Richard Boyd Barrett urges action on chronic sports facility shortfalls
Richard Boyd Barrett urged urgent action on local sports facilities, arguing that rising participation — especially among young people and women — is being hampered by a chronic deficit of pitches and clubhouses. He called on the minister to instruct local authorities to engage positively with clubs and stop giving them the runaround.
Participation in sport has grown enormously, the speaker said, noting increases in boxing, soccer, Gaelic and rugby. He highlighted the particular importance of sport as a positive outlet for young people and as a way to challenge misogyny in sporting cultures.
Monkstown Boxing Club finally opened its clubhouse this week after a 20-year campaign, the speaker said, citing the club’s recent success with an Olympian, Jack Marley, and international competitors such as Robin O'Reilly. The opening was presented as evidence of what sustained community effort can achieve.
Several clubs in the speaker’s area remain without adequate facilities despite long campaigns. Sally Noggin Pierce was highlighted as having been promised a new facility after surrendering an old shack and pitch, but the club has been given the runaround by the council despite partnering with a junior team with many young women. St. Joseph Boys, Kula, Dalky United, Shank Hill and Cabin Tilly were also named as struggling for pitches and amenities.
The speaker appealed directly for the minister to instruct local authorities to positively engage with clubs, criticising a controlling or dismissive attitude. He urged authorities to stop delaying and to support community efforts, including clubs willing to raise funds themselves, to provide vital facilities for youth participation in sport.
Growth in female and youth participation
Participation in sport has grown enormously, the speaker said, noting increases in boxing, soccer, Gaelic and rugby. He highlighted the particular importance of sport as a positive outlet for young people and as a way to challenge misogyny in sporting cultures.
Local success after long campaigns
Monkstown Boxing Club finally opened its clubhouse this week after a 20-year campaign, the speaker said, citing the club’s recent success with an Olympian, Jack Marley, and international competitors such as Robin O'Reilly. The opening was presented as evidence of what sustained community effort can achieve.
Clubs still waiting for promised facilities
Several clubs in the speaker’s area remain without adequate facilities despite long campaigns. Sally Noggin Pierce was highlighted as having been promised a new facility after surrendering an old shack and pitch, but the club has been given the runaround by the council despite partnering with a junior team with many young women. St. Joseph Boys, Kula, Dalky United, Shank Hill and Cabin Tilly were also named as struggling for pitches and amenities.
Appeal to the minister and local authorities
The speaker appealed directly for the minister to instruct local authorities to positively engage with clubs, criticising a controlling or dismissive attitude. He urged authorities to stop delaying and to support community efforts, including clubs willing to raise funds themselves, to provide vital facilities for youth participation in sport.
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Transcript
Look, one absolutely key area, in my view, for giving people, young people, positive outlets for energies that might otherwise go in worrying or dangerous directions is sport. And this also has a lot of relevance to the issue of women and challenging all of that misogyny that can be around there. Because one of the positive developments we've seen in the last few years is the tremendous growth in participation in sport, in general, by young people, but in particular by women. Absolutely enormous and very, very positive in boxing, in soccer, in Gaelic, in rugby, in all sorts of sports, right? But there is a chronic deficit of facilities and pitches for this huge growth in participation in sports. Now, I can speak to my area, but I hear much is the same everywhere else. Positive example, but after a 20-year-long fight, Monkstown Boxing Club, in which I was involved for many years in campaigning for them, in a disadvantaged area, finally opened their clubhouse this week. But it was a 20-year fight. They've got Olympian this year, Jack Marley. They have fantastic people, Robin O'Reilly, a young woman, competing at European, international level, and many, many others. This is fantastic, right? Young girls, women, men, but for years in totally inadequate facilities, no showers, and so on, right? They had to fight for 20 years. I'm glad the council eventually got on board, and it's a huge victory, and it shows the potential that exists. But then I look at Sally Noggin Pierce in my area. This is the club that Paul McGrath, the legendary Paul McGrath, began his career playing for. They have been fighting for almost as long, near enough 20 years, for a new facility. They were promised by the council that they would, on giving up an old shack they had, and a pitch for a public park, that they would get a facility, and now they're being given the runaround, and they are partnering, they're a senior team, who've been around since I think the 50s in Sally Noggin, who are partnering with Granada, which is a junior team, but with particularly loads of young women, right? And they've got a proposal for a new clubhouse, and to be honest, the council are giving them the runaround. They've been promised, promised, promised. They're willing to raise money themselves, and so on, but there seems to be control for Ikari, and a sort of negative attitude. St. Joseph Boys, who I used to play for myself, also in Sally Noggin, fighting for an all-weather pitch again, getting the runaround over it. Kula, one of the most successful GAs, struggling for pitch for pitches. Dalky United, struggling for pitches and facilities. Teams in Shank Hill, Cabin Tilly, Cabin Tilly GA, in inadequate facilities for their club, Shank Hill FC, and so on. So what I'm appealing for the minister is to really give an instruction for local authorities to positively engage with the clubs, and not have a controlling attitude, or a sort of dismissive attitude in terms of the provision of these vital facilities for youth participation in sport.