Paul Rouse: Learning and skills shouldn't be confined to primary school classroom

Micheál Martin acknowledged that the provision of PE in Irish schools has been “historically problematic”, and he also made a pledge to Joe Molloy, saying “I will get on it.” 

James Burke, then aged 5, from Athenry GAA Club, Co Galway in 2016: Ireland’s policy on sport is a patchwork operation that depends on children having the good fortune to be born in certain areas. Picture: Cody Glenn/Sportsfile

The fascinating interview that Micheál Martin gave to Joe Molloy on Off The Ball last week laid bare the many disconnections and, indeed, failures of State policy in Ireland in relation to sport.

This is not Micheál Martin’s fault; it is a legacy of a century of dislocated thinking on the place of sport in the Irish education system. It is a dislocation that means the sports policy in Ireland does not even manage to be the sum of its parts. Instead, it is a patchwork operation that depends inordinately on children having the good fortune to be born in certain areas and be taught by certain teachers.

The crucial moment in the interview centred on the place of physical education in the curriculum. There are a whole load of factors that must be considered when making comparisons, but the bottom line is that the Irish education system is one of the worst in Europe at providing PE for its primary school students.

Mr Martin acknowledged that the provision of PE in Irish schools has been “historically problematic” and he also made a pledge to Joe Molloy, saying: “I will get on it.”

It will be interesting to watch just what that ends up meaning. The hope has to be that intervention from the Taoiseach might bring the disparate elements of the system together and organise them in a way that is to the advantage of every child in the country.

It should be noted that a truly enriching sporting experience in school results from much more than structured PE classes, however.

Firstly, schools need sufficient space for children to play at lunchtime and suitable sporting facilities. There are schools where even the most basic facilities are lacking but, when they are available and properly used, the potential is immense.

On top of that, a further essential element is a teacher — or group of teachers — who are willing, and have the space in their lives, to devote additional hours to providing sporting activities for children. This devotional aspect to the best of teaching is fundamental. There are people all across Ireland who have had their lives transformed when this happens. When a love of play is fostered in school, it opens enduring possibilities for the child.

A prime example of this is the story of Niall McNamee, the brilliant forward who is one of the longest-serving inter-county footballers currently playing the game — he first played senior Leinster championship football for Offaly back in 2003.

In September 1990, Niall walked in the front gates of Ballybryan National School, which sits on the road that winds between Rhode and Edenderry in the north of Offaly. Alongside that road is a field, perfectly sized as a football pitch for primary school children, with posts at either end. In short, the first prerequisite for a positive sporting experience in school was present — a dedicated space to play.

The principal of Ballybryan School was Stephen Darby, who played for Offaly in the 1982 All-Ireland final. He was known to all as ‘the Master’. He set the school up so that sport was a vital part of every day — and the chosen game was Gaelic football. There was also basketball, with a court to the front of the school and basketball leagues were run — and of course, there were formal PE classes too.

In terms of appropriate space and a suitably interested teacher, Ballybryan school was the perfect academy for football. There were fewer than 80 students being taught by three teachers. It meant that fourth, fifth and sixth class were taught together in the Master’s room.

By the middle of the 1990s, Niall McNamee and his brother, Alan, were in the school alongside Shane and Pauric Sullivan, Brian and Niall Darby, and Kenny Garry. Behind them again were Eoin Rigney and Anton Sullivan.

All of these boys went on to play together for Offaly — and to win many Offaly senior football championships together for Rhode. Others who went through the school also played for Offaly teams and many more had rewarding club careers.

It was on the field beside the school that a lifelong love of play was cultivated, according to Niall: “Lunchtime every day was the same thing. Break starts at 12.30, so we’d run out to the shed where we kept our gearbags. You’d pull tracksuit bottoms on over the trousers, put on gloves and boots, and straight out. You had five minutes to get your gear on and get a sandwich in. By 12.35 we’d have a game started.

“Same teams from the beginning of the school year until the end. The matches were unbelievably competitive. Of course, on Thursdays when we had PE, the matches just continued for an hour after lunchtime, no stopping. It was brilliant, we lived for that.”

Stephen Darby is clear about the importance of sport in the school day: “To get children out in the air, to get them playing, enjoying themselves is so important. It’s a great thing in a school. And it helps with everything else.”

It was in this environment that Niall thrived as a footballer: “The thing about Niall is that he was taller than most boys his age and it normally happens that things even up after a while and the gap closes. This just didn’t happen with Niall. Other boys got taller of course, but Niall kept getting better and better. He just practiced so much that he had it all. And it really helped that the lads of his age were all in the same way of thinking.

They wanted to be out playing all the time. They loved football. They still love it. They are in their mid-30s now and are still playing football at a high level.

When Niall left Ballybryan National School, he was already on course for an outstanding under-age career, winning multiple county championships at every age group. He was 17 and still a minor when he first played senior inter-county football for Offaly in 2003. The length of his subsequent career is a tribute to his personality, his love of football and the brilliance of his skills. It is also a reminder of the ways in which a national school can help a child to develop.

When he drives past the school now — a few times a week — he thinks of the past and of the present: “It’s the same now at 12.30, kids running out on to the pitch, except now there are girls as well as boys. It’s great to see it. It brings me back.

“I was actually thinking the other day driving past of a thing that happened in 1997. I had played at half-time in the All-Ireland Football Final that year — the year Maurice Fitzgerald won the final for Kerry. The following day I was back in school. At lunchtime I asked Stephen could I move into the forwards from midfield. Because I was tall I had always been midfield. I wanted to be a forward, I wanted to score, I wanted to play like Maurice Fitzgerald.”

That Niall became one of the best forwards in the country makes his story an exceptional one.

However, it is also entirely unexceptional in the manner in which the provision of sporting opportunity can shape a life.

It is also a singular fact that too many children do not have this most essential of things in their lives.

It does not mean that the success of sporting activity — or any physical activity — in school should be measured in county jerseys or county medals, or international caps or national titles.

Instead, it should be measured in a basic fostering of a love of play that stays with a person through their lives.

- Paul Rouse is professor of history at University College Dublin.