Wouldn't be getting too excited. Our new Minister for Sport was on Prime Time the other night talking about this report and he rejected that the GAA get too much.
I'm posting this in the EL section although it has relevance to Junior football and Women's Football also.
The ful report is here:
http://www.esri.ie/publications/late...ex.xml?id=2528
One very interesting section, on P12 of the Executive Summary:
"The data show that the Sports Capital Programme currently devotes the lion’s share of the available resources to sports that have relatively low and declining popularity, especially Gaelic games. Gaelic games account for over one-third of all grants under the scheme, thereby receiving much more funding than other sports that are already more popular and are continuing to grow in popularity."
The bold type is per the report, it is their emphasis
Wouldn't be getting too excited. Our new Minister for Sport was on Prime Time the other night talking about this report and he rejected that the GAA get too much.
Celebrating 130 Years of Athlone Town Football Club - Pride of the Midlands Since 1887
But the GAA also serve to keep the Brits out, see.
Your Chairperson,
Gavin
Membership Advisory Board
"Ex Bardus , Vicis"
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"It's time for the FAI to grow up." John O'Donoghue, Minister for Sport, RTE , Sunday 7 Nov 2004
More money for individual "sports?" I suppose we should be subsidising runners for all the joggers and providing grant aid to buy leotards for all the aerobics fanatics out there. I can also say with near absolute certainty that 75% of the women surveyed were lying.
(To woman): "Are you involved in sporting activity of any kind?"
"Oh yeah, I'm a member of my local gym."
(Translation): "I signed up in January and I've never gone, but if I cancel my direct debit thats just admitting defeat."
I guarantee gardening and playing the Nintendo Wii will be classified as sports by the time the next ESRI report comes round.
I have no problem wirth GAA getting special treatment - even though I have only limited interest in the sport. But only so long as the other key spectator sports in Ireland (rugby and soccer) get sufficient investment as well - which they currently don't.
GAA is more than just a sport in Ireland - it's a key part of our contemporary culture and identity (please - spare me any rabid Gah-bashing responses). I have no problem with that being recognised through overly-generous funding - just not at the cost of the other key spectator sorts.
Keep football and rugby happy, and then lavish the GAA to reflect the fact its role is much larger than sporting.
BigotBall (GAh for the ill-informed) is no more part of the Irish 'culture' and identity than Football, Rugby or Cricket is. Gah bigots may consider them foreign games but they are Irish games as much as they are English., bear in mind that the Gah adopted it county and parish structure from Cricket (cricket was the most popular local sport before gah in Ireland).
Sports funding should be allocated on numbers involved, participation etc,.. so football would get the most yay!
"No one could make a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke
Correct, cricket was huge in Ireland before the formation of the GAA, apparently there were a large number of cricket clubs in Tipp around that time.
As for funding I have no problem with anyone getting grants but what used to grind my gears was the disproportionately large money granted to small sports clubs (e.g rowing) in the constituencies of government ministers
''and I for one welcome our new insect overlords''
There yez go again. More sh*te about how the gaa is the ONLY sporting contributor to our national identity and culture and the rest of us are less Irish. I am 100% Irish and do not need to have a brawl with match officials, team management and anyone else who crosses my path at 'de game' to prove it
Pockets lined by GAA. They have even appointed a few ugly stupid GAA heads to the sports council. Won't be long until there is a change in government anyway, then maybe soccer will get what it deserves i.e. the largest share of the funding.
GAA has had its place but Im afraid money has taken over and its now full of people pocketing as much for themselves as possible. Even my local club are missing over 100K.
The deepest layer of human thinking and feeling somehow knows that God must exist - Pope Benedict XVI
Ultimate Irishness=cycling 100 miles to a game in Croke Park with a hurley strapped to the cross bar, singing to yourself sean nós style, stopping only to sup sugary tea from a milk bottle (kept warm in a sock) or to give some lads a hand threshing hay/stacking turf on a sunny afternoon. This is a typical Sunday for me therefore I'm the irishest person on this forum.
I wish I were British, or better still, French
It was more disappointment than sarcasm. You can sit in a pub wearing a Man Utd. jersey on a Sunday afternoon and you are still just as Irish as me. Preferably you could head down to watch your local eircom league team and you're still just as Irish as me. But don't try and tell me either of those are as culturally significant to this island as say heading along to watch your parish playing championship hurling against the neighbouring village. Break-dancing is very entertaining to watch and very worthy in its own right, but its not as culturally significant to this island as irish dancing. Techno music is also very worthy in its own right but is not as culturally significant to this island as traditional irish music. It's not about one being inferior or superior to the other. If I came to this country from somewhere like China and I wanted to get a taste of Irish culture, would I go to a soccer match, watch some lad body-popping and then head to a rave for the night? Or would I go to watch a local hurling match, followed by a bit of Irish dancing followed by a traditional music session in the pub. You can do the first option anywhere (and it would probably be way better craic!). I'm tired of people basically telling me that gaelic games are no more culturally significant than soccer and rugby. Countries all over the world have their own national games. In the States baseball and gridiron are their national games. Doesn't mean people that play and watch soccer are less american. But the game of soccer itself has none of the cultural significance of the "American " games. Believing that gaelic games are a more important part of Irish culture than soccer and rugby doesn't make me a bigot, despite what some would like to believe.
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