Club denies excluding half the parish
Officials at St.Michael’s GAA club has rejected complaints that the club has excluded ‘half the parish’ by not catering for underage girls football and do not have any female teams from under 12 to minor level.
In a complaint to the today’s Tirconnail Tribune it was claimed that St. Michael’s has effectively excluded half the population of the parish by not catering for girls from U12s to minors who have to travel to Falcarragh or Termon to play their football.
“There are enough players at U12, U13 and U14 to put out our own team but the people running our club want nothing to do with it,” it was claimed.
Club officials have responded to these claims and have set out their position while at the same welcoming the fact that there is some degree of interest in the reintroduction of these categories to the St. Michael’s club.
In their reply to criticisms of the club on the issue, officials said: “Over a number of year Clg Naomh Mícheál has enjoyed great success in ladies football but unfortunately in 2015, due to lack of number of girls registered with the club at the relevant age groups, in collaboration with the ladies county board the difficult decision was made to withdraw all age groups from ladies competition.
Ladies football at the club was run through a ladies board which was separate from the senior and minor board. Whilst not fielding teams in the current season Clg Naomh Michael has continued to support ladies football in the county – the Club ground’s at The Bridge have continuously being provided to the Ladies County Board for fixtures including a County Final which was played at The Bridge in recent weeks.
At present girls registered with Clg Naomh Michael up to and including U12 age group play along with the boys in all northern board underage competitions. In recent years the minor board have actively worked with local schools to promote football for all within the parish which has led to an increase in registration of boys and girls with the club.
Clg Naomh Mícheál would welcome anyone wishing to re-establish ladies football at the club to approach a member of the executive or attend the club’s minor or senior AGM and all support necessary will be given.”
The complaint had noted huge concern
about the minor board AGM and excluded half the population
from participation in Gaelic Games because the ladies club had folded a number of years earlier.
“Now girls from U12s to minors have to travel to Falcarragh or Termon to play football; there are enough players at U12, U13 and U14 to put out our own team but the people running our club want nothing to do with it,” said the complaint.
Club officials have expressed their delight at the possibility of this new found interest creating enough of a momentum to have the ladies teams back in action once more and they’ve asked anyone interested in promoting the idea to contact any club member.
