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

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.
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