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

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UNLEASHING “THE blue wave” A Strategy for Dublin GAA 2011-2017 1. INTRODUCTION But the Dublin of old statutes, this arrogant city; Stirs proudly and secretly in my blood The city, they say, is recruited from the country. The blue-clad supporters who spend many summer Sundays with their backs to the Dublin-Sligo train line would demur; Dublin made them, and no little town… The relationship between the Dublin GAA club and the migrating generations who settled in the capital to work has always been reinforcing; the ideal of the GAA club, as a central point of communal empathy, is central to rural, village and provincial town life in Ireland. It is an ideal that continues to be carried by GAA people who settle in Dublin bolstering the existing traditional values. Enshrined in the ethos of the Association, we aspire through our clubs to achieve a strong sense of local identity. However, the ideal is increasingly nuanced in a burgeoning city where a GAA club’s membership can rival the population of a small town. Dublin is a county, governed by four local authorities, where parish boundaries are either antiquated or irrelevant; where the maxim for many could be ‘one life, three clubs.’ Whither the community and whither the intricate challenge facing Dublin’s GAA administrators How can local identity be defined when one shares a common environment with a huge population Is the challenge different across Dublin’s variant socioeconomic demographics How can we best harness the GAA’s truly classless ethos to unleash the Power of The Blue The complexities of modern city life in Dublin, of sprawling urban growth, cultural diversity, rapid population increase, spatial restriction and social mobility have forced a fundamental rethink for what the GAA means and where the GAA is going… and not just in Dublin. The economic downturn is also shaping this new approach, centring on the twin challenges of resourcing and emigration, but equally heightening the GAA’s responsibility to help alleviate the adverse consequences of recession. With nearly one in every three children in the 26 counties born to a mother resident in Dublin, the challenge of the county is a challenge for the Association whose future is increasingly linked to urban growth. But if the challenge is obvious why do senior Dublin administrators remain thin on the ground in Croke Park There is an interdependent relationship between the development of Gaelic games in Dublin and the future 03
UNLEASHING “THE BLUE WAVE” Increasing and improving access to games for players from all backgrounds and genders is an essential component of any strategic plan. wellbeing of the GAA. The work of the capital’s administrators is critical to the realisation of the GAA’s national ambition while the Association’s central and provincial hierarchies must recognise that the absence of a permanent Dublin presence at the respective top tables leaves perspectives dangerously incomplete. And although the need for tangible support from the Leinster Council and Croke Park is critical, the challenge of nurturing and safeguarding Dublin’s GAA identity and its growth ambition is a challenge that must be met by people whose vision and passion is, as the American troubadour put it, Tangled up in Blue. Ambition must be sanity checked and guided by the principles of county identity. Our flagship teams – our senior footballers and hurlers – must never be divided. That is not to be insular or ignore the reality and scale of what lies ahead. Nor is it to shirk radical thought and action which may help sustain and develop our national games in the capital. Increasing and improving access to games for players from all backgrounds and genders is an essential component of any strategic plan. The tide has turned in 2011 but Dublin’s relative lack of success at All-Ireland level hitherto is proof enough that a crude numbers game is not enough. Talent must be nurtured, experiences must be positive, opportunity must be widespread, and resources must be allocated. The relationships between all strands have to be managed effectively. The collective goals of club and county cannot be mutually exclusive. County success nurtures the dream, club volunteers nurture the reality. The continued commercial health of the inter-county game remains essential for the wider Association but we need to examine how well we are served by the traditional models of competition. As an important component of that commercial reality, Dublin has a serious role to play in future developments. Dublin’s hurling revolution, now posing new but welcome challenges for Dublin GAA, is testimony to the value of long-term planning, strategic thinking and passionate ambition. It is also proof that with the courage of conviction, even to the point of positive discrimination, serious obstacles can be overcome. But all revolutions require momentum and hurling will be sustained longterm by senior county success. While the game is projected to grow faster than football at grassroots level over the next five years, the dream must continue to be nurtured, to ensure that Dublin hurling is equally tangled in blue the dream, our future, must be Blue. The Blue Jersey is a unique, inclusive brand, uniting Dublin’s dense expanse, blurring the difference in class and possession which became so pointedly manifest during the delusional days of the Celtic Tiger. Dublin’s county teams are of monumental cultural and social importance to the city but, with over a fifth of the country’s population resident here, they are also of enormous strategic importance to the future wellbeing of the GAA. While Blue must become the colour of success, this is no cheap marketing gimmick. Blue is the colour of our Dublin heritage, of our Irish, Gaelic identity in the capital city, the colour that helped separate the capital from its colonial past. It is the colour of the ideal… of Heffernan and Foley, of Mullins and Doherty, of Boland and McMahon, of Barr and Curran, of Brogan and Whelan, of Rushe and Keaney… of Hill 16. It is an extraordinarily effective promotional tool, enshrined in the anthem of the county’s often maligned but fiercely loyal supporters. Blue is also the colour of a commercial phenomenon, of capacity crowds, of broadcasting schedules and of ambitious sponsorship. But it is a success harnessed by the centre which can serve to sustain the peripheries. 04
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