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The biggest GAA clubs in Ireland

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I saw recently that the Irish Times ran a competition to find the best sports club in Ireland and the winner was the Cuala GAA club in Dalkey with a massive 1,600 active members. This got me wondering of the biggest GAA clubs in Ireland in terms of membership. I read on here before that Ballyboden St Enda's have the biggest GAA club membership in Leinster and Down's Bredagh in south east Belfast have the biggest in Ulster. Which club is the biggest in your county? PortInFaithful (Offaly) - Posts: 472 - 08/02/2017 12:26:15 1953595 Link
Sarsfields in Kildare is one of the biggest Clubs in the County if not the biggest with around 1,200 to 1,400 members. lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 3024 - 08/02/2017 12:41:27 1953600 Link
Replying To PortInFaithful: "I saw recently that the Irish Times ran a competition to find the best sports club in Ireland and the winner was the Cuala GAA club in Dalkey with a massive 1,600 active members. This got me wondering of the biggest GAA clubs in Ireland in terms of membership. I read on here before that Ballyboden St Enda's have the biggest GAA club membership in Leinster and Down's Bredagh in south east Belfast have the biggest in Ulster. Which club is the biggest in your county?" I don't think Cuala are even the biggest in Dublin? As far as I know Crokes have the biggest number of members and Boden the most teams or vice versa Brianmac78 (Dublin) - Posts: 1168 - 08/02/2017 18:39:46 1953742 Link
The answer will be a city based club, most rural clubs would be lucky to hit 100 never mind 1600 riverboys (Mayo) - Posts: 1389 - 08/02/2017 20:13:10 1953790 Link
Naas are the biggest club in Kildare, over 100 teams 11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 367 - 08/02/2017 20:17:57 1953793 Link
Replying To 11jm11: "Naas are the biggest club in Kildare, over 100 teams" I knew 11JM11 that Naas had a lot of teams being a dual club but didn't realise thet they had that many.I suppose that Sarsfields and Moorefield must have huge playing numbers as well even though both are in Newbridge while ther is only one club in Naas. lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 3024 - 09/02/2017 16:52:03 1954077 Link
Replying To riverboys: "The answer will be a city based club, most rural clubs would be lucky to hit 100 never mind 1600" Sure don't Castlebar Mitchels have 900 members alone? At least that was the figure given publicly around the time of the All-Ireland finals last year. In County Europe, I'd imagine it's a club like Belgium or Luxembourg, where all the codes bar handball and rounders are represented. Gleebo (Mayo) - Posts: 2208 - 09/02/2017 18:22:53 1954117 Link
Clubs in Dublin cant cope with the numbers, you have the high profile Kilmacuds, Ballybodens but clubs like St Judes , Clontarfs etc are bursting at the seams at underage level. Rural Ireland is under huge pressure but if the Kildares , Meaths, Louths who are getting sizeable funding to follow the Dublin model get organised the already big clubs in Newbridge, Naas, Navan etc will be Kilmacud Croke type clubs in the near future....That St Colmcilles in Drogheda-Bettystown are a good example of a club going from a small club to a huge operation . hurler32 (Limerick) - Posts: 870 - 10/02/2017 13:01:09 1954355 Link
In Meath there are three clubs in the Navan boundary (two senior and one intermediate). 25% of population known as Johnstown is in the Walterstown area outside the Navan boundary. I would guess that Donaghmore /Ashbourne would have the most members in the county but stand to be corrected. browncows (Meath) - Posts: 2342 - 10/02/2017 13:40:27 1954372 Link
Replying To hurler32: "Clubs in Dublin cant cope with the numbers, you have the high profile Kilmacuds, Ballybodens but clubs like St Judes , Clontarfs etc are bursting at the seams at underage level. Rural Ireland is under huge pressure but if the Kildares , Meaths, Louths who are getting sizeable funding to follow the Dublin model get organised the already big clubs in Newbridge, Naas, Navan etc will be Kilmacud Croke type clubs in the near future....That St Colmcilles in Drogheda-Bettystown are a good example of a club going from a small club to a huge operation ." in meath i would guess that ashbourne have the most active members at one stage they had 5 adult teams (4 football 1 hurling) colmcilles have benefited form the population explosion in drogheda but it doesnt always spill of into the rural areas with some clubs still struggle with teams, but again this would depend on location within the county srgt_slaughter (Meath) - Posts: 462 - 10/02/2017 14:02:20 1954388 Link
"I saw recently that the Irish Times ran a competition to find the best sports club in Ireland and the winner was the Cuala GAA club in Dalkey with a massive 1,600 active members." I don't understand this. How can the size (biggest) of a club make it the best? Surely other factors have to be taken into consideration. Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts: 2715 - 12/02/2017 12:40:41 1955102 Link
"I saw recently that the Irish Times ran a competition to find the best sports club in Ireland and the winner was the Cuala GAA club in Dalkey with a massive 1,600 active members." I don't understand this. How can the size (biggest) of a club make it the best? Surely other factors have to be taken into consideration. Cockney_Cat (UK) - Posts:253 - 12/02/2017 12:40:41The size of the club didn't make them the winner. Loads of other factors were considered. If you look at other finalists size wasn't the main determinant in picking clubs who reached that stage of the competition ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 12/02/2017 14:12:19 1955169 Link
It a pity that these mega clubs are allowed to developed in the first place. Any club that has 6 or7 adult teams has too many players. With only one team permitted to play senior you are preventing an awful lot of players from playing senior football. It also creates an imbalance across county boundaries. I would've in favour of limiting all clubs to 1000 members and 5 adult teams in one code tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts: 1316 - 12/02/2017 21:02:12 1955626 Link
I'm open to correction here from other Donegal poster with the numbers quoted. St Eunans of letterkenny would have the biggest membership of around 750 adults members. Setanta (the only stand alone hurling club in the county) from the crossroads/ Killygordon would be the smallest, have around 60 adult members. Bain (Donegal) - Posts: 470 - 12/02/2017 22:13:48 1955734 Link
Replying To 11jm11: "Naas are the biggest club in Kildare, over 100 teams" Naas has 100 teams, are you for real, and I seriously doubt that it's even possible to have 100 teams!! Naas isn't even a GAA town, rugby would arguably be the most popular game in Naas followed by soccer. gilly0512 (Galway) - Posts: 1176 - 13/02/2017 10:22:26 1955980 Link
Ballyboden would be the largest club they have more members than Na Fianna who have 3000+, Crokes would also be there or there abouts. First of all large clubs are bursting at the seams, lack of infrastructure is the biggest problem. But I can see nearby neighbours are struggling for numbers and that is not good for the games. With Cuala, Crokes and Cuala you have big catchment areas, with Na Fianna it is the unusual heavy concentration of Primary/Secondary schools adjacent to the club. Not sure what can be done about but surely it will reach a point were you just cannot function. arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4953 - 13/02/2017 10:27:58 1955984 Link
It a pity that these mega clubs are allowed to developed in the first place. Any club that has 6 or7 adult teams has too many players. With only one team permitted to play senior you are preventing an awful lot of players from playing senior football. It also creates an imbalance across county boundaries. I would've in favour of limiting all clubs to 1000 members and 5 adult teams in one code tirawleybaron (Mayo) - Posts:614 - 12/02/2017 21:02:12I don't see why a club having 6 or 7 adult teams has too many players. Virtually all players playing on a 4th/5th/6th team wont ever play senior either through interest or be good enough. Limiting clubs membership and teams just isn't fair. Naas has 100 teams, are you for real, and I seriously doubt that it's even possible to have 100 teams!! Naas isn't even a GAA town, rugby would arguably be the most popular game in Naas followed by soccer. gilly2308 (Galway) - Posts:1064 - 13/02/2017 10:22:26If they have 7/8 teams at adult level between hurling and gaelic. 2/3 at minor/u21 in both and then 4/5 at u12/14/16. Then add in camogie and ladies football ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 13/02/2017 10:59:20 1956006 Link
Replying To gilly2308: "Naas has 100 teams, are you for real, and I seriously doubt that it's even possible to have 100 teams!! Naas isn't even a GAA town, rugby would arguably be the most popular game in Naas followed by soccer." Yes i am for real Mr Galway. Naas is not a rugby town, granted rugby has become popular over the last 10 years or so but gaa is huge. It is also worth remembering that we only have 10 or so rugby clubs in kildare so naas pull from a massive geographic area with regard to rugby. Anyway back to the gaa, they typically have 60 or 70 young lads at all age groups from u6 to u12 and then numbers naturally tend to drop off. Naas are the current Kildare minor hurling and football div1 champions and the current u21 hurling and football div 1 champions, a feat whcih no club has ever accomplished in Kildare. The minor football team went on to win the leinster minor club champiobship for 2016 beating clontarf in the final. This years minor team (2017) won the feile u14 all irealnd and are an outstanding outfit and will likely make it two MFC in a row. Hurling is huge in Naad, pass through the town after school finishes and youll see young lads carrying hurls with them left right and centre. Many of the clubs undersge hurling teams play in the kilkenny leagues and are competing in div 1 down there at most levels .It is common knowledge in Kildare that Naas as a club are more than likely going to dominate Kildare gaa over the next few years. So with over 100 teams its understandable why many believe that a second gaa club needs to be set up in the town. Ps i am not from naas 11jm11 (Kildare) - Posts: 367 - 13/02/2017 12:17:40 1956063 Link
If Nass is so big why then do Kildare have to buy in so many players for their hurling team cuchulainn35 (Armagh) - Posts: 1687 - 13/02/2017 13:04:33 1956097 Link
Replying To arock: "Ballyboden would be the largest club they have more members than Na Fianna who have 3000+, Crokes would also be there or there abouts. First of all large clubs are bursting at the seams, lack of infrastructure is the biggest problem. But I can see nearby neighbours are struggling for numbers and that is not good for the games. With Cuala, Crokes and Cuala you have big catchment areas, with Na Fianna it is the unusual heavy concentration of Primary/Secondary schools adjacent to the club. Not sure what can be done about but surely it will reach a point were you just cannot function." Yes, often thought Dublin would be better served if you had smaller clubs and more of them. Lack of playing facilities is a huge problem in Dublin though. Hard to setup a club if there's no pitches, or even greenfield sites, available. Mickmick (Dublin) - Posts: 104 - 13/02/2017 14:06:54 1956148 Link