The GAA can build Croke Park. So why not build houses? South Kerry’s radical solution

Falling school numbers, soaring house prices and rural depopulation are forcing clubs to rethink how Gaelic games survive

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.