At GAA Congress last weekend, Jarlath Burns described the issue of rural depopulation and the impact that it was having on clubs as a full-blown crisis for the association.
"It is unconscionable that we would be the generation who preside over the permanent demise of rural Ireland," he said.
"The role that we play in Irish life, and especially in rural life, gives us a power and influence that we should use to ensure that rural Ireland is not allowed to die."
Upon his appointment as president, Burns gave Benny Hurl the role of Chairperson of the GAA's National Demographics Committee.
Back In 1968, writer John Healy published a work that made everyone sit up and take notice of Charlestown in Mayo. The book was called, No One Shouted Stop: Death of an Irish Town.
Hurl is adamant that someone in the GAA will shout to prevent the death of rural clubs and the overwhelming demands placed on urban units.
He has been shouting it from the rooftops for some time.
Now the association in general is hearing the message loud and clear.
Alongside Croke Park executives Dr Peter Horgan and Conor Weir, Hurl has spoken to an army of bodies, organisations, agencies and groups about the issues facing clubs throughout the country.
The workshop he delivered at Congress reported the findings of a demographics workshop held on Friday, which pointed to the disparity between population density down the island's eastern seaboard and falling membership in rural areas.
In the east, 44% of the island's population is served only 19% of its GAA clubs. In Connacht, 213 GAA clubs (13%) serve just 8% of the population.
Now, having had the plight of falling rural and increasing urban numbers publicised once more, Hurl, Horgan, Weir and the rest of the Demographics Committee are back to work.
The action plan going forward is a three-pronged approach.
- To work with counties and their demographics officers to better understand the lay of the land in each county.
- To look at supplying a menu of options that counties can choose from to help their own specific cause. These might include player eligibility, games programme and targeted games development initiatives like cross-county fixtures.
- In addition to this, Government engagement and lobbying will now step up to highlight demographic problems in urban and rural Ireland.
Hurl and his committee will come to any table armed with data and solid proof of what is happening all over the country.
They have drawn from census reports, north and south, figures from the Departments of Health and Education and Foireann, the GAA’s membership hub. They have already had rigorous engagement with state agencies like the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Sport Ireland, Department of an Gaeltacht, Teagasc, Tailte Eireann (formerly OSI) and the Office of Planning Regulator.
They have engaged with academics and researchers, the Department of Economics at UCC, and collaborated with a plethora of GAA committees from all four codes, across fixtures, games development, planning and analysis.
Provinces', counties', and clubs' county demographics officers have been contacted. Club forum days have been held. The findings are stark.
Rural depopulation is leading to amenities becoming unviable such as shops, pubs, post office and banks.
Smaller numbers of young children are enrolling in rural primary schools with reduced teacher numbers and closure of small schools.
There is little or no rural housing development in some areas, reducing the regeneration of the local population, forcing young people to move to planned urbanised areas.
Previously separate clubs now have to look at amalgamating to enter competitions which will lead to a loss of community identity.
There is now a greater appreciation of the serious nature of the demographic issue subject generally, which has been hastened by the move to include demographics officers at county board level.
At the moment, counties are continuing to gather data.
This will help Hurl and the greater movement to inform future decisions and find practical solutions.
In the weeks and months ahead, Hurl and his colleagues will continue to lobby state agencies and other associated organisations.
"Successive governments have allowed rural depopulation to occur," Hurl said at Congress. "More and more and more people are gravitating towards the towns and the cities. We are where we are now and we’re sleepwalking into something that’s going to be catastrophic.
"We are at a crossroads. There are so many clubs out there that are under huge pressure and it’s not just a rural issue, it’s an urban one too. We have 1,610 clubs now and if there’s not some sort of intervention very soon then many of those clubs will no longer be around. The local impact of losing a GAA club would be monumental, it would be unimaginable."
"Our sense of community, pride of place, our sense of GAA community and our Irishness, it is all under threat now." - Benny Hurl
The call is for rural Ireland to be regenerated.
The call is for the creation of jobs in rural areas to allow people to live and work in rural Ireland.
The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund offers a commitment of €1 billion by the Government for rural Ireland over the period 2019 to 2027.
Depending on criteria, it identifies and offers funding for projects with infrastructure, building vacancy/ refurbishment and redevelopment needs.
Funding is available for development of community or public facilities, infrastructure that improves telecommunications connectivity, projects that support job creation, entrepreneurship and innovation in rural areas and the enhancement of heritage and community assets including the provision/enhancement of recreational or leisure facilities.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the Government turned to the GAA for help with testing centres, vaccine distribution, food deliveries and care of the elderly and vulnerable. The Government looked to the GAA because they had a unit, presence and network in every parish.
They could do worse than repeat the process as part of the rollout of their Rural Regeneration Programme.
Hurl and his committee know what the issues are. They have the data, but they need government help to address them.
And the truth is the GAA needs the help of the Government to resource the fightback.
There is much at stake.
