Parents just want their kids included. That's not much to ask

The Blarney All-Stars — for children with additional needs — is flourishing and the All-Stars are loving it

The Blarney All-Stars in action

Five years on from Midleton launching their pioneering Magpies All-Star and Clonakilty's “Camp Cúl Eile” training sessions for children with additional needs, Blarney’s own initiative is flourishing.

Organised on their astro-pitch on Sunday mornings, 20 to 25 kids of various ages are almost halfway through their current six-week block.

Joint club PRO Valerie Kirby readily admits Midleton were the inspiration. 

“They have been doing it for years and we knew there was a demand in our area to do something. We found out at a Healthy Club conference that one lad was coming from Grenagh all the way down to Midleton because there was nothing in between whatsoever.” 

Along with her friend Esther McCarthy, a Special Needs Assistant (SNA) and sister of Cork’s 1990 All-Ireland winning captain Tomás Mulcahy, they went about setting up their own All-Stars.

There were some teething problems. 

“We were targeting the wrong volunteers. You have to have the right people involved and what we have now is teachers, SNAs, young people who are teachers in training, teenagers in transition year. People who understand the needs of the children.” 

With the aid of Autism Friendly Blarney and an appeal to schools and youth clubs, they attracted the right type of interest. 

Structured

“We decided to organise the events on a Sunday morning because it was the quietest time in the club,” says Kirby. 

“The astro is enclosed so it’s safer. The kids come out onto the pitch especially during the summer and take off their shoes because they love the feel of the astro against their feet.

“It’s very structured and we divide the pitch into three areas. We have a warm-up in the first section, a circuit and then the ball wall. We’ve now introduced doing hand-eye co-ordination and there’s a helper with each child. That’s really important and we keep to the same routine every week.” 

The gradual way in which the children have embraced the All-Stars is heartening, Kirby smiles. “One child, he arrived and would not come out onto the pitch without his mother and she is the only one he would interact with.

“Last week, after days of asking his mother when they were going back to the club, he went out onto the pitch and never looked for her. She was in tears watching him. This is the progression we’re seeing. The kids are safe, engaged and getting exercise. It's humbling but it’s a lovely thing to be a part of.

There’s a boy in our group called Seán. He’s a lovely, lovely kid. He came up to each one of us after the summer sessions, gave us all a big hug and said, ‘I love Blarney All-Stars, I’m a Blarney All-Star. I go to bed early on Saturday nights because I have training on Sunday mornings.’ 

"I get goosebumps even thinking about it. It’s for kids like that that you do it.

“There’s another little girl, Amelia, she has Down syndrome and she’s brilliant. She loves sports, football, camogie, but she’s kind of falling between two stools. She loves the training but wouldn’t get to the matches. So we had a meeting after last Sunday’s session and Esther said she had no problem accompanying her to the age appropriate training. Amelia would be able to train with others and the coach wouldn’t have the responsibility. That’s the aim at the end of the day, to get some of them playing GAA down the line if they’re into it.

“For some kids, it’s about being able to complete a circuit on their own. For others, it’s that their parents don’t have to stand inside the pitch to help them do it. There was one little boy and in order to regulate he used to sit on a small trampoline and bounce on it. He was observing what everybody else was doing. By the end of the summer, he was completing the circuits himself. That’s huge. Each case is very different.” 

Cork and Wexford GAA clubs have been leaders in establishing All-Stars. In SETU Carlow, programme director Sharon Kinsella, a mother of two boys who have autism, has established a free, one-hour-a-week physical activity programme for primary school-aged children with autism in and around Carlow town. Limited to 10 children to ensure high coach-child ratio, it is aimed at improving the kids’ motor skills through fun.

Kirby wants to see the All-Stars model expanded across Cork and beyond. “In the area of Blarney, we will probably cover six to eight clubs in our general area. There’s no reason why other clubs can't do that. It’s easy to do. We charge €20 a child for insurance. Nothing else. We tell them it’s a membership fee and they feel part of the club.

“People can be afraid to put their hand up because if they say yes they feel they’re in it for life but it’s so rewarding. If anybody wants to come down to our club at 10.30 on a Sunday morning, they’re most welcome. It’s a no-brainer. I can’t understand why it isn’t happening anywhere else and it doesn’t have to be just GAA. It can be any sport.

“Parents are thanking us in emails for what we’re doing but we’re doing very little. It would break your hearts what parents are saying to us. It’s very little what they’re asking for. They just want their kids to be included. It’s not so much to ask, is it?”