Anyone else get cultish vibes from the GAA?

[Crazyworksituatio]

My kids are quite young and do the Saturday morning GAA sessions. My 6 year old daughter is now moving up into more official training which is 2 nights a week plus matches! I find this insane. My husband thinks its great but it actually curdles my blood. There kids not Olympians!

Take them out of it so. Nobody goes into GAA thinking their child will stay doing one session a week forever. Surely you looked into the reg's when you signed your kids up? I also dont understand how it is in any way cultish to progress? For the record none of mine did GAA as no interest so I am not sticking up for the sport itself but in any sport a child who progresses is seen to be a good thing.

It’s good for your daughter. Two nights exercise, meeting with friends etc.
Learning how to be part of a team, learning how to be a good winner and a good loser. I have such admiration for the coaches who give up so much time for our kids. Move from Ireland and you can find a new club and new friends in many different parts of the world

I guess you don’t have to go to every session…my kids love it, but football is no different, that also has training twice a week plus matches. Between the two sports it’s non stop but so good for the kids socially and for fitness.

Well, we’re not involved in GAA but this is pretty standard.

My dh is a coach. Dd a little bit older than yours absolutely loves it.
It has been a great way for us to meet people in the community and we’ve made a lot of really good friends through it.
What’s cult like about it?
Most sports they would be doing at least one training session a week plus matches. It’s cult like because they do two training sessions?

Wait until she's older and all the GAA misogyny starts to rear it's head too on top of the demands. I agree it's a very strange cult.

What’s cult like about it? They can drop out any time if they’re not enjoying it.

I find it culty too. Loads of teachers involved, sucking up to local parish priests, cozying up in an effort to get permanent jobs in the schools. Solicitors trying to drum up business by it. Lots of keeping up with the Jonse. Small minded, excessively enmeshed community values, parachial policing. Nope, not a fan of the culty vibe.

Thanks everyone, interesting perspectives from all sides. My issue is I think 6 is too young to be committing this amount of time to one sport. The cultish vibes do come from that, I feel they make it that way so you can't do any other activities and secondly anyone I know that gets involved in gaa seems to get sucked in to the point where they are at Gaa club 5 or 6 times a week!

A lot of sports would be the same at that age gymnastics; swimming; dance. Even athletics.
I don’t think it’s unusual

It keeps them out of trouble as teenagers IMO

I don't know, I never played gaa growing up and wouldn't know one end of a Hurley from another but older dd loves it. It's finished now for the winter and they only train twice a week in summer and matches are in training time. It's a cheap sport too. Gave up gymnastics because that was becoming seriously intense and cultish.

However I will always be grateful because the Gaa for all that has been set up in the local club for children with additional needs. Run by volunteers what it has given my other dc is invaluable and I have found the support network I always needed.

I think a lot probably depends on individual clubs but I do think there's a lot of cliqueiness there at all levels. 'Blow-ins' to a town or parents not involved with GAA less likely to get picked for matches and so on whereas other sports in the same town are far more welcoming. People who are heavily involved in GAA all their lives not able to get tickets when their county is in the all Ireland but other people seem to have no problem getting fairly large quantities of tickets despite not being very involved at all. Other sports underfunded due to GAA, and not everyone is into team sport. Hurling which is genuinely an ancient unique Irish sport that we should be trying hard to promote and preserve isn't funded or promoted to the same extent as football. Croke Park gets tax payer money and somehow it's totally OK to use for music concerts and sports like boxing but not for other sports in case the sky falls on all our heads. Seems to be very little money available for some clubs, but it seems to be quite a rich organisation.

Brought DS when he was in JC, thought the level of shouting was a bit extreme for 4 to 5 year olds so I was happy enough he wasn't that keen on it himself.

My very good friend was training kids for a few years and had to give up for health reasons as it was very stressful and time consuming. The two nights training for very small children in that club was because the children were mostly very unfit so my friend took on an extra hour to give them more exercise as some of them couldn't run or run for very long and weren't agile either. I don't know if some of that was due to covid or just modem life being so busy. Training the children wasn't stressful at all but the politics was, and fending off calls from parents who acted like it was a paid role and my friend was their employee.

It seems kind of odd to me.

Things have moved on a bit since the 70's...

That’s pretty standard for any sport. My ds plays rugby and he trains twice a week plus matches.
cousins child is into swimming and she trains 4-5 mornings a week and then galas on top of that.
another one does ju-Mitsubishi and trains nearly every day in one shape or form.

…that’s sport…

In November?
They don't need to go to all sessions, especially at that level. But if they enjoy it....exercise,.seeing their friends, learning new skills...

I do agree it has some cult tendencies! Especially in some families

Total cult. If you arent in it your out. Brought our children to GAA- unchecked rough behaviour on the field was encouraged. Flouting of rules in relation to child safety and protection. My bestie is thinking of throwing in the towel as a much older child is allowed to play ganes with 6 yr olds due to who they are. Unsportsmanship unchecked. I could go on.
Id well believe young teachers get involved to get permanency. Sickening.
Oh he is up for assault but he is a mighty GAA player.
North mayo GAA club making a visit to the parents of a poor girl to let the boyfriend play in a final despite " alleged DV ". GAA think they are so poweful and they are in this country. Im so glad my 3 are older now

Absolutely
Especially when they get older . The training expectations are wild.
No wonder some players develop gambling addictions
And the misogyny, the recent going on s in Miami and let's not forget Mickey Harte's character reference for a man who beat her so badly and left her by the roadside, stating that "he was from a good GAA family". Shockingly this was after his own daughter was killed by male violence

Clannish rather than cultish? My lads were usually ignored by the trainer of the school team , presumably because we had lived in England. So they turned their arse on it and did gymnastics and Tae Kwon Do instead. Ironically held in the GAA hall.

I don't think they missed the screeching Dementors on the touchline tbh. Another failing is their lack of support for Ladies football and Camogie. All the more surprising since our men haven't set the world on fire of late.

Ladies football and camogie are not part of the GAA, they're separate organisations. They're expected to be part of it from 2027 though so it's wrong to blame the GAA for something that's got nothing to do with them yet.

Absolutely
The whole to do about women players wearing shorts earlier in the year. So backward

That didn't have anything to do with the GAA but their own organisation which iirc most of those against changing the rules were elderly women in their organisations.

A lot of GAA players spoke out supporting the women about having the option to wear shorts.

Make a complaint to the children's officer of your club none of what you describe is allowed so why accept it. Shame to taunt all clubs with these bad practices. Sounds like a toxic club there are bad apples everywhere.

I and my dh got involved in coaching at our gaa club when our kids joined neither of us played before or were with the club it has brought us so much fun and many new friends I love being part of the community. My dh is not from Ireland and it has given him lifelong friendships he'd have been pretty isolated without it.

Op 2 nights training isn't that bad and it will be appropriate to their age. Are they doing both codes? Because that's two different sports. If they choose to do just one code that training will half. You have choices there it's not compulsory to attend all sessions fgs.

Yeah and no one seems to have the same issue with hockey and skorts just usual gaa bashing. My dd plays hockey and camogie. No longer has to wear skort for camogie but does for hockey. Where's the outrage 🙄

I actually find GAA lovely, despite coming from non GAA stock myself. It’s a ready made community, the younger ages are more about being involved rather than performance. I feel like GAA is a bedrock of Irish communities actually. It’s our national sport and we should nurture it and encourage newcomers to get involved with it. One of my kids is very involved with soccer and another does competitive swimming so we are at various trainings every night of the week, that’s sport for you. But GAA is the only one that offers a genuine community that we can all get involved in.

Soccer, on the other hand is ridiculously competitive from a young age.