Sport in Ireland Report

[alonso]

Individuality of modern Ireland strikes into sport

"Irish people are engaging in a lot more sport and physical exercise for recreation than they used to in previous decades. Roughly speaking, when they were children, the current generation of young adults (those under 30 years) played two-thirds as much sport again as their parents’ generation played. Moreover, they have continued to play much more sport as adults. Interestingly, this finding is not associated with the economic growth of the Celtic tiger’ era. Although there was a consistent rise in levels of participation over time, the largest increase seems to have occurred between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s – well before the rapid economic expansion of the 1990s. The upshot of the results is that the current young adults are playing much more sport than the current older adults did, and they are, therefore, likely also to play much more sport as older adults.

There are very distinct patterns in the relative popularity of different sports over time. Most notable is the relative decline of Gaelic games over several decades and the rapid rise of individual sports, especially personal exercise activities such as going to the gym, aerobics, swimming and jogging. Of the team sports, soccer, basketball and rugby have grown substantially, but team sports have generally fared less well than individual sports, especially compared with the growth in exercise activities, swimming and golf. These trends are very similar for both genders and occur both within and outside of schools, suggesting that they amount to a broad cultural shift in sporting activity.

The relative decline of Gaelic games is greater for football than for hurling/camogie, but it is important to note that the decline is relative. That is, the numbers of people playing Gaelic football and hurling/camogie have not fallen appreciably, rather the numbers playing other sports have grown rapidly while Gaelic games have largely stood still. To give an example, for adults aged 45-59 years, Gaelic games accounted for over 40 per cent of their childhood sporting experience, more than twice that accounted for by swimming and soccer. Just one generation later (adults now aged 18-29 years), significantly more children were swimming and playing soccer than playing either Gaelic football or hurling/camogie. The overwhelming majority of this change was down to rapid growth in the numbers swimming and playing soccer, especially those swimming."

http://www.esri.ie/publications/latest_ ... ml?id=2528

[lostexpectation]

lets see the split into class groups eh?

ah there is a graph of income v sport in the report but its muddled hard to read. adult sport much higher in richer

[The SR]

This is a very interesting read.

1: Our obese and bone idle youth play much more sport than their elder siblings and parents.

2: Dramatic decline in participation rates when boys hit 15.

3: A pattern of adults trending towords individual exercise as opposed to team games.

Also, a major strand of this report was 'bang for buck' in relation to grants to sport. The GAA gets the overwhelming slice of the pie, yet there are more adult football players than gaelic players and hurlers combined (and that is excluding 5 a side), and indeed more basketball players than hurlers.

GAA participation is flat over the 20 years while most other sports have grown at or higher than the population increase. Inevitible I suppose in the context of rural migration to urban centres.

Also more than twice the amount of spectators go to football than rugby in Ireland. Surprised me.

[alonso]

SR, one of the "policy implications" reads

"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."

However, they;re unlikely to start pumping money from GAA to Aerobics But it'd be nice to see our local soccer clubs get changed in something other than a container

[goosebump]

SR, one of the "policy implications" reads

"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."

It should have said:

"The data show that the Sports Capital Programme currently devotes the lion’s share of the available resources to sports clubs in areas where there are Cabinet Ministers, regardless of whether or not these clubs need the funding or have recieved funding in the past."

[Roger]

This is a very interesting read.

1: Our obese and bone idle youth play much more sport than their elder siblings and parents.

2: Dramatic decline in participation rates when boys hit 15.

3: A pattern of adults trending towords individual exercise as opposed to team games.

Also, a major strand of this report was 'bang for buck' in relation to grants to sport. The GAA gets the overwhelming slice of the pie, yet there are more adult football players than gaelic players and hurlers combined (and that is excluding 5 a side), and indeed more basketball players than hurlers.

GAA participation is flat over the 20 years while most other sports have grown at or higher than the population increase. Inevitible I suppose in the context of rural migration to urban centres.

Also more than twice the amount of spectators go to football than rugby in Ireland. Surprised me.

The GAA gets the overwhelming slice of the pie, yet there are more adult football players than gaelic players

Did the report try to explain why the GAA "gets the overwhelming slice of the pie"? Would it have anything to do with there being very little municipal provision of playing facilites in localities where the GAA is strong - thereby forcing the GAA to provide its own? e.g. Has any County or City Council provided a stadium in which the GAA will be the anchor tenant?

In most States public support for sports organisations providing their own facilites is usually based on what each organisation spends on such facilities.

[cropbeye]

When my father was young

our local G.A.A club did not have any Jeuvinile team it was adults only.

Was this a common occurance in other parts of the country

in the forties.?

[Roger]

When my father was young

our local G.A.A club did not have any Jeuvinile team it was adults only.

Was this a common occurance in other parts of the country

in the forties.?

That was the case in my club - in the sixties.

[The SR]

The GAA gets the overwhelming slice of the pie, yet there are more adult football players than gaelic players

Did the report try to explain why the GAA "gets the overwhelming slice of the pie"? Would it have anything to do with there being very little municipal provision of playing facilites in localities where the GAA is strong - thereby forcing the GAA to provide its own? e.g. Has any County or City Council provided a stadium in which the GAA will be the anchor tenant?

In most States public support for sports organisations providing their own facilites is usually based on what each organisation spends on such facilities.

There is very little municipal provision of facilities in any area.

I think one of the sutexts to the report is that the GAA gets money for projects that have no direct benefit the the 'health' of the nation. Bars and players wages immediatly spring to mind.

I'm not disputing that the GAA does great work, but they get grant money for things football and rugby clubs would never get.

I had a quick scan through the figures and the GAA seems to get more than every other sport, despite being cash rich. Is there a social benefit to this imbalance?

[Roger]

The GAA gets the overwhelming slice of the pie, yet there are more adult football players than gaelic players

Did the report try to explain why the GAA "gets the overwhelming slice of the pie"? Would it have anything to do with there being very little municipal provision of playing facilites in localities where the GAA is strong - thereby forcing the GAA to provide its own? e.g. Has any County or City Council provided a stadium in which the GAA will be the anchor tenant?

In most States public support for sports organisations providing their own facilites is usually based on what each organisation spends on such facilities.

There is very little municipal provision of facilities in any area.

I think one of the sutexts to the report is that the GAA gets money for projects that have no direct benefit the the 'health' of the nation. Bars and players wages immediatly spring to mind.

I'm not disputing that the GAA does great work, but they get grant money for things football and rugby clubs would never get.

I had a quick scan through the figures and the GAA seems to get more than every other sport, despite being cash rich. Is there a social benefit to this imbalance?

Bars and players wages immediatly spring to mind.

GAA players do not receive wages for playing.

As for BARS. Please let me have more detail. I find your information hard to believe. In Northern Ireland we would receive no help from public funds to build bars, Nor would rugby clubs, soccer clubs, bowling clubs or golf clubs.

I had a quick scan through the figures and the GAA seems to get more than every other sport, despite being cash rich.

What has being "cash rich" got to do with it? Are you insinuating that the government should use its power over public money to promote "cash poor" athletics at the expense of the "cash rich" GAA? Since when did democratic governments have the right to promote one sport at the expense of another or to promote one religion at the expense of another?

they get grant money for things football and rugby clubs would never get.

Please let me have details. Please let me have facts which can be checked out. If your information is correct, I must wonder why the IRFU or the FAI has not challenged it in court.

WHY has the IRFU been promised more for the redelopment of its Landsdowne Road stadium than the GAA received for rebuilding Croke Park?

WHY did your government commit itself to assisting the redevelopment of Landsdowne Road before the work had begun while the GAA received nothing until its redevelopment was about half completed?

Would it be fair to suppose that the only reason the GAA received any help for Croke Park was to justify the government's massive subsidy for the stadium at Landsdowne Road?