funny Gleebo makes a point that dawned on me this afternoon. Far from the "New Irish", where are the "New Counties". We haven't had a new All-Ireland winner since 1981 and have never looked less like having a new one.
The game is thriving in the dominant counties, but are we doing enough to spread its wings?
Do we provide a championship where even Kildare or Carlow can realistically aim for the stars? Even Offaly coming back, in 2-3 years time to accommodate all the developing counties it'd be a 7-8 team Leinster Championship which simply will not work....because all it'll take is for 1 of the traditional counties to be relegated for the clamour to start about extending it.
The provincial system is strangling the game and will continue to do so unfortunately.

StoreysTash (Wexford) - Posts: 1736 - 27/08/2021 16:42:28    2375258

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Replying To Galway9801:  "It's a good topic, there's a profound demographic change taking place in Ireland, avd it's not unreasonable to assume that within the next 60/70 years the majority of kids in Ireland will come from African /Eastern European/Asian ancestry. With this in mind its important for clubs to get them involved or the GAA will struggle to remain relevant but as has been mentioned its easier said than done.
The GAA relies alot on tradition and there's not tradition of gaa among the new Irish.
My local club mervue utd is very mixed race while the gaa club at James is almost completely white."
And do you seriously think that hurling and football or any other thing distinctively Irish will survive that unprecedented demographic change?

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2578 - 27/08/2021 17:16:07    2375263

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Cricket clubs especially in Dublin, have a huge "New Irish" presence, its great to see them in the parks. Majority would play soccer and a lot of Eastern Europeans gravitate to Basketball. I guess its down to what your parents are most familar with. Huge areas of Dublin like Adamstown, Tyrellstown, Charlestown to name a few have no GAA clubs so unless someone is going to invest in these areas they will be denied to GAA and indeed lots of sports.

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4897 - 27/08/2021 18:38:13    2375276

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People tend to play the same sport they played in their home country or that is popular in their country. Also most immigrant families are based in the cities where soccer is popular and easily accessible.

It's the same everywhere and it's not a GAA specific thing or is their much the GAA can do about it

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1236 - 27/08/2021 20:02:34    2375287

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Enough isn't being done though. There's very little attempt to attract the Eastern European Kids. I know there's a few friends of my wife (Polish) who have their kids playing with encouragement from me but they find it abit of a clique. There's a few good kids playing rugby. If one turns out like his Dad he'll be like Bakkies Botha the South African monster. But they are few ...Shur the inner city clubs in Limerick can barely keep their head above water as it is. You never hear them tell you that when they are waxing lyrical about the Limerick set up. Hegarty from St Pats is the only inner city guy on the whole Limerick panel...thats shocking. And they are junior A.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 27/08/2021 21:07:52    2375304

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Replying To BarneyGrant:  "And do you seriously think that hurling and football or any other thing distinctively Irish will survive that unprecedented demographic change?"
OK well I see your point but there's no shortage of born and reared white Irish who have zero affection for our culture either, some even regard it with contempt, mates of mine almost wear their loathing for our games and language and music as a badge of honour, "backwards" being the insult of choice mostly.
There are definitely serious changes and challenges ahead for irish society, anyone who believes otherwise is deluded, but there's absolutely no reason our heritage can't survive for generations to come.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1717 - 27/08/2021 21:34:16    2375314

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Replying To Galway9801:  "OK well I see your point but there's no shortage of born and reared white Irish who have zero affection for our culture either, some even regard it with contempt, mates of mine almost wear their loathing for our games and language and music as a badge of honour, "backwards" being the insult of choice mostly.
There are definitely serious changes and challenges ahead for irish society, anyone who believes otherwise is deluded, but there's absolutely no reason our heritage can't survive for generations to come."
So there are those white Irish GAA-hater types in Galway as well? TBH I'd hesitate to call them mates in that case so.
Dublin is full of them. Big shock to me when I first came to Dublin in 1999. Dublin lost a game. Next day, I went into a colleague's office, to wind her up about it. She had no ideas what I was talking about. "Oh - you mean the Gah?", she eventually asked, in a tone of pure contempt.
It's something that's easily forgotten when the occasional phoney war breaks out on these pages lol, we're all GAAA enthusiasts (or headcases lol) at the end of the day. Good to see Dublin beat this year, for the good of the game; but for the good of the game in Dublin, you also want to see them back winning again reasonably soon.
I once met a Kilkenny man who had no interest in hurling. Only once, mind. But I found it shocking and depressing and could never bring myself to trust him.
I think new immigrant communities by and large are keen to find a "way in" to their new country; and would be keen to give GAA a go - but it needs to be done systematically; there has to be a plan for it.
Ulster GAA is pretty good at reaching out to the Unionist community; that experience could be built on to bring in other communities too.

essmac (Tyrone) - Posts: 1141 - 28/08/2021 03:06:22    2375350

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Replying To essmac:  "So there are those white Irish GAA-hater types in Galway as well? TBH I'd hesitate to call them mates in that case so.
Dublin is full of them. Big shock to me when I first came to Dublin in 1999. Dublin lost a game. Next day, I went into a colleague's office, to wind her up about it. She had no ideas what I was talking about. "Oh - you mean the Gah?", she eventually asked, in a tone of pure contempt.
It's something that's easily forgotten when the occasional phoney war breaks out on these pages lol, we're all GAAA enthusiasts (or headcases lol) at the end of the day. Good to see Dublin beat this year, for the good of the game; but for the good of the game in Dublin, you also want to see them back winning again reasonably soon.
I once met a Kilkenny man who had no interest in hurling. Only once, mind. But I found it shocking and depressing and could never bring myself to trust him.
I think new immigrant communities by and large are keen to find a "way in" to their new country; and would be keen to give GAA a go - but it needs to be done systematically; there has to be a plan for it.
Ulster GAA is pretty good at reaching out to the Unionist community; that experience could be built on to bring in other communities too."
Oh there's plenty of em, I wouldnt let it bug me to the extent that I'd fall out with them over it but whenever they bang on about how proud they are to be irish or how much they love to see England bet I'm quick to remind them how immersed they are in British culture and how silly they sound.

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1717 - 28/08/2021 10:48:53    2375371

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Replying To essmac:  "So there are those white Irish GAA-hater types in Galway as well? TBH I'd hesitate to call them mates in that case so.
Dublin is full of them. Big shock to me when I first came to Dublin in 1999. Dublin lost a game. Next day, I went into a colleague's office, to wind her up about it. She had no ideas what I was talking about. "Oh - you mean the Gah?", she eventually asked, in a tone of pure contempt.
It's something that's easily forgotten when the occasional phoney war breaks out on these pages lol, we're all GAAA enthusiasts (or headcases lol) at the end of the day. Good to see Dublin beat this year, for the good of the game; but for the good of the game in Dublin, you also want to see them back winning again reasonably soon.
I once met a Kilkenny man who had no interest in hurling. Only once, mind. But I found it shocking and depressing and could never bring myself to trust him.
I think new immigrant communities by and large are keen to find a "way in" to their new country; and would be keen to give GAA a go - but it needs to be done systematically; there has to be a plan for it.
Ulster GAA is pretty good at reaching out to the Unionist community; that experience could be built on to bring in other communities too."
I'm not doubting for one minute that Ulster GAA tries to reach out to protestants, but it's hardly working is it?

It's not part of their culture, so you can't force them to like it, nor dilute our own to get them to!

Which is the point with regards to "new Irish" (none of whom use that ridiculous term in my experience.)

No African or eastern or central European country would blithely accept that a third or more of their population will be non nationals in 20/30 years. Indeed same people who think this is great thing here would be up in arms if a third of Nigeria's population was to become white European by 2050.

This is not theoretical either. Look at the big cities across the Irish sea or in France, Italy, Belgium, Germany. By all means accept working people from cultures who will accommodate themselves, but it has to be controlled and in our interests not those of overseas companies and property funds.

I'd safely say, GAA will be utterly marginal in Irish cities and large towns within a generation. As will language, music and other parts of our culture.

If people think that's a good thing, fine. I won't be around to see it, thankfully.

BarneyGrant (Dublin) - Posts: 2578 - 28/08/2021 11:35:16    2375378

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Replying To Galway9801:  "Oh there's plenty of em, I wouldnt let it bug me to the extent that I'd fall out with them over it but whenever they bang on about how proud they are to be irish or how much they love to see England bet I'm quick to remind them how immersed they are in British culture and how silly they sound."
Exactly. We have had a hundred years to learn our own ancient language and if you try to throw ina few words of Irish in a conversation people will only laugh at you. All kinds of excuses as to why should not use it are trotted out, i.e. you are being elitist, it is a sign of poverty, the teacher beat me in school over it- blah,,blah, blah.. Overall this culture argument is a pure joke, we have no real respect for our culture.

Oldtourman (Limerick) - Posts: 4331 - 28/08/2021 11:54:59    2375384

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To be honest the cultural aspect of it wouldn't be the forefront of my thinking. I'm a hurling and sports fan. I'm not a big supporter of the GAA as I think theyve done a terrible job promoting and managing hurling. And the Irish language is done to death. Culturally we have enough without the Irish language. Hiberno Irish is a fantastic vernacular.
The Ulster GAA certainly haven't done enough to reach out to the Unionists, certainly not. And they've named clubs after convicted terrorists. But its the GAA HQ in Dublin that should have stopped that years ago. There's one mixed Club started in East Belfast and that was a grassroots thing . Until the GAA go into somewhere like Lisburn or a Portadown and say ..here's a sporting club..There'll be no national anthem before games, you don't have to promote Irish and the club colours can be Rangers if ye want..Just promote the game. Until that happens then we are going nowhere with the Unionists..the Cultural aspect of the GAA will always be seen as a subsuming threat.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 28/08/2021 12:14:22    2375387

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Replying To bloodyban:  "Enough isn't being done though. There's very little attempt to attract the Eastern European Kids. I know there's a few friends of my wife (Polish) who have their kids playing with encouragement from me but they find it abit of a clique. There's a few good kids playing rugby. If one turns out like his Dad he'll be like Bakkies Botha the South African monster. But they are few ...Shur the inner city clubs in Limerick can barely keep their head above water as it is. You never hear them tell you that when they are waxing lyrical about the Limerick set up. Hegarty from St Pats is the only inner city guy on the whole Limerick panel...thats shocking. And they are junior A."
The best way would be through schools and most in the city are lacking. My entire PE education in secondary school was to have a teacher throw a soccer ball at us and say off you go. Same school made no attempt to convince anyone to play sport for school teams except for a few rugby lads who were already playing the game and doing well at club level.

A very strong campaign in certain areas with the Cul camps might help too but I still think if left to the individuals to sign up themselves on the weekend most foreign kids will pick soccer at least for the next generation or two

Breezy (Limerick) - Posts: 1236 - 28/08/2021 14:14:58    2375415

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Replying To Breezy:  "The best way would be through schools and most in the city are lacking. My entire PE education in secondary school was to have a teacher throw a soccer ball at us and say off you go. Same school made no attempt to convince anyone to play sport for school teams except for a few rugby lads who were already playing the game and doing well at club level.

A very strong campaign in certain areas with the Cul camps might help too but I still think if left to the individuals to sign up themselves on the weekend most foreign kids will pick soccer at least for the next generation or two"
Yeah you're probably right. The schools have a big role to play but Cork and Waterford City have way bigger Hurling participation than Limerick. Rugby and soccer is very well organised in Limerick and they've great facilities in the likes Of Garryowen, Shannon, fairview ect. But if they can't get under 10s out hurling now then it's a shame. The current success won't be sustainable if the city isn't tapped. Cork are a whole different kettle of fish . What they have underage now is sustainable forever more. They will hoover up underage now.
It ll be interesting to see what the next 10 years hold. We have lots of women's games on TV and presenters ect...(still can't get rid of Marty) but will we have diversity on our teams. We really are miles behind the UK but we ll probably make all the same mistakes they did in the 60s and 70s. And let's get real..lots of Irish people don't want Eastern Europeans and others playing our games. There's alot of casual racism there.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 28/08/2021 14:35:44    2375421

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Replying To bloodyban:  "Yeah you're probably right. The schools have a big role to play but Cork and Waterford City have way bigger Hurling participation than Limerick. Rugby and soccer is very well organised in Limerick and they've great facilities in the likes Of Garryowen, Shannon, fairview ect. But if they can't get under 10s out hurling now then it's a shame. The current success won't be sustainable if the city isn't tapped. Cork are a whole different kettle of fish . What they have underage now is sustainable forever more. They will hoover up underage now.
It ll be interesting to see what the next 10 years hold. We have lots of women's games on TV and presenters ect...(still can't get rid of Marty) but will we have diversity on our teams. We really are miles behind the UK but we ll probably make all the same mistakes they did in the 60s and 70s. And let's get real..lots of Irish people don't want Eastern Europeans and others playing our games. There's alot of casual racism there."
Would that work both ways though? Let's say for example that there are "new Irish" families who don't want to get involved in irish culture, preferring instead to get their kids involved in soccer or cricket, would that be racism too yeah?

Galway9801 (Galway) - Posts: 1717 - 28/08/2021 15:54:18    2375448

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