Shifting living patterns have created serious challenges for countless clubs, with 11-a-side games being proposed to help those short on numbers
GAA president Jarlath Burns (right) and Benny Hurl, the GAA National Demographics Committee chairman, at Croke Park yesterday. Photo: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The impact of demographic change on the GAA was laid bare in a report launched in Croke Park yesterday by president Jarlath Burns, who warned: “If we lose clubs, we lose communities”.
The value of communities in Irish life was a central theme where Burns challenged the assertion of Margaret Thatcher’s that there is no such thing as community, just individuals who want to better themselves.