First time poster on site. I post my support out of frustration with the gaa for letting down the gaa followers in the UK. Poor show behind the seens by a out of touch top table minority. Promotion of the game outside Ireland is about as dead as club hurling and football.

jpf82 (UK) - Posts: 3 - 28/07/2009 12:21:37    365889

I agree I have just started a new Gaelic Football team and when I went to the London county Board they wouldnt help me at all.
I even called the games development officer and was told they couldnt help us!!
They are just a bunch of old dinosaurs stuck in their ways who dont want to help. I have managed to get the team started up by myself we got the coach and Board but are still told we cant play in any competitions till next year what a Joke.
More needs to be done in London to promote the games espically in areas in London like Archway,finsbury park,Holloway and Camden which have huge Irish communitys and no teams.
When I moved over from Clare there were a few teams but now theres none which is why I started up the Gaelic Football team if anybody is interesed in playing just let us know on this thread and il post the details

banner_roar (Clare) - Posts: 88 - 28/07/2009 12:41:57    365939

Below is an email I've dispatched to GAA HQ - although I'm not hopeful of a reply.

Dublin v Kerry
Monday 3 August 2009.

I would like to know why this match has been scheduled for Monday.

I appreciate that it is a bank holiday in Ireland, but there are millions of Irish people and GAA diehards around the world who will be at work on this day.

There are many, many more Irish people living around the world than there are on the island of Ireland and in effect by scheduling this game for Monday, the GAA powers that be have excluded them from watching.

Your website quotes " The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was founded on November 1st 1884, by a group of spirited Irishmen who had the foresight to realise the importance of establishing a national organisation to revive and nurture traditional, indigenous pastimes".

The GAA are insulting the founding fathers of the GAA by being very short-sighted by not carrying on this ethos by excluding all those who live outside of Ireland.

The Hogan Stand website forum is awash with many GAA "grassroot fans" who totally agree that HQ give the impression that they don't care or consider the needs of those living outside of Ireland.

I would be most grateful if this can be passed "up the chain" to those that make these decisions and to let them know that they are letting down the millions of Irish people and GAA supporters living abroad.

A reply of some sort would be gratefully appreciated.

KerryLondonder (None) - Posts: 37 - 28/07/2009 13:50:57    366101

the reality is that since the GAA administration went professional they dont even care about people living in the south or north not to mind anywhere else. It's the bottom line that counts

dhorse (Laois) - Posts: 11374 - 28/07/2009 19:59:26    367009

Very interesting post Calrygael.
I am in the USA and last weekend's coverage on the internet was pathetic. I had no problems prior to the last two weekends. I was able to access any televised game by connecting to GAALIVE.net, but now that website cannot be accessed at all. I did manage to get the 1st half of the Galway v Waterford Hurling Q/Final, but for some reason ater the break at half-time the coverage was non existant! A website http://www.justin.tv/nern was also unavailable to show any games last weekend due to server problems, but I have never had to much success on that site anyway. What is the deal with RTE only showing the games on the island of Ireland? Does that have something to do with the fact that those of us not in Ireland do not pay a TV License? What a load of cods wollop? If it's on the net then we should be able to get it regardless. We are paying our ISP and I'm sure RTE are getting some kind of royalties from all the ISP's worldwide for using their feed.
Anyway, it would appear that between the GAA and RTE the millions of us diehard Irish abroad don't really matter. It's a sad state of affairs, and hopefully GAA executives will sit up and take notice of all the unhappy fans here on HS.
You have my full support in this worthy cause. We all want to be able to see our native games whenever possible, especially at this time of year. Good luck!!

NJMon50 (USA) - Posts: 30 - 29/07/2009 02:26:22    367671

Thanks everyone for your support.

calrygael (Sligo) - Posts: 6 - 29/07/2009 11:17:27    367901

I totally support this and is very frustrating that Setanta has collapsed. I am lucky as a local pub has RTE so don't miss the games however how long is it before UK licences find these pubs and fine them for having illegal sky!!!
What i find interesting is that how comes people in Ireland when they have sky get access to BBC, Channel 4 but people in UK who have sky do not have access to RTE, TV3. While it might be down to GAA to get tv companies abroad to show games what are RTE doing about getting their channels broadcasted via Sky?

ced1980 (Roscommon) - Posts: 62 - 29/07/2009 11:36:59    367930

in reponse to banner roar, I have heard that teh Camden Irish centre are lookinga t setting up a GAA club

Rosineri1 (UK) - Posts: 2099 - 29/07/2009 12:10:47    368003

Lads, you can watch the matches on rte.ie by using a proxy server to hide your IP. It is easy to do. Even a luddite like me can manage it.

As for London, the following pubs have irish boxes:
Corrib's Rest - Queens Park - a Galway pub
Twelve Pins - Finsbury Park - a Galway pub
Maquis of Granby - Cambridge Circus - a Cork pub
O'Neill's - Great Queen Street, Covent Graden - a Tyrone pub
Prince of Wales - Harrow Road, Westbourne Park - a Kerry pub
The Quays - Holloway Road - a Galway pub
The Kingdom - Kilburn - a Kerry pub

There are loads more.

Puddersthecat (Kilkenny) - Posts: 1692 - 29/07/2009 13:54:52    368261

Yes they do care. For all of your information, 40% of all Croke Parks GAA prceeds go towards administration and pomotion of Gaelic Games abroad.

I'm sure as any reputable organistaion they are looking for the most convenient and LEGAL method of broadcasting the games abroad.

I feel sorry for the GAA fans living abroad who cannot see the game and can understand their frustration. I will be one of you at the beginning of next year. i have already sussed out 2 clubs in my soon to be immediate area and found that there are a number of methods of watching the games as highlighted by some posters above. Hopefully the GAA are fasttracking a new broadcasting rights contract but the Setanta collapse was hardly the GAA's fault and was a surprise to us all. They need to find a legit media company to come on board who is willing to take up prime TV time and replace their existing programmes with GAA matches. As you can imagine that would not be the easiest thing to do and I can understand why these things take time.

thykingdomcome (Kerry) - Posts: 1206 - 29/07/2009 14:24:33    368307

I'm exiled in London and the County Board don't care about anyone outside of two teams never mind the GAA as a whole. I believe it isn't the organisation it once was for fostering young lads when i moved over the 80s. There was however more of a siege mentality then and lads and clubs etc were forced to stick together in the faceof horrible hostility

CheFinny (UK) - Posts: 1358 - 29/07/2009 15:54:07    368447