(Oldest Posts First) - Go To The Latest Post
|
A much higher proportion of children of foreign born parents are in urban areas, where GAA wouldn't be as strong. GAA participation in Galway city is much lower than in rural areas. Apart from Salthill/Knocknacarra who are more suburban, the only other senior club in town is St. James and they were in the relegation play-offs this year. Michael's are in intermediate and Griffin's/Éire Óg in Junior. Regardless of foreign born parents or not, Galway City is a bit of a wasteland for GAA, relative to its population. There's much greater availability of other sports there too. Foreign born parents will naturally gravitate to more familiar sports for their children."]Are you a foreign born parent?"]My other half is."]So is mine! Philippina. We've two girls playing LGFA. The eldest,16, only started during COVID. Apologies and happy to be wrong, but you sound a bit defeated on getting foreign parents interested in GAA if there's other sports available to them that they might be more familar with. Takes a bit of work and customer care skills from the clubs for defininite."]Not really where I'm from. I live rurally, and there isn't any issue out here getting kids of foreign parents involved in GAA clubs. The fact that the club and community are so interwined rurally helps greatly. I do think it's a greater issue in the city. There's less of a community base around the GAA there, and also many sports clubs which would be more familiar to foreign parents. Participation rates in GAA are much lower there to start with, so it can be even more difficult to get others involved."]But why would a lack of a community base in cities (which is true, there is less of a community mindset in urban areas) disproportionately affect GAA clubs and not other sports clubs? Genuine question. Seniorleague (Galway) - Posts: 356 - 01/10/2026 17:38:10 2695850 Link 0 |
|
A much higher proportion of children of foreign born parents are in urban areas, where GAA wouldn't be as strong. GAA participation in Galway city is much lower than in rural areas. Apart from Salthill/Knocknacarra who are more suburban, the only other senior club in town is St. James and they were in the relegation play-offs this year. Michael's are in intermediate and Griffin's/Éire Óg in Junior. Regardless of foreign born parents or not, Galway City is a bit of a wasteland for GAA, relative to its population. There's much greater availability of other sports there too. Foreign born parents will naturally gravitate to more familiar sports for their children."]Are you a foreign born parent?"]My other half is."]So is mine! Philippina. We've two girls playing LGFA. The eldest,16, only started during COVID. Apologies and happy to be wrong, but you sound a bit defeated on getting foreign parents interested in GAA if there's other sports available to them that they might be more familar with. Takes a bit of work and customer care skills from the clubs for defininite."]Not really where I'm from. I live rurally, and there isn't any issue out here getting kids of foreign parents involved in GAA clubs. The fact that the club and community are so interwined rurally helps greatly. I do think it's a greater issue in the city. There's less of a community base around the GAA there, and also many sports clubs which would be more familiar to foreign parents. Participation rates in GAA are much lower there to start with, so it can be even more difficult to get others involved."]But why would a lack of a community base in cities (which is true, there is less of a community mindset in urban areas) disproportionately affect GAA clubs and not other sports clubs? Genuine question."]I'm speaking in the context of kids with foreign parents. In that case, it's because other sports would be more familiar to them. They would know what the sports are, soccer, boxing, athletics, swimming etc. GAA sports would not be, so they'd be less likely to gravitate towards them naturally. WanPintWin (Galway) - Posts: 3089 - 02/10/2026 10:48:05 2695895 Link 0 |