County Standing By Population

threeball

How are the dual counties on here split.
Geographically and population wise Galway would be close to 50/50 with almost no football in the south and no hurling in the northeast/west.
Cork would be similar but with the hurling areas having a bigger population base.
Dublin is very mixed, but what about the rest.

Jayop

K-9 wrote: »

Ye had 2 AI finals, a few Ulsters and 2 AI U-21's IIRC though, a hell of a lot compared to Sligo.

Ach I know that, but did we get those successes because of the interest in the GAA or did we get the interest in the GAA because of those successes?

Which is the causal factor?

threeball

threeball wrote: »

How are the dual counties on here split.
Geographically and population wise Galway would be close to 50/50 with almost no football in the south and no hurling in the northeast/west.
Cork would be similar but with the hurling areas having a bigger population base.
Dublin is very mixed, but what about the rest.

Tipp are becoming a bit more mixed. A North Tipp team (albeit a 9 club combo) won the county in 2012. Moyle Rovers who are traditionally football, won the minor A county hurling last year and beat some hotly fancied sides en route. Stephen Quirke of Moyle Rovers (brother of Philip minor football winner from 2011) is currently county minor captain

The county football team at all levels have a few North men. Roscrea's Alan Tynan (Who played Leinster schools rugby for Roscrea this year) was particularly good for the minor footballers yesterday, the u21s had Stephen O'Brien and the seniors have had stalwart Philip Austin for quite a while now.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

threeball

Deleted User wrote: »

Tipp are becoming a bit more mixed. A North Tipp team (albeit a 9 club combo) won the county in 2012. Moyle Rovers who are traditionally football, won the minor A county hurling last year and beat some hotly fancied sides en route. Stephen Quirke of Moyle Rovers (brother of Philip minor football winner from 2011) is currently county minor captain

The county football team at all levels have a few North men. Roscrea's Alan Tynan (Who played Leinster schools rugby for Roscrea this year) was particularly good for the minor footballers yesterday, the u21s had Stephen O'Brien and the seniors have had stalwart Philip Austin for quite a while now.

I wish Galway could move away from the segregation a bit. There's a lot of fine athletes missed by one code or the other with the way we're split. Its hard to imagine there wouldn't be some fantastic footballers around south Galway that didn't quite cut it as hurlers and vice versa.

threeball

threeball wrote: »

I wish Galway could move away from the segregation a bit. There's a lot of fine athletes missed by one code or the other with the way we're split. Its hard to imagine there wouldn't be some fantastic footballers around south Galway that didn't quite cut it as hurlers and vice versa.

Alan Kerins is one such example.

Would Ballinasloe be that intersection on the venn diagram?

harpsman

Jayop wrote: »

Ach I know that, but did we get those successes because of the interest in the GAA or did we get the interest in the GAA because of those successes?

Which is the causal factor?

Eh? Tyrone has always been a football mad county among the catholic population. Id be surprised if theres a more fanatical county in Ireland. Probably explains some of the behaviour of some of their teams and spectators over the years.

threeball

Deleted User wrote: »

Alan Kerins is one such example.

Would Ballinasloe be that intersection on the venn diagram?

You could nearly run the line along the M6 and everything 10km north of it from Ballinasloe to Athenry. From that point south is Hurling. North East Galway, the City and West Galway which is about 50% national park is football. I'd say our football pick would be smaller than Mayos.

Jayop

harpsman wrote: »

Eh? Tyrone has always been a football mad county among the catholic population. Id be surprised if theres a more fanatical county in Ireland. Probably explains some of the behaviour of some of their teams and spectators over the years.

That was my original point I think, but it's so long since I made it I'm not sure.

I think I was saying that Tyrone, regardless of success have a bigger percentage of GAA supporters among the catholic/nationalist population than most southern counties would have.

Say Tyrone has 179,000 people and 60% are catholic (rough figure).

That's 107,400 potential GAA heads. Waterford has a population of 113,000 but I'd guess that there's more GAA fans in the 107k catholics in Tyrone that the 113k people in Waterford.

I'm saying that would compensate in some way for the fact that there is a large percentage of the population who would never follow GAA because of political/religious reasons.

A pure guess but I reckon it is mitigating.



Nice cheap shot there about Tyrone. :rolleyes:;)

harpsman

harpsman wrote: »

Eh? Tyrone has always been a football mad county among the catholic population. Id be surprised if theres a more fanatical county in Ireland. Probably explains some of the behaviour of some of their teams and spectators over the years.

Some lovely people up in Tyrone and despite all the bad blood between ourselves and themselves after the u21 final i believe Mickey Harte and Co were absolute gentlemen to the Tipperary supporters after the whistle. Signed autographs, stood in for selfies/photos with kids and adults alike, and the Tyrone supporters wrote a lovely letter of appreciation to the Tipperary county board afterwards thanking them for their great day out in Semple.

Jayop

Deleted User wrote: »

Some lovely people up in Tyrone and despite all the bad blood between ourselves and themselves after the u21 final i believe Mickey Harte and Co were absolute gentlemen to the Tipperary supporters after the whistle. Signed autographs, stood in for selfies/photos with kids and adults alike, and the Tyrone supporters wrote a lovely letter of appreciation to the Tipperary county board afterwards thanking them for their great day out in Semple.

I posted the open letter on here somewhere. It was a nice move and anyone who I spoke to that was down there in Semple Stadium reckon they were treated so well by the locals.

keeponhurling

[Deleted User] wrote: »

, and the Tyrone supporters wrote a lovely letter of appreciation to the Tipperary county board afterwards thanking them for their great day out in Semple.

I thought it was a letter to the Tipperary backs, to thank them the their great day out in Thurles, no?

Mahogany

loyatemu wrote: »

I'd say so - not a single provincial title...

Fewer clubs? Fewer players? Rugby & soccer are more popular in parts of the county. Baltinglass have won the club title though.

Think most of it is to do with the fact the ground is all the way down in Aughrim. Therefore poor attendances/revenue.

Most people in the Northern half of the county are Dubs aswell. It's easier to get to Croker then to Aughrim for half the county.

keeponhurling

keeponhurling wrote: »

I thought it was a letter to the Tipperary backs, to thank them the their great day out in Thurles, no?

The result capped off a fine day im sure.

aveytare

I heard myself that Cork (not the football fans I'm guessing) and Tyrone have the most fanatical support in terms of ahem, bringing money into the GAA. Might be wrong but it's what I heard. Though that was a few years ago and Tyrone's senior team haven't been doing great lately.

So you might be right Jayop.

Jayop

aveytare wrote: »

I heard myself that Cork (not the football fans I'm guessing) and Tyrone have the most fanatical support in terms of ahem, bringing money into the GAA. Might be wrong but it's what I heard. Though that was a few years ago and Tyrone's senior team haven't been doing great lately.

So you might be right Jayop.

Club Tyrone was set up years ago with the sole aim of raising funds locally in large amounts to get Tyrone to another level. AFAIK it generates something like half a million a year to fund the county development which is starting the reap results.

It's largely what's paid for the new £6.7m centre in Garvaghey which is one of the finest in the country.

nice_guy80

Wicklow is mainly hills.
Clubs on west and east side of hills, separated by a very long drive.
GAA would not be the main sport in Bray, Arklow and Greystones.

Mahogany

nice_guy80 wrote: »

Wicklow is mainly hills.
Clubs on west and east side of hills, separated by a very long drive.
GAA would not be the main sport in Bray, Arklow and Greystones.

You'd be suprised, Gah is fairly popular in each of those towns, with Association Football being the main one. Can't speak for Arklow as such but in Bray and Greystones most people support Dublin, transfer that support to Wicklow and we'd be much more succesful.

loyatemu

Mahogany wrote: »

You'd be suprised, Gah is fairly popular in each of those towns, with Association Football being the main one. Can't speak for Arklow as such but in Bray and Greystones most people support Dublin, transfer that support to Wicklow and we'd be much more succesful.

how much difference does "support" or the location of the county ground make in GAA though? Surely number of active players is more significant.

The clubs in Bray and Greystones are fairly active, but I suspect similar sized towns in other counties would have more than one club - Bray only has Emmets, how many clubs in Tralee? Do many players in the north of the county play for Dublin clubs?

Peist2007

Dennis Reynolds wrote: »

There's no doubt that counties that focus on one sport ie mayo in football kilkenny in hurling benefit greatly as opposed to the likes of Galway and Cork who give equal resources to both.

Focus on only football in Mayo? Lumped in beside Kilkenny as an example of a one sport county? No chance.

CrabRevolution

This thread has me looking at some detailed figures of the populations of counties and some of the figures are just mind boggling to look at.

For example when the GAA was founded Dublin was only the 3rd most populous county in Ireland, with Mayo 4th, only 150'000 people separated the 2. Obviously we know what has happened in years since, how Dublin has ballooned to 1'300'000 while Mayo has about 10% of that.

As Hammer Archer mentioned earlier, Meath's population can nearly be accompanied by an asterix as much as the northern counties. Whereas they have a sizeable chunk of unionists who'll never see the inside of a GAA grounds and can be just written off in terms of GAA support, we have a huge number of Dubs who moved here in the last 25 years but neither they nor their children (who've often spent their entire lives in Meath) regard themselves as Meath people.

There are numerous cases of people living in the south east of Meath, places like Ratoath and Ashbourne (towns which are 95% made up of Dubs who moved in recent decades) playing for Dublin clubs, or playing for Meath clubs and then playing for Dublin county teams. I know of at least one player from Ratoath who even represented Dublin at hurling at minor level. Its like the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, wanting to join the motherland.....

That's not to say all of them do, there are many Dubs who've let their kids "go native" and play for Meath. Several of our current senior team are from these areas with recent population growth. Hopefully in years to come, they assimilate more and become true blooded Meath fans.

Boom__Boom

CrabRevolution wrote: »

This thread has me looking at some detailed figures of the populations of counties and some of the figures are just mind boggling to look at.

For example when the GAA was founded Dublin was only the 3rd most populous county in Ireland, with Mayo 4th, only 150'000 people separated the 2. Obviously we know what has happened in years since, how Dublin has ballooned to 1'300'000 while Mayo has about 10% of that.

As Hammer Archer mentioned earlier, Meath's population can nearly be accompanied by an asterix as much as the northern counties. Whereas they have a sizeable chunk of unionists who'll never see the inside of a GAA grounds and can be just written off in terms of GAA support, we have a huge number of Dubs who moved here in the last 25 years but neither they nor their children (who've often spent their entire lives in Meath) regard themselves as Meath people.

There are numerous cases of people living in the south east of Meath, places like Ratoath and Ashbourne (towns which are 95% made up of Dubs who moved in recent decades) playing for Dublin clubs, or playing for Meath clubs and then playing for Dublin county teams. I know of at least one player from Ratoath who even represented Dublin at hurling at minor level. Its like the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, wanting to join the motherland.....

That's not to say all of them do, there are many Dubs who've let their kids "go native" and play for Meath. Several of our current senior team are from these areas with recent population growth. Hopefully in years to come, they assimilate more and become true blooded Meath fans.

Meath need to start getting these son of Dubliners playing ball for them.

In the current Dublin squad the two Brogans, Cian O'Sullivan and Mark Fenton have at least one Kerry parent and in some cases two - the Brogans only have one obviously, Cian O'Sullivan has 2, not sure on Mark Fenton's mother but his dad is a Kerryman. And that's only the ones I've heard about - I wouldn't be too shocked to if there was a few more around the squad with Kerry connections who are keeping it quiet.

Mahogany

loyatemu wrote: »

how much difference does "support" or the location of the county ground make in GAA though? Surely number of active players is more significant.

The clubs in Bray and Greystones are fairly active, but I suspect similar sized towns in other counties would have more than one club - Bray only has Emmets, how many clubs in Tralee? Do many players in the north of the county play for Dublin clubs?

Suppose I am thinking in terms of spectator support. From Bray and Greystones you can hop on the Dart into town and walk to Croker from Connolly. Compared to an hour or so drive down to Aughrim.

Mantis Toboggan

Peist2007 wrote: »

Focus on only football in Mayo? Lumped in beside Kilkenny as an example of a one sport county? No chance.

ok not as extreme as kilkenny but the footballers get the majority of the funding in mayo, unlike in tipp where funding is divided equally until the footballers are out. Sure there's only 4 clubs give or take in mayo. Even the castlebar footballers don't want anything to do with the castlebar hurlers. No doubt that the focus is solely on football within that county.

Dyr

CrabRevolution wrote: »

As Hammer Archer mentioned earlier, Meath's population can nearly be accompanied by an asterix as much as the northern counties. Whereas they have a sizeable chunk of unionists who'll never see the inside of a GAA grounds and can be just written off in terms of GAA support, we have a huge number of Dubs who moved here in the last 25 years but neither they nor their children (who've often spent their entire lives in Meath) regard themselves as Meath people.

There are numerous cases of people living in the south east of Meath, places like Ratoath and Ashbourne (towns which are 95% made up of Dubs who moved in recent decades) playing for Dublin clubs, or playing for Meath clubs and then playing for Dublin county teams. I know of at least one player from Ratoath who even represented Dublin at hurling at minor level. Its like the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, wanting to join the motherland.....

That's not to say all of them do, there are many Dubs who've let their kids "go native" and play for Meath. Several of our current senior team are from these areas with recent population growth. Hopefully in years to come, they assimilate more and become true blooded Meath fans.

I would suggest given westmeaths current triumphant domination of their neighbours that we abolish meath, with west meath taking over the western bit and dublin taking the eastern area which is mostly ethnic jackeens now anyway. Obviously some die hard royals may need to be relocated further west but this should be done with sensitivity

Peist2007

Dennis Reynolds wrote: »

ok not as extreme as kilkenny but the footballers get the majority of the funding in mayo, unlike in tipp where funding is divided equally until the footballers are out. Sure there's only 4 clubs give or take in mayo. Even the castlebar footballers don't want anything to do with the castlebar hurlers. No doubt that the focus is solely on football within that county.

I disagree and think your point is weak.

Footballers getting the majority of the funding happens in all football counties, Mayo no different. And Mayo puts much more effort into hurling than most other "football" counties. I wouldnt use Castlebar as an example as they are possibly the weakest of all hurling clubs in the county. Agahamore are a senior foootball club with most of their team playing senior hurling for Tooreen and Mayo. Ballyhaunis the same.

Not to mention that Mayo has a vibrant soccer scene which is as strong as anywhere outside of Dublin. Westport winning the FAI Junior Cup in recent years which is a competition usually shared amongst the Dublin clubs.

Mayo is a football county, no doubt. But it is nowhere near the top of the tree in that respect either.

Utopia Parkway

Deleted User wrote: »

Alan Kerins is one such example.

Would Ballinasloe be that intersection on the venn diagram?

Ballinasloe is right on the football/hurling border in far east Galway. The GAA club in the town itself is a football club but on the outskirts of the town to the west and south you have a clatter of hurling clubs like Sarsfields, Cappataggle, Kiltormer, Mullagh, etc. The area to the north of Ballinasloe is generally football with clubs like Caltra and Mountbellew although Ahascragh Fohenagh (Cathal and Padraig Mannion's club) is a hurling club just north of Ballinasloe half way out the road to Caltra.

Mantis Toboggan

Peist2007 wrote: »

I disagree and think your point is weak.

Footballers getting the majority of the funding happens in all football counties, Mayo no different. And Mayo puts much more effort into hurling than most other "football" counties. I wouldnt use Castlebar as an example as they are possibly the weakest of all hurling clubs in the county. Agahamore are a senior foootball club with most of their team playing senior hurling for Tooreen and Mayo. Ballyhaunis the same.

Not to mention that Mayo has a vibrant soccer scene which is as strong as anywhere outside of Dublin. Westport winning the FAI Junior Cup in recent years which is a competition usually shared amongst the Dublin clubs.

Mayo is a football county, no doubt. But it is nowhere near the top of the tree in that respect either.

My point still stands though, counties who pump most of their resources into one sport (kilkenny, mayo) are far likely to succeed than counties who try to split resources (tipp, Galway, Cork) sad fact is though that kilkenny will never be good at football and Mayo will never be much good at hurling.

Dennis Reynolds

Dennis Reynolds wrote: »

My point still stands though, counties who pump most of their resources into one sport (kilkenny, mayo) are far likely to succeed than counties who try to split resources (tipp, Galway, Cork) sad fact is though that kilkenny will never be good at football and Mayo will never be much good at hurling.

Kerry are the most successful football county by some distance and are in NHL division 1B next year with a small enough population.

feargale

Would this thread not be more instructive if it looked at the standings over a long period of time? Counties have highs and lows