With a pause in on-field activity, GAA clubs from around the country are assembling teams of a different kind.
On February 3 at the opening workshop of the GAA’s new Green Club programme, 45 clubs from across Ireland took their first steps towards setting up their first Green Teams.
Working closely with expert partners north and south across the areas of Energy, Waste, Water, Transport and Biodiversity, the Green Teams will lead green actions and activities in their clubs as well as supporting the GAA in developing a Green Club Toolkit to give guidance to GAA clubs across the country.
The Green Club programme will also provide a platform for clubs to share their own experiences and learn from the challenges met and successes enjoyed by other clubs.
Armagh club Culloville Blues are one of three Green Club Programme mentor clubs along with Mullingar Shamrocks and Dundalk’s Clan na Gael, and are currently busying themselves with the development of a biodiversity walking route around their club grounds.
Armagh Club Culloville Blues are developing a biodiversity walkway around their club grounds.
In recent years they purchased adjacent land that has allowed them to develop a 100 metre link-way between their two pitches which will now form part of a walkway of almost 2km in length.
“We're very keen to put a lot of that walkway back to a natural biodiversity state,” says Culloville Blues Club Secretary, Terence McCreesh.
“We have 100 metres of natural hedging and native trees coming from the Woodland trust next month so that's the first boundary from the land that we purchased from the farmer.
“We've been in contact with the biodiversity officer in the local council and we had a visit from them.
“We have a couple of very overgrown boundary areas around one of our pitches and there's a lot of potential there because there's wildlife growing and a lot of birds.
“There are are alder trees growing there to secure the bank and the biodiversity officer came out and thought it was beautiful. It's a wee natural woodland, so she has given us ideas about planting native bulbs in there.”
The alder trees that will form part of Culloville Blues GAC's biodiversity walk.
Culloville Blues hope to successfully apply for funding from a range of different sources to help them with their Green Club Programme and are keen to share any helpful tips they learn along the way with other GAA clubs.
“The local council have a biodiversity grant of up to £1,500 we hope to avail of which would be hugely helpful,” says McCreesh.
“Then there's a couple of organisations we've made contact with that have been very helpful such as Live Here Love Here.
“They're very much into promoting pride of place and helping the environment with initiatives such as the Big Spring Clean that promotes litter-picking. They offer a small grant to help with that.
“They also have a small grant for biodiversity and it can be anything from £500 to £5,000. That would be of huge help to any club looking to promote biodiversity on their grounds.
“They have another initiative called Adopt a Spot where you carry out four clean ups a year of a particular area in your locality. We've adopted a spot between our village and the pitch.
“There's another one up in the North called Awards for All that's part of the National Lottery. We intend to apply for lighting to light the walkway.
“We need to be able to share ideas like that. While we're very competitive on the field and we don't want to think our neighbours down the road have one up on us, I think when it comes to things like community and health and wellness and the Green Club Project, things that serve to make a GAA club and its community even prouder of itself, then we should be more helpful to each other and share these ideas.
“If you can get help from somebody that has experienced success and can give you little pointers, isn't that what being a member of the GAA family should be all about?”
Work in progress at Culloville Blues GAC's biodiversity walk.
McGreesh believes that the Green Club Programme is a natural fit for GAA clubs because it promotes pride of place which is the core ethos of the Association.
One of the silver linings of the Covid 19 pandemic is that people have reconnected with the geography and ecology of their local area because travelling further afield hasn’t been an option during lockdown.
Around Culloville, children have discovered the natural play-areas by the River Fane that had become overgrown since their own parents were in their youth.
The outdoor handball alley up the road in Corrinshigo that had grown quiet in recent years is thriving again after local children discovered it and parents got involved cleaning it out to give it a new lease of life.
“It’s been great to see,” says McCreesh.
"Covid has given us an opportunity to reconnect with our local areas, to appreciate the nature around us and promote being better to the environment.
“A huge amount of people around here who noticed rubbish because they were out walking now bring a bag with them to pick up whatever rubbish they come across.
“We had a meeting recently in the club where we were talking about promoting pride in the club and fostering a culture of pride and identity with the club and the village and the environment we live in.
“It's about pride of place and one of the simplest but most effective way to show pride in where you live is to not litter, and pick up the litter left by others who might have been passing through that you do find.”
The Culloville Blues jersey that promotes local charities and Healthy Club messaging.
Culloville were also pilot members of the Healthy Club Project which has made a lasting impact on their community and McCreesh believes the Green Club Programme can be a force for good in a similar way.
“There's things that we do now which are just part of our fabric thanks to the Healthy Club Project,” he says.
“Promoting mental health is just a given now. We do the green ribbon campaign every May. It's just a subtle way of saying to everyone in the club and community, "Lets just look out for each other, and if I'm wearing the green ribbon you know why I'm wearing it, if you want to chat just let me know."
“Last year we did our own ‘Culloville Lights Up’ initiative where we invited people up for a wee walk in remembrance of anyone who had tragically lost their life but also for anyone that survived.
“It was just to show solidarity with people and to show we're thinking of you abnd we were astonished with the numbers that came out for it.
“For one minute we turned off the floodlights so there was total darkness and then asked people to shine a light and for that minute to be thinking positively about someone who passed away or their own troubles and to then look around at the support there was for them in their own community.
"This year we knew we'd be playing another team that also wore blue jersies and that we'd need a change of kit so we decided we wouldn't go looking for a sponsor, we'd go with a Healthy Club jersey instead. So we had the Samaritans logo on the back and five health and wellbeing messages on the front of the jersey.
“On the sleeves we had suicide awareness charities P.I.P Hope and Support, Aware, Lifeline, and the green ribbon. It was all about just making people aware that if you do need help there are loads of different agencies you can reach out to.”
The Healthy Club Project made Culloville Blues an even more positive presence in their local community than they had been before and McCreesh expects the Green Club Programme to continue that trend.
“It's great to get people involved in the club in a slightly different way so it's not just only about sport,” he says.
“It makes us even more central to the community, and if Covid has taught us anything it's the value of people coming together and helping one another which we've seen more and more of.
“This Green Club Programme is a journey and we're on the start of it. We have plenty of ideas, but we're just really looking forward to the completion of this first project which I think will be a big plus for the club.
“We'll take it in baby-steps with the Green Club Project just like we did with the Healthy Club Project.
“What I would say to other clubs is that while you might have loads of lovely ideas, realistically it's about focusing on one, being successful with it, and then building from there.”
For more information on the GAA’s new Green Club Programme visit the Green Club websiteor contact greenclubs@gaa.ie