By Cian O’Connell

Quickly adapting to changed circumstances was the chief method of surival in a year like no other. For Clontarf GAA club serving the community mattered deeply in a most trying 2020.

Sport always counts, but affairs away from the field of play dominated the agenda with Clontarf, part of the latest wave of GAA Healthy Clubs, keen to make a substantial impact. That is precisely what happened with an admirable volunteering effort and significant fundraising initiatives undertaken.

In September, though, the club wanted to truly assess what was required to further improve their offering for all concerned. So a community consultation took place with Clontarf GAA Healthy Club Officer Ciaran Doran explaining how it all unfolded.

“It was prompted by the Healthy Clubs programme, we applied to take part in the Healthy Clubs programme before Christmas in 2019,” Doran says.

“We were accepted on to the fourth wave of the Healthy Clybs programme. I'm the Healthy Clubs Officer in Clontarf, we have gone through webinars and there was a conference in Croke Park in February.

“We know that it is good practice to reach out to the community, to seek views on what areas of focus people would like us to particularly concentrate on.

“So we knew it was a good idea to do this, we were very keen to do it. To get an idea of what people in the club and also in the local community, what areas they feel we should focus on under our Healthy Clubs programme. That was the origin of it.”

Ultimately, a GAA club is about much more than simply fielding teams at various age groups. “Absolutely, that has really come to us, particularly recently,” Doran admits. “Just with everything that has happened, you would obviously reflect, but in a way it is kind of obvious.

“It really came home with us being able to play so few games, training has been so disrupted. We sort of realised for people involved in a club, how much they would get out of it over and above what they might have thought in terms of a bit of fitness, taking part in a team sport.

“All of the other benefits you get in your wellbeing from being involved in a club, whether as a player or a parent or a coach or whatever. Also I think like a lot of GAA clubs we'd be very conscious of our place in the community. I know this is probably more clearcut in a rural community, but even in a completely urban community, like we are in Clontarf.

“We really feel like we are in the heart of the community and we want to give back as much as possible. It really fits with the ethos.

“The whole Healthy Clubs idea is how we would be predisposed anyway. Then the idea of doing a community consultation is just such a great idea. We shouldn't assume that we know what people might like us to focus on. It is really good to ask their opinion, if that makes sense.”

Presently a demand for knowledge exists in the world and Doran was struck by some of the findings and things people want to be explored and developed by the club.

“Particularly around the area of mental fitness and I think the GAA have coined that phrase to cover anything to do with positive mental health and resilience,” Doran replies.

“There is a thirst for knowledge and information around that. We are really trying to take away the stigma about it, to support people in terms of positive mental health.

“That term is so good - mental fitness - it just conveys the point. Physical fitness you can work on it and improve it. Sometimes you might get injured or not be as strong as other times in the year or whatever. It is dynamic.”

So now, in this deeply uncertain time, what are the next steps that can be taken by the Clontarf GAA Healthy Clubs group?

“The outcome of the consultation gave us some very clear direction,” Doran remarks. “It actually lined up with feedback we got already. So basically we give people the choice for different areas of focus and asked them to prioritise them.

“Mental fitness came through very strongly, basically as a number one priority for people. The second one is social inclusion and they are both very broad.

“Social inclusion can mean a range of things, but it is basically about involving people in the club or reaching out, helping people, who wouldn't normally be your target demographic, if you like, young boys and girls, who would be playing age.

“The consultation has given us a really clear direction that those are the two priorities for people, not that the other areas aren't important. When you ask what are we going to do next? The first thing is we have thought about those two areas and we have looked at what we can do with Covid and everything else.”

So Clontarf GAA now want to ensure that the various panels within the club embrace some of the new initiatives and methods.

“We planned to put a particular emphasis on mental fitness in January,” Doran adds. “We have lined up a really good speaker towards the end of January to talk about it for all of our mentors and anyone in the club interested.

“Following that we are going to put out a request and expectation that every team as part of their preparation for the season has a discussion in this space. That is difficult because when teams come together they want to talk about training and matches or playing.

“We want and are asking the mentors to have mental fitness as part of the conversation, to have positive mental health in the conversation with their teams. That is the immediate focus in that respect. Social inclusion, we have lots of things we'd love to do and a lot of them we just can't do right now.

“We are definitely going to take part in 'Ireland Lights Up' the walking initiative. I know that may be challenged with Covid restrictions, but even if people have to do it virtually or on their own, we are definitely going to encourage everybody involved in the club, and we are going to get it out into the local community, to take part in that walking challenge, to get out walking in the months of January and February.”

Doran has found the Clontarf GAA executive committee to be extremely proactive and helpful. That is vital for the successful implementation of Healthy Club projects.

“There is no doubt that we have it, and we are delighted with that,” Doran states. “I think we have taken on board the lessons from previous waves of Healthy Clubs and listened to what people have said to us in terms of what works and what doesn't.

“That point about buy in, it is really important. One person or even one group of people can't do this on their own, especially with a relatively big club like Clontarf. We have a Healthy Clubs project team which has nine people on it, two of them are executive members.

“This is a standing item in the executive every month. I give a monthly update, but also informing the Healthy Clubs project team, the executive have been excellent. In terms of everything we have done so far the executive have been really helpful, the chair and the other members.

“They have helped us for instance put together a Healthy Clubs project team which is really representative of the club. It is a real cross section, it isn't necessarily people who have been involved with the club before.

“We have representatives of mentors, players, parents, and people who really didn't have any involvement with the club. So the executive have helped us form a really good, strong project team - they definitely are behind us and supporting us all of the way.”