Emigtration & The GAA - Wexfords Story, What's Yours?

Taken from the New Ross Standard Via the Global GAA Twitter feed -

Whilst emigration appears to be a big problem for clubs such as HWH-Bunclody, it hasn't had the same impact on Wexford County GAA, and thus this may be a reason why 'It hasn't really come up as an issue for the Wexford County Board,' according to PRO Mary Foley. 'Most team lists are staying the same,' she said, while also putting forward the point that many players take a year out to travel to places like Australia, and then return to play for their former clubs again.

However, Liam Kelly of HWHBunclody says that of the ten players that have left Bunclody in the last two years, 'we cannot see many of them returning due to a continued lack of work'. Whilst Mrs. Foley recognised that some clubs throughout the county have been affected by emigration, she believes that the problem is still relatively small scale, a point with which Liam Kelly strongly disagrees. 'I think emigration is a major problem country-wide and anyone who thinks any different is fooling themselves. Players will continue to emigrate for the next couple of years as a shortage of work continues. I know of several clubs who have suffered the same as ourselves, in some cases worse, and are really struggling to put out teams.'

One such team is St. Patrick's of Ballyoughter/Camolin. A spokesperson for the club said: 'Our squad has been haemorrhaging players since 2005, players who have played on our first teams and have been substantial role models to our younger squad members.'

Since 2005, St. Patrick's has lost 13 club members to emigration, again with Australia being the destination of choice. One cannot overestimate the devastating effect this can have on a small, tightly-knit club. In comparison to the plight of Bunclody, the spokesperson said: 'Bunclody have been badly hit by emigration, but they appear to have the numbers to weather the storm'.

On October 16, 2004, St. Patrick's beat St. Aidan's of Ferns to claim the Breen Hardware Intermediate hurling replay. A look back to the great success of this team paints a picture of its own, as seven of the players (Stephen Morris, Kevin Kavanagh, Liam Kenny, Damien Carter, James Hobbs, Richard Flood, Pádraic Flood) who played a part in the victory have since emigrated to Australia with no view to returning home.

Whilst emigration has not yet had a massive effect on inter-county GAA in Wexford, one would question how long it will be before we start to lose a lot of our inter-county stars.

Damien Carter, who is one of the most recent losses to St. Patrick's after leaving for Australia in August, was on the Senior county football team in 2009 and 2010, whilst Kevin Kavanagh (who Damien has joined in Australia) played on the county Intermediate hurling team in 2010 and has represented the county frequently at under-age.

The emigration of these talented young Wexford men, combined with the previously mentioned high-profile casualties that other counties have suffered, certainly makes for worrying reading.

It would appear however that Ireland's loss is Australia's gain, with Secretary of the Gaelic Football and Hurling Association of Australasia, Gerard Roe, reporting an increase of about 40% to the amount of players signing up with the Australian GAA.

Also when I asked Gerard about whether Australian GAA has benefitted from the increasing number of Irish emigrants he said: 'In playing numbers and skills it has. The downside would be that less locals are playing in some states'.

Gerard also mentioned that Croke Park has assisted with funding ground developments in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, however the facilities which he alluded to were a far cry from those that Kevin Kavanagh plays on week in, week out.

With more and more people choosing to leave Ireland at an alarming rate, it really is inevitable that our native sports will suffer.

As GAA is an amateur sport, the players, whilst passionate and dedicated to the game, are being forced to emigrate in search of employment opportunities that have all but vanished at home.

The problem of emigration has not yet been viewed as a major one, either locally by Wexford County Board, or by the GAA at large.

However, maybe it's time the GAA tackle this problem before it gets worse, before the standard of inter-county GAA drastically declines, and before struggling clubs like St. Patrick's and HWHBunclody are all but wiped out.

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Is this the biggest threat to rural GAA clubs? Whats the situation like in your county for GAA players moving overseas in the pursuit of work? As and already exiled ex-GAA player i am out of touch with the movements of players nowadays, and where i now live there isn't a GAA club for just shy of 100 miles. Is your club being affected by emigration?

The main reason i moved primarily was to do with work, or lack of it where i lived, so i took a job in England and joined the local GAA club. The club it has to be said had a massive turnover of players yearly due to it being in a big university city so you would get a lot of people coming from Ireland to complete their masters etc and others moving for work. While this was a great boost to the "club" it was also a hinderance as we didn't have a youth set up (and still don't) due to this large turn over, and the lack of interest in the slightest in coaching any kids, the club only had 1 team. I don't think it's changed much but then again i haven't been in touch with them in ages to find out.