Unleashing 'The Blue Wave' A Strategy for Dublin GAA - Croke Park

UNLEASHING “THE BLUE WAVE”
more ‘occasions of sin’ than rural Ireland and it was proving impracticable
to police the regulations. Members of the Dublin County Committee
pioneered the propaganda battle, but it was only when the clubs and
counties of rural Ireland joined in support that the rule was jettisoned. The
impact of the rule change is still unclear. The optimism of its proponents
that its removal would lead to a resurgence of Gaelic games in the second
level schools, which traditionally favoured ‘foreign games’, was misplaced as
was the pessimism of its defenders that Gaelic games in the cities would be
unable to compete with soccer and rugby. With the passage of time and the
intense specialisation within all sports we have now reached the stage where
dual players at senior inter-county level are banned de facto from playing
both hurling and football.
Within Ireland the emphasis on economic and physical planning developed
apace from the 1960s. The GAA set down its response to changing
circumstances in the McNamee Commission report published in 1971. It
was perceived that the complexity of a modern organisation such as the GAA
could not be efficiently governed according to the structures laid down in
different days. In time governance by committee and professional
administrators, rather than the representative model of delegates from
individual clubs all having a say, became the norm in Dublin.
Two coincidences helped the GAA in Dublin deal with the unprecedented
scale of population growth in the 1970s and later. One was the
farsightedness of administrators who pushed through the reforms
recommended by McNamee and who constantly emphasised to clubs the
importance of having both a ground and a social centre that would anchor
the local community to them. Active intervention rather than a policy of
laissez faire was the order of the day. The County Board was unable to fill in
all the gaps on the map of the GAA in Dublin and its policy of fixing clubs
in parish/suburbs had disastrous consequence for the old ‘gallowglass’ clubs
who were like nations without territories. Time and again throughout the
years clubs evolved rather than being imposed. It was the coming together
of a group who had the faith that was as instrumental in the 1970s as it
was in the 1880s.
The other conjunction was the coincidence of population growth in the new
suburbs with the emergence in the 1970s of what has to be regarded as
Dublin’s most successful football team of all times. Fondly remembered as
the golden age of Gaelic football in the capital, the team and its
managers/selectors captured public imagination and became positive
symbols for the game and the county. Their youthful dash and flowing style
became the measure by which all those who went before and those who
came after were to be assessed. Since 1977 the remainder of the century
returned to a kind of struggling normality punctuated by the All-Ireland
victories of 1983 and 1995. Sadly, there was no parallel success in hurling
but the hurlers never lost the faith and the County Board through new
structures and the voluntary commitment of dedicated enthusiasts have
turned the tide with a hurling league title in 2011.
However, when one looks at our clubs they have been very successful at all
age levels.
Dublin has enjoyed unprecedented success in the national Féile
competitions. In hurling Dublin emerged victorious to claim the Christy Ring
Cup (Division 1), in two of the last seven Féile na nGael finals with
Castleknock’s glory in 2007 coming two years after Kilmacud Crokes’
success. Prior to that Ballyboden St Enda’s (1992) had been Dublin’s sole
winners of the coveted competition dating back to its inauguration in 1971.
In football Dublin’s representatives have enjoyed even greater success in
modern times – being crowned National Féile Peil na nÓg winners on eight
occasions in the last 12 years including the last four years in succession. St
Vincent’s commenced this golden era with victory in Croke Park in 2000
and St Brigid’s retained the title the following year. Since then Kilmacud
Crokes (2003) and St Sylvester’s (2005) also won the Féile title before the
four in-a-row of Kilmacud Crokes (2008), Ballyboden St Enda’s (2009), Na
Fianna (2010) and Ballymun Kickhams (2011).
Dublin’s club football champions have prospered in the last decade in the
All-Ireland series and even more so in the provincial club championship. St
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