St. Aidan's Magilligan putting hurling on the map in north Derry

By John Harrington

William O’Doherty never had an opportunity to play hurling in his youth with his club St. Aidan’s, Magilligan.

He has always regretted that, and it’s why he’s so determined that the game can now be a sporting option for a new generation living in the north-western tip of Derry.

St. Aidan’s were one of 45 new hurling units to avail of hurling starter packs last year and O’Doherty hopes they can grow something meaningful from humble beginnings.

“The initial motivation was a personal one to be honest,” he told GAA.ie “I love hurling as a sport and even though I never played it I didn't want that to stop me.

“My two girls have been playing camogie with the club for the past four years. Camogie only started in the club then and it was started by four coaches who never played the game that much either.

“That gave me a wee bit of confidence to think, well, okay, they're doing it and they're keeping going, so why can't we do it for the boys as well?

“The camogie is going very well, they probably have round 85% of the girls in the area involved at U8, U10, and U12 level and they hope to target the U14 section next and engage more girls in the community.

“It's been slower for the hurling so far in terms of the numbers, but hopefully that will grow with time.

“I've spoken to Kevin Hinphey (Ulster GAA Regional Hurling Development Officer) a lot and he's always said it will take time to build up and we just have to keep working at it.”

O’Doherty doesn’t mind admitting that getting hurling up and running in St. Aidan’s has been a struggle at times.

When there’s no tradition of a sport in an area it can be a challenge to convince people it’s a worthwhile endeavour, and there are also some who view it as a threat rather than a complementary sport to Gaelic football.

“People can make hurling out to be more complicated than it actually is,” says O’Doherty. “I think there's also a massive fear factor about hurling from a football point of view.

“Some people view it as a threat to football which it really isn't. It's just an opportunity for children to play another sport that complements football.

“We should give children the opportunity to play as many sports as we can and them ultimately let them decide what they want to do down the line or continue to play both.

“We've seen how playing hurling is actually improving them as footballers. We've one wee boy in particular whose coordination and motor skills have improved significantly since he got involved with hurling. His parents maintain that it's the hurling that has really pushed him on.

“To me, that's my proof that hurling and football can complement each other.

“The kids are really enjoying it so it would be great if parents pushed it a wee bit more. There's a big culture of Gaelic football in the community and this is a new sport.

“For most of the parents football is all we have known and it's trying to break that cycle in a way.”

O’Doherty is hopeful that St. Aidan’s could boost their playing numbers by becoming a hurling hub for their wider geographic area that other GAA clubs that only currently cater for football could feed into.

“There's one place I'd love to see more hurlers coming out from and that's Limavady,” he says.

“Hurling coaches have gone to the primary schools there in the past couple of years and have been coaching boys and girls there who have never played the sport before.

“I know the camogie team in our club have gained a couple of players off the back of that so hopefully that will bear fruit for the hurlers as well.

“Limavady is a big town with a large population and they only currently play Gaelic football there so I definitely think there's potential to introduce hurling to the kids there."

One of the most common challenges faced by new hurling clubs is coach recruitment because if someone hasn’t played hurling they often don’t believe they can coach it.

O’Doherty is working hard to challenge this mindset and knows getting more enthusiastic people involved as coaches will be crucial to the St. Aidan’s hurling project.

“Volunteers is the thing we've been really working on for the past couple of months,” he says. “We need to get more people involved so we can slowly build it up.

“We want people with a degree of passion for it to get involved who will enjoy it alongside the kids so it rubs off on them every week.

“I would like the coaches we've recently gotten involved to become more involved and come into themselves so they're not just coming to be part of a fun and learning environment, but to come with their own ideas and grow it in ways that I or the club haven't come up with so far.

“We recently got two more volunteers involved and I’m hopeful that they will give it a boost. They're both parents and their boys come regularly and they would be quite vocal people in the community. One of them is in the town of Limavady which I'm targeting and I'm hoping that through him and the other guy who is also involved in the local community centre that we can start working angles over the next year and try to do something with it because I really don't want it to fall down.”

Winning the battle for hearts and minds has been a challenge so far, but O’Doherty is happy to fight for a sport he loves.

“I'm very determined,” he says. “I'll go to my last breath, I'll keep trying."