GAA clubs tell us a lot about rural decline

Your columnist tends to the view that the glass is half full rather than half empty. In other words, I’m a bit of an optimist and wish I could be a total optimist but that’s not easy when I see the nonsense that passes for good government all around us. Recently, our esteemed government launched a new six-year programme (Our Rural Future 2026-2031), which has the aim of driving rural development and giving strength to rural communities.

According to the blurbs, it sets out 34 commitments to support “the continued growth and prosperity of rural Ireland”. I have not seen much of the continued growth and prosperity here in Newport. The only improvement to be seen has been in the area of transport with buses running here, there and everywhere, bringing people out of the town to shop and socialise in Westport and Castlebar.

The new plan will focus on rural enterprise and employment, will tackle rural isolation and strengthen community resilience. I would love to be optimistic but I’m afraid the proposals have brought out the cynic in me.

Now, the man charged, in the main, with responsibility for deliverance to rural Ireland is our own Dara Calleary. I admire Dara. He is a credible politician and a good man. He stood up when others dithered. He was not alone of course, there were others who showed courage as well.

But, that’s another story.

I will use the prism of Burrishoole GAA to try to explain my cynicism. Burrishoole GAA occupies a narrow coastal strip between Newport and Mulranny. It has a small population base. It meanders off down to Shramore, Treenbeg and Buckagh where there are a few small, and declining, settlements. Then you are up against the Nephin Beg range.

The Nephin Begs are good for grazing sheep and excellent for hillwalking. The foothills of the Nephin Begs carry the Great Western Greenway and offer up some of the most fantastic views of Clew Bay. Wonderful for visiting walkers and cyclists but not enticing for a couple thinking of starting a family. 

This is not the first six-year plan for Rural Ireland. It is the second and plans to build on the “significant progress achieved under the 2021-2025 Plan”. Now, there’s the first problem. What significant progress are we talking about? Has there been any significant progress in halting rural migration, not to mention emigration?

Burrishoole GAA is 65 years young. It progressed from being a junior club to intermediate and for a time, senior before going back down to junior. It is a good GAA club. It has fantastic members. The GAA, as well as being a sporting organisation, is a vehicle for rural development and social cohesion. It concerns itself with community physical and mental wellbeing. It is a force for good.

At its founding, there were postmen (part-time) working in Newport and Mulranny, playing football and involved in administration. The first chairman was a teacher. His school is now closed. The Department of Lands (now Coillte) was responsible for planting new forestry in the Nephin Begs. They created jobs and Burrishoole benefited both from players (who got jobs) and administrators. In those early days, Gardaí were based in the parish (we had three and a Sergeant) and added considerably to the playing strength of the club.

We had a county council employee playing. We even had a council office in Newport and a courthouse. CIE ran the Great Southern Hotel in Mulranny and they provided jobs for players. Mostly summer jobs but the summer was often extended. The Marine Institute at Furnace (previously the Salmon Research Institute) created job opportunities for Burrishoole players.

The rest of the team was made up of farmers, again part-time with off-farm jobs in seaweed harvesting and aquaculture, shepherds, builders, bakers, tradespeople including stone masons and butchers, people in construction, teachers and, of course, students at third level.

There was always a steady flow of people out with few incoming. London, Manchester, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston in the early days and more recently Australia (Kobe is not the first), Canada and Europe were the more popular destinations.

The club enjoyed success. Going from junior titles to county intermediate titles and playing senior football for a number of years. The descendants of those early founders, the postmen and builders and teachers amassed a considerable number of provincial and All-Ireland honours in handball and football. Even as recently as the last decade the grandson of one of the postmen thrilled Mayo supporters in Croke Park with his vigorous defence of the Cluxton kick-out. Forwards defending the kick-out is not a 2026 innovation. It was part of the James Horan era.

The point is that jobs were provided in the parish by the state. Now there are no postmen in the parish. There is a postman living in Newport but he delivers the mail in Westport. The good thing is that his children will play with Burrishoole. There are teachers and good schools in Mulranny, Newport and Cuilmore, but there are no Gardaí. Just as well there is little crime in the parish.

There is no Coillte. They exist but have farmed out all planting, maintenance, cutting and extraction to contractors whose only concern is profit. They have no interest in providing local jobs. There is no community benefit. The Marine Institute continues to do fantastic work developing the science around the Atlantic salmon. Hopefully they will come up with some answers that will halt the decline in the species. But they are not the solution to Burrishoole’s football problems.

The county council has withdrawn from the parish. There are no council employees in the town. The council office has been closed. The council has a decrepit building, a former stone-cut attractive railway station office and waiting room that has been architecturally abused by the addition of a modern out-of-place structure. The property does little to earn points for a dedicated and hardworking Tidy Towns committee.

The state has withdrawn from the function of job creation in rural Ireland. They are leaving it up to communities to create jobs. I don’t see anything in the 2026-2031 Rural Strategy that will reverse the state’s withdrawal. I’m sure that the situation in Burrishoole GAA is replicated among many rural clubs in the county. 

The GAA’s parish rule, which served the association well for a century and a half, may well have outlived its usefulness. Burrishoole, a strong unit in the association, is back down where it started - playing junior football - and likely to remain so for a number of years.

In fairness to the county council, credit where it is due. They have done a wonderful job of village enhancement in Mulranny. And the recent opening of a well-designed scheme of 16 two and three-bed houses at the entrance to the village is welcome. Hopefully there will be families and boys and girls to swell the playing numbers in Burrishoole.

A similar scheme would be welcome in Newport with the population boost it would bring. But there is a problem. Planning a scheme would run up against an insurmountable obstacle - the lack of a sewerage system. There is a town system but it is at capacity and the further problem is that it discharges raw sewage into Clew Bay, which is a Special Area of Conservation.

A new water sewerage scheme is on the cards for fifty (yes 50) years. Mayo County Council and more recently Uisce Éireann have been looking into it. The best efforts of Denis Gallagher, Frank Chambers, Seamus Hughes, Joe Leneghan, Dr Jerry Cowley, Padraig Flynn (and him Minister for the Environment back in the day), Enda Kenny, Michel Ring, Keira Keogh, Alan Dillon and a host of different councillors have failed to get the powers that be past the 'Looking Into It' stage.

The Aontú Messiah from Claremorris (he has connections locally) is the latest to take on the challenge. It is to be hoped he can make progress. But, I’m not holding my breath.

The EU has been fining Ireland for years now because of the discharge of untreated sewage into Gráinne Uaile’s historic Clew Bay. She must be spinning in her grave on Clare Island at the uncaring destruction of her pristine waters. A pity she could not take to the high seas again and unleash her wrath on those who have allowed such a travesty. The fines imposed would go a long way towards funding a proper wastewater treatment plant.