By Kieran Lynch

WARRENPOINT club Cumann Pheadair Naofa are backing a new initiative called ‘GAA for All’ which allows Children who have special or additional needs, the opportunity to continue playing GAA.

Coordinator Declan Carville spoke to Gaelic Life about what the initiative is and explained how it caters to children who may not be able to continue playing Gaelic Games once they reach an age where it becomes more competitive.

“The GAA for All initiative is for kids who, for whatever reason, be it having a disability or additional needs, are not able to take part in mainstream team sports,” Carville explained.

“If they have found that they’re not able to participate, or that they don’t feel confident to go do it, this group is for them – anybody who doesn’t fit into the ‘normal’ teams, can come to us and be part of one.”

As for how the idea of GAA for All came to be, the inspiration comes from Declan and his wife Helen’s son Michael, whose love for playing Gaelic Games made it difficult for his parents to have to take him away from training.

“Michael is 12-years-old now, and he started off playing hurling in primary four, five, and six, and at that age they all just run after the ball in a big bunch, and it doesn’t really make a difference if anybody can get it or not. As long as they’re running about, they’re enjoying it,” said Carville.

“However, Michael has gross motor skills problems and issues with his balance, so once the other kids started developing their skills and began starting to thrive, he wasn’t. So, we knew that at some stage we were going to have to call it a day and stop sending him.

“The club were brilliant, and the coaches used to say, ‘keep sending him and we’ll put him on the field no problem,’ but it just wasn’t right. So, we decided that this year would be the year when we stopped bringing him.”

Pulling Michael away from training must have been a difficult decision, but once his parents realised how much their son missed it, Carville explained how they felt as though they needed to act.

“There was one day in particular when all of the hurlers were going out onto the pitch, and he saw them, and he was wondering why he wasn’t allowed to go out with them.

“After I came home from that, I said to my wife that there must be something out there somewhere that he would be able to do, because he loved going up to play, and his sisters play camogie and football as well.”

After that conversation, Declan and Helen began doing their research into clubs around Ireland who catered for kids with additional needs and were surprised at the lack of teams out there. One team they did find however, was Mitchelstown GAA in Cork, and this got the ball rolling.

“My wife Helen has a friend in Cork who has a son with special needs, and he was going to some sort of session within the GAA. So, Helen got in contact with her, and through her, got in contact with the club that her son was attending.

“We spoke with the coach who was running it, and did a bit of research on it, and found that clubs of this nature are very few and far between.

“There’s Mitchelstown in Cork, there are two in Dublin, there’s one in Derry which caters for older children who are 16 or 17 and upwards, and there’s one in Antrim. That was really all that I could find out about.”

The lack of similar teams around the country didn’t deter the Carvilles from their idea, and the next port of call was to contact Warrenpoint GAA, who gave the initiative their full support, supplying equipment and through their connections with the local high school St Mark’s, they secured a training pitch for the children to practice on, every Sunday morning.

“I went to the club and pitched this idea to Larry Byrne the chairman, and he said, ‘yes absolutely, whatever you need or whatever you want to do to set it up, we are right behind you’ which was brilliant,” Carville said, before explaining the next step.

“Then, it was about how we were going to get kids to go to it. We really didn’t how many kids there was going to be, or what we were doing really, so we had to learn as we went along.

“But, through our research and word of mouth, we discovered that there is a bit of a need for something like this in the area.

“Our first session was in July at St Mark’s in Warrenpoint, and within a number of weeks we saw the numbers keep growing. It started with six or seven kids, but more kept coming, and once the club saw the demand they said to us, ‘there’s a real need for this, these kids were being overlooked.’

“The same kids kept coming back every week, and they weren’t coming for one or two sessions and quitting. Every kid who has come, has returned repeatedly every week, and as of last Sunday, we are up to 20 kids involved.”

With growing demand, the next step was getting volunteers to dedicate their time to coaching the kids, and Carville found out very quickly, how happy people were to get involved and help anyway they could.

“Kevin Curran (KS2 GAA School’s Coach) from Ulster GAA has been sending down a coach to us regularly to help us along and do drills with the kids,” Carville said.

With the kids learning drills just as normal and having time to practice their skills at their own pace, the volunteerism from the Warrenpoint GAA Senior Ladies team has been invaluable to the initiative.

When speaking to Gaelic Life, Carville was at pains to describe their importance, labelling the girls as ‘priceless,’ and the generosity has extended all the way to Glenn, who also sent down volunteers to help out.

The GAA for All team kitted out in their new jerseys.

“I’m involved with the Senior Ladies team in Warrenpoint, and a couple of the girls heard about it, and it kind of snowballed from there. We then had girls approaching us, asking could they come along and help out. We didn’t have to go looking for them, they came to us. They’re priceless to us.

“In the summertime we had some of the girls come down and kit out, and the kids played a match against them, which was absolutely brilliant. Also, I know some of the coaches from Glenn, and we were able to get their Minor Ladies down to play a match as well, and it was a fantastic success.”

Carville is also keen to point out, that despite the fact that the team train in Warrenpoint and wear the Cumann Pheadair Naofa colours, the club is open to everybody.

“We have kids from coming down from Rostrevor, Hilltown, Mayobridge and Newry,” he said.

“It’s not just a Warrenpoint thing – definitely not. Everybody is welcome to come, because there really aren’t any other clubs in the area doing it.”

What Carville touched on in that sentence is the final step for GAA for All – getting more clubs to follow suit. As previously stated, there aren’t many teams like this in Ireland, but Carville believes that bringing awareness to the issue may lead to more teams being formed, and he is already seeing the wheels set in motion.

“We’re hopefully getting some more clubs started up,” he said.

“There was somebody from Crossmaglen who came up last Sunday morning, and she’s trying to set one up out there. There has been a club from Dungannon, and one from Leitrim who have been in contact, and hopefully as we come into the Springtime, they can get it started up.

“Ultimately, this is where we want the GAA for All to go. So, our kids can go and play in Crossmaglen and have a wee match, and then they could come down to us. We could go up to Leitrim, same thing, and so on.

“As I’ve said, we’ve been playing the senior and minor girls locally, and they have been really good, but it’s just not the same.”

For more information on GAA for All, their Facebook page posts regular updates, or you can visit www.warrenpointgaa.com. The GAA for All training takes place every Sunday morning at St Mark’s High School, Warrenpoint.