GAA must tackle urban‘challenge’

THE GAA faces a major challenge in consolidating their strength in urban areas, according to Director-General Páraic Duffy, who writes in his annual report that the ‘inevitable’ outcome of population shifts to the big cities and large towns is that the Association will no longer be Ireland’s leading sports organisation if it is “not popular” in these areas.

Meeting the challenges head on involves not merely having an increased presence through the establishment of new clubs, but being in a position to free up resources to provide the necessary funding, he stresses.

According to Duffy, the number of people now living in urban areas exceeds numbers in rural areas for the first time in the history of the country.