The GAA can build Croke Park. So why not build houses? South Kerry’s radical solution
HEAVY LIFTING: South Kerry captain Bryan Sheehan lifts the Kerry SFC's Bishop Moynihan Cup on their last victory in 2015. For one of the Kingdom's most storied divisions, the challenges are a lot more fundamental these days. Pic: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
THE St Mary’s club in Caherciveen posted a sliver of nostalgia this week on the 25th anniversary of their first Kerry IFC title in 2001. It was a side containing Bryan Sheehan, Maurice Fitzgerald, Austin Constable, Ray Keane et al and fifteen years later the club would celebrate an All-Ireland club title at the same grade. But over the last quarter of a century, such days have been fewer and far between.
St Mary’s social media post this week appeared the same day applications closed for a pilot GAA post to navigate a two-year insight into changing population, participation and club demographics – in Kerry. For the future – and future policy - of Gaelic games in rural Ireland, there may not be a more important, if sobering, body of work in the next quarter of a century.
South Kerry make their Kerry SFC bow this Sunday with a preliminary round tie away to St Kieran’s in Brosna. They've won ten titles and served up some of the Kingdom's greatest. Micko. Dwyer. Jacko. Maurice. But that they are still at it in 2026 is something of a statement. John O’Driscoll, who captained Skellig Rangers to a county JFC title in 2009, is managing and they have a body of work to carry with them. They also have a stubborn streak that speaks to their isolation and pride that in this corner of football country, the GAA still dominates a diminishing output of school boys and girls. Eight out of every ten primary school boys in south Kerry play Gaelic football. It might a cantankerous debate but if one were to nominate the most football-obsessed bloc of the most football-obsessed county, South Kerry would be hard beat.
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They have to be. Simply for the clubs, and the game to survive. It’s no coincidence that the GAA’s first Demographics Project Coordinator will be based in Kerry. Joe McCrohan, the chair of the South Kerry GAA Board, works with the South Kerry Partnership. Rural preservation and development is his round the clock. “I said all this 15-20 years ago and people were laughing at me. I wrote that (oft-quoted demographics) report back in 2011.”
McCrohan has moved well beyond the keening around clubs no longer being able to field their own teams. He made his peace with club amalgamations a long time ago because he’s seen the maths. “Amalgamations is the way it’s become and it won’t change any time soon. I haven’t (yet) got the new schools numbers that enrolled for this month around south Kerry but I’d have a fair idea. It’s not rocket science. Your five olds will be your Under 10 team in five years’ time. You have your numbers there. And the numbers are down.
“The trend is going the wrong way. There are probably three schools holding their own in terms of numbers - Caherciveen, Waterville and Sneem – the rest are falling. This has been going one way with 20 or 30 years, this is nothing new for us. But others are beginning to cotton on to the gravity of the situation. It will be more and more amalgamations. There will always be teams, always be football, we will just have to go further for it.”
South Kerry might well look wistfully at the Government strategies that promoted spokes and hubs in more populous, central parts of the county. They developed small business hubs in Farranfore and the centre of the county, while decentralising state bodies to Tralee, Listowel and Killarney.
“That’s why you have the likes of Ballymac, Firies, Listry and Fossa full of South Kerry people playing football. Most of the clubs are run by south Kerry people! Take Fossa alone. If decentralisation didn’t happen the Cliffords might be playing in Dublin, and if their father worked with the Legal Aid Board in Caherciveen rather than the Department of Transport in Killarney, they’d be playing with South Kerry tomorrow.”
Valentia’s famed Young Islanders – who gave us all Mick O’Connell - stopped fielding an adult team three years ago, but they have rallied and went to a (fifth tier) Novice Championship semi final this year. Small wins. Whether it’s a temporary reprieve, who knows? The numbers, and the lack of housing opportunities, indicates the likes of Dromid Pearses, Reenard and Valentia are the most challenged south Kerry clubs in terms of a future. It’s not very difficult to reach into their respective pasts to see how they have served Kerry football well.
“Reenard, just outside Caherciveen, is starting to move beyond the financial scope of a lot of first time buyers,” McCrohan explained. “That’s a socio economic trend that isn’t peculiar to Reenard or even south Kerry. All-Ireland winning clubs like Dr Crokes in Killarney and Dingle are going to suffer the same problems – no new housing because of spiralling land cost and green fields. It’s a major problem in Reenard – you need to have deep pockets to build there. There’s a lot of millionaires living in south Kerry - and west Kerry for that matter.”
Therefore every win, however modest, is a fillip. On Thursday night, the South Kerry minors won the (secondary) Co MFC Shield final against Kenmare District. It followed similar wins at Under 14 and Under 16 level, though at county league level, it has necessitated five south Kerry clubs coming together to form one team.
Is the future as inevitable as it is hopeless? Not with bold thinking, says Joe McCrohan.
“The GAA need to build houses. Yes, you heard that: Build houses. They need players. Players need houses. There’s no one else going to build houses for our members. The Council won’t, the Government haven’t and private developers are not particularly social conscious or conscientious.
“They built Croke Park. They’ve built many of the finest facilities in this country. I’ve been saying this for quite a while. Look what Reenard built. Or Fossa. These are the finest facilities so why wouldn’t they build a house?
“Without it there is a fraught future. The players now will come home from Killarney, Tralee or Listowel to play with the club, that’s not the problem. It’s their children who join up with the local club in those towns and they are lost. The next generation. A lost generation.
“If the player is living and working in Ireland at all, he still wants to play for his club, in the main. They are coming from London and Dubai to play local championship. There are areas of north Leitrim, Donegal and north Mayo that would be as bad in terms of depopulation but they wouldn’t have the same density of clubs that we would have in south Kerry There are eight clubs in the division, and some parishes with three clubs. Imagine, if Ballymac was in South Kerry, it would be split into three clubs. That’s why amalgamation is inevitable. We have to go out and get nearly every player to play. That’s why eight out of every ten boys play football down here. If they didn’t….”
It’s a proud, if necessary, truth. South Kerry GAA clubs outrank most when it comes to participation percentages among primary school kids, up towards 80%. “These are our wins at the moment. If you are measure success over the next ten years in terms of winning things, it will be the Ballymacs, Fossa, Listrys,” the South Kerry chairman predicts.
Whether South Kerry go deep into the championship or not, the divisional football grudges for the Jack Murphy Cup will be rekindled over the autumn and winter. McCrohan has great pride in what his neighbour Jack O’Connor has done for Kerry football, but he’s not with him in terms of inter county men sacking off the local championship.
“There’s been a lot done to free up the players to play with the county, we don’t see them hardly at all for the Co League. So we only get the county players back to their clubs from August to October. That’s a small window.”
Does that flintiness and desperation to keep dressing rooms busy help? “It does, but there’s a mighty love of football still. They’d go anywhere for a game. Two and a half hours to Tarbert for an Under 12 game. They pay no notice, no big deal. Off you go.”
Check out the entire podcast series HERE as, and when, they are published.
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