Na Fianna bringing hurling and camogie to east Sligo

By John Harrington

Much like any business, the key to success for a sports club is to satisfy a demand.

Children will quickly fall in love with hurling if given the chance to play, but until this year there was no opportunity to do so in a large swathe of east Sligo.

That changed in March with the establishment of the county’s newest GAA club, Na Fianna, who have made hugely encouraging progress in a very short period of time.

That much was very obvious a couple of weeks ago when they brought 30 U-11 players to participate in Connacht GAA’s annual Go Games blitz at Croke Park.

A few short months ago the thought of young boys and girls from east Sligo playing hurling in Croke Park was fanciful, but now it has become a reality.

For Na Fianna club chairperson, Aidan McCormack, the sight of 30 children wearing their club colours in Croke Park was something very special.

“It was a core memory for all of the kids and I would argue a profound experience for them,” McCormack told GAA.ie

“You've got kids who would have been mainly from a Gaelic football background, and the big thing recently for them of course was of course Mayo winning the All-Ireland.

“A lot of our kids would live quite close to Mayo, so for them to effectively be amongst the next players to play on that pitch was profound for them.

“It was incredible to see the emotion on the kids' faces. First of all, going on a bus to Dublin was a big deal, and whenever Croke Park comes into view, and you see all these kids with their noses up against the window, and then they burst out of the bus to get into the stadium, and then actually getting on the pitch, it was amazing.

“They were actually touching the grass and all that sort of stuff, it was brilliant craic. It was a remarkable opportunity for them and Connacht GAA should be thanked for providing such an amazing day.”

Na Fianna cover a wide area in east Sligo where existing clubs like Ballymote, Bunninadden, Eastern Harps, Shamrock Gaels, St. Michael’s and Geevagh already provide the opportunity to play Gaelic football.

If you wanted to play hurling you had to travel significant distance or even cross the border into Roscommon. As far as McCormack was concerned, the need for a hurling outlet in the area was obvious.

“The part of Sligo that we are in, there’s a very strong, football tradition, a strong sporting tradition, but no hurling options for participation for kids,” says McCormack.

“So myself and a few others, some Sligo people, and then some blow-ins like myself, discussed trying to offer Go Games coaching.

“The county board and the hurling board in Sligo were extremely proactive and positive. Jerome Quinn who is the hurling board chair, and Declan Rouse the county chairman, helped pull together a discussion group about the best way to push it forward.

“It was decided to establish a hurling hub initially, just to gauge interest and have indoor sessions in Ballymote, which would sort of be the geographical centre of our patch as such.

“We ran indoor sessions and over 90 kids turned up, so it was clear that there was interest to at least try and hurling out.

"The county board were very positive and proactive then in helping us actually establish the structure of a club and to take it forward in terms of safeguarding, vetting, coaching registration, and affiliation with the GAA.

Na Fianna have hit the ground running because the club’s executive have made a concerted effort to connect with all potential stakeholders.

They’ve engaged with local schools, existing GAA clubs, potential sponsors, and hurling development staff at county, provincial, and national level.

They’ve been imaginative in how they’ve promoted their new club, and this has also helped to quickly grow their numbers.

“We held a competition with local school kids to design our new club crest, and we had over 600 entries which was amazing,” says McCormack. “We put it to the parents to have a final vote, and now that crest is on the jersey.

“We got our colours decided, which are purple, gold and grey, so it wouldn't clash with anything else, and our first sponsor is Markree Castle, a beautiful hotel. The manager of the hotel is actually our secretary, Nicholas Ryan from Tipperary, and he very generously purchased the first set of jerseys, which graced Croke Park.

“Our local county council, Paul Taylor, who is a well-known former Sligo county footballer, has also provided generous sponsorship as well, so the goodwill from everyone has been absolutely brilliant.

“We've sometimes played in Geevagh, sometimes in Bunninadden, sometimes in Shamrock Gaels, and we’re very appreciative of the facilities that have been made available to us.

“There's no getting away from the challenges around that, with working parents coming in after a day's work and then having to drive 45 minutes to the blitz or training. That's not easy, so we really are thankful to the parents for the energy they're getting behind us.

“The Sligo County Board have been very good, they couldn't have been better for us, but interestingly, in the part of the county that we're in, there's been a natural development too with the likes of Boyle in Roscommon, Carrick On Shannon in Leitrim, and some other clubs in Mayo.

“We’ve developed cross-border friendships in our geographical area and that’s been a great help in terms of organising blitzes because kids obviously want to play matches more so than just go training, so that’s been great for them.

“We’ve also gotten great encouragement too from Willie Maher (GAA National Head of Hurling).

“The Hurling Starter pack we received was hugely helpful, and I think the work that he's doing is unbelievable. We're constantly looking at our activities through the lens of the National Hurling Development Plan in terms of participation and promotion.”

Forming positive relationship with the existing clubs who provide the opportunity for children in the area to play Gaelic football has also been a top priority.

Rather than being in competition with Gaelic football, McCormack is convinced that hurling complements it.

“It is a unique model that we have in terms of sitting over effectively five Gaelic football clubs, and we're cognisant of their own time requirements and histories and traditions in the area, but we just really genuinely want to complement all of that and add to the area, rather than there be a fear about hurling being a distraction because we don't think that's the case.

“Cross-sport participation has huge benefits, and the most amazing stat I saw with that recently was about the Super Bowl.

“If you take all the players that played in the last 10 Super Bowls. Over 90% of them were multi-sport athletes until they were aged 16. Those elite athletes that make it to the Super Bowl play basketball, play baseball, play soccer, play American football, athletics.

“From my own personal background I know that a handballer makes a better footballer, a hurler makes a better footballer, and a basketballer makes a better footballer.

“There are also young people in the area that actually just prefer hurling to be quite honest, so I think we've a responsibility and obligation to them to provide the opportunity to play our national game.

“Our big thing is just trying to increase participation and the amount of times the kids actually hit a ball, trying to build up that bank of hours, and trying to create a culture of hurling where there wasn't a hurling culture before.”

Na Fianna have gotten off to a great start, but McCormack is acutely aware that big challenges like ahead.

Recruiting players isn’t the biggest challenge faced by new clubs that are established in areas where there is little previous tradition of hurling, recruiting coaches is.

If you are unable to get new coaches involved every year then too much work falls on the shoulders of too few and burn-out is inevitable.

“Coach participation and growing our culture will be one of our biggest challenges in terms of bringing through more and more coaches every year,” agrees McCormack.

“That will take time and help from the county board in terms of coaching, certification courses, vetting, safeguarding, and taking away the mystery of hurling.

“That age group aren't playing the Munster Final next week. Getting the basics right and get them having fun is a pretty good start, I think.

“Gavin Connolly, the coaching officer in Sligo, has been absolutely brilliant for us but we could do with 10 Gavins.

“Last year when we ran the competition for the design of the crest, it allowed me to actually like drive out to the schools and speak to the principals. Since then there were five specific national schools who have requested hurling coaching in September.

“The fact that they have actually asked for it means we need to capitalise on that. If some of them schools can start playing Cumann na mBunscol and put together teams, that would be amazing.

There are bound to be plenty of bumps in the road in the coming years, but McCormack is confident that Na Fianna can build on their strong start and become a vibrant hurling hub in the east of the county that provides the opportunity to play our national sport for any child who would like to experience it.

“In terms of what success looks like longer term, if we just stay in existence and contribute towards Sligo hurling, that's success to me,” he says.

“If we can build on these age groups and build up right through to the adult team, in 10, 11, 12 year’s time, and be competitive in Sligo, that's success.

“Longer term after that, if we can contribute a player or a number of players to Sligo county teams, that's the next level of success, and then we'll start dreaming again after that.

“But we're not under any illusions right now. If we can get just kids playing hurling in Sligo and enjoying it, and being innovative in how we do it, that's success, I think.”