This year marks 21 years since the Tipperary GAA web site was set up, one of the first GAA counties in Ireland to do so. Set up initially as part of a web design training course, it soon became ratified by the Tipperary County Board as the county’s official web site. Over the years it has provided an outlet for Tipperary supporters all over the world to keep in touch with the GAA activities in the Premier County, getting close to 2 million hits alone during a very successful 2016 season.
Linked with the web site in the early days (before social media) was the Tipperary GAA Discussion list, an e-mail forum which provided plenty of debate for the Tipp supporters who signed up. As online forums and social media evolved in the early 2000’s, the e-mail discussion forum lost momentum and evolved in to Tipp GAA News which today has over 500 subscribers who receive the latest Tipp GAA Scene column and team announcements by the County PRO via e-mail as they are released.
At the start of the decade, Tipperary GAA became one of the first counties to become active on both Twitter and Facebook. Since 2010, 50,000 tweets have been sent out with the number of followers soon to reach 40,000. Tipp GAA Facebook set up around the same time, now has over 14,000 likes with both social media accounts being in the top tier of GAA counties in terms of popularity.
Throughout the last 21 years, it has been my pleasure in being the person responsible in updating all of the above mentioned communications channels.
For personal reasons, I have decided to take a step back from all of this activity which will ensure a new generation of Tipperary people can take on the IT / Communications presence for the Premier County to the next level. Thanks to all of the County PRO’s and County IT Officers whom I have served with during the last 21 years and to anyone who helped provide regular content to keep the web site & social media up to date.
By Ed Donnelly
