How many clubs are there in Ireland ?

OU812 wrote: »

You'll have to forgive me, I know very little about the GAA not coming from a sporting family, but my kids are starting to get involved through school (eldest plays camogie from this year).

I was wondering how many clubs there were in the country & how the system works. For instance I know there's a couple of clubs near me in North Dublin - Trinity Gaels & Parnells. Parents appear to have a lot of funding behind it with their building, bar, restaurant, playing fields etc. Trinity Gaels have a much smaller operation but appear to have more pitches.

Is there a difference between the two & how many members would they have ?

Do the clubs operate Gaelic, Hurling Camogie all from the one place or would one club specialise in one sport ?

Outside of Dublin does it work the same ? Is there one club per county that put forward the "county team" & everyone supports it or are the team members drawn from several clubs in the county ?

Don't mean to come off like an idiot, but I've really no idea.

good to see you getting involved. It can be a very good way for social interaction and meeting people, and generally most clubs are welcoming to new members and kids joining up. Best of luck with it anyway.

I dont know much about the Dublin set up, but Parnells made a lot of money in selling land which was used for commercial development. They used the money earned then on building facilities for themselves there.

Most clubs operate on a parish rule basis. Basically, wherever you are born, you play for your local team. 99% of the time this happens, and then there are a few cases of players for whatever reason leaving their club and try to join a neighbouring club.

Then you have a more common occurrence of when someone moves away from home for college or work or whatever, and they then transfer to the nearest club to where they are now residing.

Towns and cities have different eligibilty rules though, as the parish isnt clearly defined there, which is a bit of a mad house set up. Each county would have different rules for these areas.

Most clubs cater for all GAA sports, and a few are one sport only.

The way county teams work is that the best players from all the clubs are selected to represent their county. So in Wexford, we have 49 (or there abouts) clubs, and its a case of the best players throughout the county being picked, regardless of their club. Some clubs end up having more players being represented, and others would have no one on the county team.

OU812 wrote: »

Thanks bruschi.

So the county team is made up of the cream of the club teams & everyone in the county supports them (naturally), then on a more local or parish level, there could be a hundred or more teams per county?

Do these teams play each other all the time or play out of county - e.g. Trinity Gaels would travel to wexford & play a parish team from there?

That seems like a huge amount of playing going on (in just one of three sports) ?

Would players ever play for more than one parish team at a time ? I'd imagine that could possibly get difficult.

How many players would each club have or is that limited & how many members would each club have or would people be members of more than one club ?

Thanks

yeah there could be a hundred or so teams per county, but usually, the majority of the county teams are made up of club teams playing at senior level in the county. Most counties have senior, intermediate, junior and then junior a,b c etc. There would be on average 12 to 16 teams in each grade. Most clubs would have 2 teams, one at senior or intermediate, and then a junior team. Some of the bigger clubs would have more than one team, and could straddle across a few grades.

This would be in one sport only, so it would be the same criteria for hurling and football.

The only times you play outside of the county is either through playing friendlies or challenge games, or else whenyou win your county championship. When you win the county title, you progress to a provincial championship, and then the All Ireland championship. So you will see these games are on at the moment on TG4 on Sunday afternoons, with county finals on now,and in a couple of weeks the provincial games start.

There can be a lot of games. Usually counties have a league in the early part of the year, and then the main championship in summer (or usually Autumn). Most counties stop the majority of club games when the intercounty games are on, as clubs dont want to play without their best players who are representing their county.

you are not allowed to play for different teams. There is severe penalties if you are caught playing for other teams.

Clubs can have as many as they want. Generally, you would need about 20 players per team, and subs on the clubs first team would play for their second team, but once they play for the first team, they cannot in the same season play for the second team again.

You can be a non playing member of a club too. It usually costs a lot less, and it contributes to the club funds and enhances ability for getting county games tickets if the county gets to the All Ireland final.

OU812 wrote: »

Most helpful. Thanks

above all, enjoy it, and make sure your kids are enjoying it too. you'll hear stories of politics and the usual coach favours his son over mine etc, but for the most part, the GAA club set up can be a great way for kids to interact, get physically fit and enjoy a team set up. Even try get involved with it yourself, even if it is as simple as helping coaches set out the cones or give out bibs, its a good way to enjoy your childs games when you can be part of it with them. Far too often these days, sports teams are used as creches, where parents dump their kids off for an hour or 2 and come get them when their training or game is over.

clint_silver wrote: »

Is there a template for a mentor recruitment program knocking around?
And/Or a "coach the coaches" program to monitor how coaches within a club are progressing outside of any given individuals desire to progress as a coach?

I dont know of any hard set templates or rules. In Wexford, each club is to have a coaching officer, and the remit of their job would be to monitor the coaching within the club, and to ensure mentors are given the opportunity to do coaching courses. Each club would do it differently. Some clubs work hard at it, and have great programs. Others just fill the name on a piece of paper and send it back to the Co board and its never spoken about until the next club AGM when someone else has to fill the role.