Clare GAA has appointed 2013 All-Ireland winner Patrick O’Connor as its demographics officer.
It comes at a time when the county’s changing population is seeing clubs in the north, east and west of the county struggle to field teams, even as clubs in central areas have unprecedented numbers.
The experience of O’Connor’s own club, Tubber, stoked his interest in how demographics affect the GAA. “It’d always be in the back of your mind coming from where I come from, seeing the issues that we as a club have to tackle on a yearly basis, the concern [of] will you have enough numbers each year for teams. It’s an ongoing thing.”
He says the problems facing clubs stem from a move away from rural living. “It hasn’t just started in the last five years, it has been happening for many, many years. We’ve been facing the depopulation of rural Ireland and particularly the west of Ireland.
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“It’s not just my club, there are lots of clubs that have similar issues. It’s the polar opposite in the urban settings, where numbers are too high and there are challenges with player retention and that side of things.”
In terms of demographics, few clubs in the country have had as difficult an experience as Kilkee, which has a proud history, having won the county senior football championship eight times, most recently in 2005.
Twenty years on the club has just one adult team, which competes at junior A level. Chairman Diarmuid Keane says its numbers have been in freefall.
“We were in the county senior final in 2009 and we were senior up to 2017,” said Keane. “It’s maybe the most dramatic fall in Clare in terms of how far down we’ve gone so fast, and a lot of that is to do with the drop off in population.
“If you go back to 2008 we would have had a senior panel with 28 or 29 on it and a junior A panel with probably 25 on it. Now we have one team, Junior A, and we have 23 players. The pool has dropped from close to 50 down to less than 25.”
At underage, Kilkee has joined up with neighbouring clubs O’Curry’s and Naomh Eoin, but even the three combined struggle to get 20 players at most age groups.
A generation whose children might have carried the flame have largely left Kilkee, says Keane. “We would have a lot of club members who would have been big players for us in the 90s and early 2000s, and they’re now living in Ennis and the surrounding areas. They might be living in Limerick, basically they’re living where the work is, where the houses and opportunities are.”
While the dysfunctional housing market is a national problem, there is an extra layer of complication in coastal areas like Kilkee, with local people frequently priced out by wealthy holiday home purchasers.
Keane feels that even if there was some local building, local people wouldn’t get the chance to live in their home place.
“There has been no new housing development in Kilkee in over 20 years. Nothing. Anything that does come, it’ll be by an outside developer and it’ll be earmarked for holiday homes. It might be sold as permanent housing to keep the Council happy, but there’s no doubt they’ll be picked up from Limerick or Dublin or people outside the country, cash buyers who will pay well over the odds and buy them as holiday homes. The houses will be unoccupied for 44 or 45 weeks of the year.”
Eighty-five kilometres away in east Clare, Feakle GAA had an unforgettable 2024, winning the county senior hurling championship for the first time since the 80s, while Eibhear Quilligan and Adam Hogan starred as Clare won the All-Ireland.
Yet the club has problems with numbers at underage, despite an ongoing amalgamation with neighbouring Killanena, according to chairman Mark Clune.
“It is a struggle, yeah, it is in fairness. We are struggling to field at under 13 C level this year, which is 13-a-side and that’s with Killanena. I’d be on to our politicians every time they come out, we just need more houses in the area, because the population is declining. Having said all that the next group coming after that, at under eight and under nine there would be a good crop coming, so it’s not all bad.”
Clune feels that in areas close to Ennis there is a huge level of development, while parishes like Feakle that are only slightly more peripheral, are seeing their populations fall.
“The amount of houses going into Tulla (only 10 minutes from Feakle), it’s unbelievable. If you look at Lissycasey and places like that, anywhere within 20 minutes or so of Ennis seems to be thriving and if you go that bit further it’s a different story. ”
O’Connor says he is determined that all the struggling clubs across Clare are supported.
“A lot of the clubs that are rural and struggling have some of the proudest GAA people that you will ever come across. They have provided players to the county for many a year, and you don’t want to see years and years of tradition just wilt away and nothing be done about it. As a county we should do everything we possibly can to support them with the challenges they face.”
– Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007
