GAA Green Clubs
To mark the launch of Phase 1 of the GAA Green Club Programme and National Tree Week, the Easy Treesie – Crann Project (www.easytreesie.com) supported by Coillte (www.coillte.ie) and Trees on the Land (www.treesontheland.com) will provide GAA, Camogie and LGFA clubs with 45,000 native tree saplings, which due to current restrictions on access to Club grounds will be distributed to selected Clubs at the beginning of the next planting season in November.
Coillte and Trees on the Land will donate and deliver the 45,000 native saplings to the project. The saplings will be used to create shelter belts, planted along walkways and to generally enhance the natural landscape and biodiversity of the site. Planting trees is included in the 5 ways to make clubs biodiversity-friendly as identified in the recently published guidelines on pollinator-friendly management of sports clubs by the National Biodiversity Datacentre. Biodiversity is one of 5 themes being explored through the Green Club Programme, which is a partnership between the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association and local authorities across Ireland.
The Easy Treesie Project aims to plant one million trees with Ireland’s one million school children and their communities by 2023 joining the UNESCO-backed Plant-for-the-planet’s www.trilliontreecampaign.org challenge, reducing global heating by 1° during the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, 2021-31. Orla Farrell of Easy Treesie said, ‘We are delighted to support the GAA with this initiative which will help restore biodiversity in communities across the island. We would like to thank our many supporters who have successfully started this work in recent years, planting approx. 14,000 saplings and apple trees with several GAA clubs and their communities. ‘
One of those clubs and a participant in the Biodiversity theme of Phase 1 of the Green Club Programme is Loughmore-Castleiney, who were selected as one of 45 clubs to take part in the GAA Green Club Pilot initiative in 2020. The club will investigate ways to identify and implement simple measures to help them become a sustainable Club for their members and the local community. With the Club undergoing facility development it is hoped to find opportunities where they can reduce energy costs & become more energy efficient. Loughmore-Castleiney GAA club will also look at ways to create habitats for our native plants and animal species on the club grounds. The club have chosen to be part of the Green Club Energy subgroup and will undertake an audit of all energy usage over the past number of years. The club hopes that by being part of the initiative they will gain access to grants that would otherwise not be available. Under the guidance of the Green Club Committee Loughmore-Castleiney will learn from other Club initiatives and develop priority actions and practical steps to make their environment more sustainable.
Larry McCarthy, Uachtarán Cumann Luthchleas Gael said: “The GAA, along with our sister organisations are very grateful for the donation of these native saplings to our clubs. While reinforcing our responsibility to our environment through the Green Club Programme we will also be exploring how our Clubs function from a sustainability perspective, in terms of energy use, water, waste and transport. This work is directly related to our values of Community Identity, Respect and Teamwork and reflects the best of our manifesto ‘Where We All Belong’.”
Health and Wellbeing
A new video-based mental wellbeing programme called Minding Your Wellbeing was recently launched and is now freely accessible. Brought to you by HSE Health and Wellbeing, this evidence-based programme provides a unique opportunity for people to learn more about mindfulness, gratitude, self-care and resilience. As we continue to adapt our lifestyles to deal with COVID-19 and are faced with different challenges, Minding Your Wellbeing aims to provide simple tools and guidance to develop and maintain a positive outlook by looking after our mental health and wellbeing. This programme focuses on the promotion of mental wellbeing, and has been adapted from a face-to-face programme into a series of short online videos for the public at this time. It’s free to access anytime so why not try one of the videos and go from there.
The programme consists of 5 video sessions (of about 20 minutes each) which you can visit below.
- Practicing Self-Care
Explores the idea of individual’s ‘self-care’ and encourages participants to build their own ‘self-care toolkit’ which includes healthy habits for our mental health and wellbeing
- Understanding Our Thoughts
Invites participants to reflect on their own thinking and consider how thinking patterns can impact wellbeing.
- Exploring Emotions
Encourages participants to notice their emotions and increase their positive emotions to improve their wellbeing.
- Building Positive Relationships
Discusses ways in which participants can nurture, value and foster positive relationships which are so important for mental wellbeing.
- Improving Our Resilience
Invites participants to build their resilience, learn about the building blocks of resilience including the importance of focussing on strengths.
This is the first time that HSE Health and Wellbeing has developed a programme focused on positive mental health for the public delivered in this way. With an increasing need for, and use of, online supports, it is hoped that innovative programmes like this can reach more and more people.
GAA Membership and Registration
Clubs must register their players and members annually on the GAA Management System. When logged on, the designated Club Administrator (Secretary or Registrar) should go to the “Membership Subscriptions” page and complete the necessary steps. Please ensure that all members, including all players, are registered.
The Servasport Games Management System is being replaced with a new system called Foireann (which is the Irish word for Team). This new system brings better functionality for both Clubs and their members including Online Membership subscriptions, on-line payments, streamlined communications, team management, event management, Health Questionnaires and attendance recording. In spite of the uncertainty caused by the CoVID 19 pandemic, many clubs are in the process of preparing for the year ahead by getting started on their Membership processes. This year sees the GAA / LGFA / Camogie / Handball and Rounders Associations using Foireann, a single, integrated Membership system for the first time and all Membership registrations (for playing and other rule-based eligibility requirements) must be completed on this system. If you are involved in collecting your club’s membership subscriptions or registering your members with the GAA, or other Association as relevant, you should ensure that you have access to login to Foireann and are familiar with how to use it. One significant change in Foireann is the ability for GAA Clubs who work closely with their LGFA and Camogie counterparts to operate as One Club on the system. This makes membership and administrative tasks less onerous and all membership registrations can be completed from one place, rather than from three separate systems. If you wish to operate as ‘One Club‘ on Foireann then you must email gmssupport@gaa.ie from one of the official Club Email addresses and request that this happens (the three (or two) separate instances on your clubs will be merged into one with a single list of members). You will then be able to accept membership subscriptions for all Associations and register all members with their relevant governing body in one easy process. Foireann is a new system that has been implemented using components of the Returntoplay system, used during 2020 for processing Health Questionnaires, and the legacy Games Management System (Servasport) that was previously used for Registrations. Data from both systems is available on Foireann meaning that Membership history (going back to 2009) is available from the old Games Management System and the ability to access the system is in place for anyone who previously submitted a Health Questionnaire on the Returntoplay system. For clubs registrars and administrators, the above process will result in duplicate entries for some members being present in the Foireann system – one record relating to their old Membership record and one relating to their Returntoplay account. At the moment, it is necessary to maintain both records on Foireann and in the coming months, once the Membership Registration period has passed, it will be possible to merge the records or delete them as relevant. The Foireann Support team will advise further on the process for this when appropriate to do. If your club has an existing process for collecting Membership subscriptions that you wish to maintain then this is facilitated but Foireann will still need to be used to Register members with their relevant Associations (GAA / LGFA / Camogie). Without completing the registration steps, members may be ineligible to play or fulfil a role on the Club committee and may not be covered by Injury Fund / insurance or eligible to vote at the Club AGM (Note eligibility etc varies depending on the Association and relevant Official Rules).
It was possible in the legacy Games Management System to import member information from files through a bulk upload process. This process will be supported in Foireann also, however the functionality is not yet available. It will be in place as soon as possible and well in advance of any registration deadlines.
Online training and webinars will be delivered throughout the coming months to assist clubs.
Tipperary Ladies Football Online Easter Bingo Bonanza
Tipperary Ladies Football will host their Online Easter Bingo Bonanza on Sunday evening next Easter Sunday @8pm featuring guest caller our recent All Star Aishling Moloney. With a prize fund of €2,000 we are hoping for a ‘Full House’ and hoping that as many as possible will support our women in sport.
On the night there will be six games in total. Five regular games with prizes as follows; First person to get one Line €50, First person to get two lines €80 and First person to get a House €120. Our final game is the Jackpot game and the prizes for this are as follow; First person to get one Line €100, First person to get two lines €150 and Finally the First person to get a House €500. We will also have a number of spot prizes to be won on the night.
Books can be purchased online one for €10, two for €16 and three for €20 through this link https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/tipperary-ladies-football-online-bingo-bonanza-tickets-143113372951 . Complete the details and your Bingo Book will be emailed to you nearer the time and will include the instructions on how to play and also provide the Zoom Link for the night. Books can be printed at home and or the numbers copied down to play.
So all that’s left to do is get your family together, have the markers at the ready open and Easter Egg or two and join in the fun!!
Moyle Rovers Easter Road Trip
Moyle Rovers GAA, Ladies Football & Camogie in association with Cystic Fibrosis Ireland have announced Rovers Road Trip. Starting on Good Friday 2nd April, together they will virtually walk/run/cycle to every County GAA Grounds in Ireland.
The starting point is the club grounds in Monroe, participants will travel to every County GAA grounds in Ireland, with the Final leg from Semple Stadium to Bloody Sunday Memorial, Croke Park.
A GoFundMe page has been set up and all donation little or large would be greatly appreciated – www.gofundme.com/f/mroversroadtrip
Thurles Sarsfields 10K Walk / Run
All sections of Thurles Sarsfields GAA Club have come together (Camogie, Ladies Football, Men’s Hurling and Gaelic Football) to participate in a virtual 10km walk/run on Easter weekend. Each player and committee member will participate in this fundraiser, each looking for sponsorship to complete the walk/run. The club would love all supporters to get behind the players and committee members.
Thurles Sarsfields are also hosting an online children’s hurling and Gaelic football Zoom Session with club Stars Ronan Maher, Karen Kennedy and Marie Creedon on Saturday 3rd April at 11am. It is suitable for children aged 6 years and older and the only equipment needed will be a hurley, sliothar and football. Sign up is available on the clubs website and the cost is €5, which will go towards the running costs for all club teams in 2021. This is sure to be a very enjoyable session so be sure to sign your children up for it!
Tipperary GAA Scene
If there is anything you feel should feature in this column going forward please feel free to forward it to pro.tipperary@gaa.ie
By Jonathan Cullen Wed 31st Mar
