Croke Park is in danger of being the healthiest place in Ireland this weekend as an array of fascinating speakers and delegates gather for the GAA’s third annual health and wellbeing forum and conference, in association with Irish Life.

Saturday’s free conference, which booked out in a matter of weeks, gathers together some of the GAA’s leading health proponents and practitioners to dissect the many facets of life and sport that help support our wellbeing. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Healthy Clubs…Healthy Games’.

The event also acts as a showcase for the GAA’s flagship ‘Healthy Clubs project’, currently involving 60 clubs across the four provinces, at least one in each county.

A series of interactive workshops will feature special guest contributions and a case study from one Healthy Club. They include:

**• Activate - **How to Make Your Club more Physically Active: featuring contributions from Kilkenny All-star Micheal Fennelly, a lecturer in Nutrition, Coaching and Sports Performance for Limerick IT, and the Aghamore club in Mayo who run a very successful operation transformation type event for their community.

• Healthy Eating – Recipes for Success: featuring Sharon Courtney, Monaghan Ladies Football All-Star and lecturer in Sport & Exercise Nutrition in Dundalk IT, with a case study by Laois Healthy Club, Clonad, who have rolled out this programme with notable success.

• Mental Fitness – The Ways to Wellbeing: featuring Lauralee Walsh, Westmeath ladies footballer and Irish international rugby player, with a case study by the Craobh Chiaráin, Dublin, a club that has prioritised mental fitness as part of their Healthy Club journey.

**• The Social Initiative – **The importance of making your club Age Friendly: With Professor Eamon O’Shea, inaugural Director of the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, and former Tipperary senior hurling manager. Eamon will be joined by the Galway’s Healthy Club, Ballinderreen, who are ensuring that their club is a hub for older members of their community.

**• Gambling Awareness – **Cutting the Odds: Fresh from another county title with his club Rhode, Niall McNamee, Offaly footballer and gambling awareness advocate with the GPA will be joined by former Galway hurler and addiction counsellor Justin Campbell to explore this topic.

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Delegates include leaders who have taken on the role of health and wellbeing officer in their club and are looking for ideas and inspiration. They will be joined by representatives of the GAA’s 32 County Health & Wellbeing Committees who will also attend a special forum tonight (Friday) to workshop their action plans for the coming 12 months and to reflect on and review their exceptional work over the past year.

At the same time representatives from the 60 Healthy Clubs will be receiving a workshop on the new Healthy Club portal during what promises to be a busy weekend for some of the Association’s unsung volunteer heroes.

Special guests

Saturday’s conference will be opened by special guest, Minister of State for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, T.D., before DCU’s professor Niall Moyna delivers one of inspirational plenary sessions on ‘Healthy Clubs…Healthy Games’.

The delegates then break out into the above workshops (attending one before and one after lunch) before Evanne Ní Chuilinn rounds up the GAA special guests for a panel discussion touching on their experiences of health and wellbeing, how their careers has supported their journeys, and what they have taken from the day’s experience.

Minister Corcoran Kennedy described the work of the GAA Healthy Club project and the County Health and Wellbeing Committees as truly inspirational in the context of the sporting world and stated ‘as a national governing body the GAA is exemplary with the commitment to promote health and wellbeing’.

The GAA Health & Wellbeing Forum and Conference weekend has been made possible by Irish Life’s generous corporate social responsibility investment which is dedicated to changing lives for the better in communities across the 32 counties through the GAA Healthy Club project. The event also supports the ideals of Healthy Ireland.

Post event details and videos will be available at www.gaa.ie/community from the beginning of November.