Twin threats of rural decline – and urban overcrowding

If there was ever a man tailormade for the GAA it must be someone called Benny Hurl – but whatever smile his name might bring, there’s nothing to laugh about in his message.

Nominative determinism aside, Benny Hurl is the chairman of the GAA’s National Demographics Committee and he has warned that the future of Gaelic Games is in jeopardy because of the housing crisis and the population drain that is hollowing out rural communities in particular.

Benny is only telling us what we probably already knew. You just have to look at the many under-age amalgamations to realise that so many rural clubs couldn’t field a five-a-side team any long, let alone a full fifteen.

Some are so long joined together that they’re not really an amalgamation anymore at all – the all-conquering ladies of Kilkerrin/Clonberne, the footballers of Salthill/Knocknacarra or Mountbellew/Moylough; the hurlers of Meelick/Eyrecourt or Tynagh-Abbey/Duniry; Rahoon/Newcastle or Fr Griffins/Éire Óg in the city; Carna/Caiseal in Conamara.

But now there are scores of teams made up of players from three or more clubs – ironically from teams living cheek-by-jowl beside each other which would once have made them mortal enemies.

Joining forces, however, is the only way to survive and to give young boys and girls the chance to play their games, hoping that something changes in the years ahead so that they will represent just one club again by the time their turn at senior comes.

That said, if Benny Hurl is right – and everything points to that probability – they might struggle to even field a team from their new amalgamated network.

There was a time that they used to say there were three pillars in a local community – the Church, the GAA club and the local pub.

If you were the add two more, they’d be the post office and possibly politics of one or other persuasion taking its roots from the War of Independence.

For certain the political landscape has become a lot more splintered, which is no bad thing. Those traditional big parties have overseen the dismantling of village post offices – and the Churches have seen as many parish amalgamations as the GAA clubs.