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I agree JWB.
ESRI in 2004 had GAA football played by 4% of your population, hurling 3%. Generally speaking, excluding walking, sport participation rates across both GB and Ireland are around 55%, so that would leave the other 48% available to all other sports. The size of that difference is not only small but also only exists if you can't establish similar local factors elsewhere. Equivalent local factors may be a greater portfolio of sports (be that a greater number of niche market sports, an interest in winter sports or whatever) or patterns of over-representation and emphasis in specific sports. |
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Who are ESRI , Inner ?
Would have thought those figures are way off in representing what actually happens .. Suppose it depends whats constitutes "playing" . And where the playing age is drawn . Golf is probably our most played sport across the country , we have 400 clubs plus with probably 500 in each club , which works out around 5% of the population . But the number of people under 30 playing golf is less than 10% of those playing GAA . Shows how you can manipulate figures . Our 2 local GAA clubs have 1000 paying members plus , each . Guarantee you you will travel far and wide in these isles to match that in terms of participation at local level , all amateur , no hype , no stars , no Olympic medals , some All-Ireland medals from 20 years ago , thats all . Playing fields are full every weekend , 300 there today on summer scheme for kids , all paid for by ourselves . Thats the way it should be , in an ideal world . Volunteer supervision . No cost to the state . Others could copy . |
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They're the major research institute in Ireland.
The major issues for both GB and Ireland in terms of sport are culturally pretty similar. -The overall participation rates are too low in both countries. -Both countries experience a massive drop in team sport participation at the start of adulthood (75% drop off) (people move away, people start jobs, less free time) so targeting individual sports at a younger age may be beneficial, particularly in terms of the olympics. -The cult of the gym has taken over. -Unreliable weather, too much time indoors, long, dark, wet winters. -Not as organised or as active in getting people into sport. I was speaking to an Aussie at the Olympic park on Saturday, and he was saying it's routine at late primary school age that as part of their medical they are assessed for their body type with a view to finding a suitable sport to match. In my day you had a choice of rugby or football in winter and cricket or cricket in the summer! |
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Adjusting for population, Ireland are 16th in the world in the gold medal table, ahead of the US, Russia, France, Germany and Japan. Grenada are top.
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Like several other large European countries, Britain benefits in sporting terms through the historical legacy of empire building and colonialism, especially in Africa and Asia, and in much more recent decades, inward economic immigration. People who are familiar with the 1908 Olympic games in London will appreciate just how many gold medal winners, representing Britain and USA, were actually Irish.
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Great seeing the British do so well.After team GB the irish are the next on my list of teams to support and used to enjoy
watching Sonia o'sullivan. Not sure why they aren't doing too well but you can bet your life that if they were they would be getting immense support from the Irish supporters. It's probably down to a lack of facilities/funding .They don't have to have top end coaches they can have them brought in like other countries have. Maybe it all comes down to a lack of wealth in the country as I'm pretty sure they'll have some talented sports people there. |
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