Report by Clare Courier, view here..

Sixmilebridge GAA announce ambitious plans for new indoor sports Arena

Sixmilebridge GAA announce ambitious plans for new indoor sports Arena Paudie Butler, the GAA's former national director of coaching, speaking at the launch of the Sixmilebridge Area on Saturday.

08 November 2016

On Saturday the GAA community in Sixmilebridge gathered together for the launch of a new Arena project to provide a magnificent indoor facility to ensure year-round training for future generations of young hurlers.

The club has appealed for support for the project which will advance the development of hurling skills and provide a winter training facility for camogie and hurling players.

People are invited to contribute to the club lotto for a chance of winning a jackpot with a new minimum of €3,000, rising by €300 per week to a maximum €20,000.

Syl O'Connor guided everyone in the packed hall through an information evening that began with Caimin Morey presenting medals to the U14 hurlers who represented Clare in the Feile na nGael down in Waterford.

After recalling the huge successes enjoyed by Sixmilebridge at all levels, Syl welcomed the many people who turned out for the event including Munster Council representative PJ Kelly, members of Clare County Board including Joe Cooney and Pat Fitzgerald, former Munster Council and county board chairman Robert Frost.
The main speaker of the evening was former GAA national hurling director, Paudie Butler, a member of the Dromin/Inch club in Tipperary, who has been involved in hurling coaching for almost 45 years.

Paudie began his inspiration speech saying he has been in Fivemilehouse, Fourmilewater and Twomileborris but was delighted to be back in Sixmilebridge.

He spoke about the increasing urbanisation of Irish society, a new challenge for rural towns and villages. "There is no vehicle better fit to connect children to their place than the GAA," he said.
A Trinity College professor carried out a comparative study and couldn't find another body matching the GAA – an amateur organisation with its roots in parishes and communities – the largest amateur association in the world.

Paudie continued, “Our founder was a Clare man, Michael Cusack, who was 15 when his mother died in Carron, just after the famine. The games were unheard of, the music was dying, the language disregarded; one million had emigrated and one million had died of hunger.

"Cusack had a dream to transform Ireland from a society that was becoming increasingly anglicised. Very few had a dream in the 1870s of what Ireland would become. Cusack had no interest in guns or violence, so he set out to call a meeting in Hayes Hotel, Thurles.

“Only seven people turned up. The miracle is that it looked like an abject failure yet just 18 months later 1,000 GAA clubs were formed. By 1886 there were 1,000 clubs, today there are more than 3,000 GAA clubs in Ireland and by the end of this decade there will be another 3,000 clubs outside of Ireland. The GAA is growing at a massive rate across SE Asia, Australia, America and continental Europe.

"Now is our time and you must become like Michael Cusack to save a new generation of children from the curses of alcohol, drugs, pornography and all that stuff. The GAA club is in the frontline of the fight to save our children from the plagues that come every generation.

"The best way of saving our children from the dangers of our time is sport. If all of our children were physically and mentally healthy the GAA will have made a massive contribution, unequalled by anybody else.

"If a boy or girl is down hurling on the field, there's a great chance we have saved their physical and mental health. If a boy or girl's head is full of hurling or camogie, their mental health will be looked after.

"We're building a modern facility, there isn't one along the whole western seaboard. Rainfall has increased for the last six decades and alarmingly so in the last decade, so if we're going to make sure that hurling survives and thrives then we can't stop hurling on 1st November and start again on April 1st – too much time is lost.

"With this new building we will have summer conditions in the depth of winter and I can guarantee there will be demand.
"I know Sixmilebridge has a strong tradition of loving hurling, the game is strong and healthy enough and is going through change but it's still the fastest field game in the world and every decade it will get faster.

"Six years ago if you were playing in Croke Park and didn't move the ball on in 1.6 seconds, you wouldn't be rid of it. Today that has fallen to 1.3 seconds. A generation is coming up who won't have much time on the ball as fitness levels are constantly rising.
"The GAA's national policy is to increase participation, this parish has increased its population tenfold in 30 years. You are now a big town, so let nobody rest on their laurels that you have enough.

"There may be some people who think this arena will become a white elephant, but that will only happen if it's not used. Giving children an opportunity to play hurling in summer conditions in the middle of winter is a fantastic dream. It's as good as Michael Cusack's dream and it's almost a reality.

"Michael Cusack's dream to save Ireland is a continuing dream. Ask yourself what can you do today to make sure that children are safe from the great dangers of our time?

"Community is the only answer. The Government talks about building social capital and then doesn't do anything about it. The thing about social capital falls to us in the GAA. We're bringing in the under 6s and their parents, so we're building community in a new way.

"This facility will help to build community. Architects design, builders build, fundraisers raise money and coaches coach – this will be our team, everybody is wanted here.

"My purpose here is to tell you that I have been in 25 of these centres, not one of them has become a white elephant, even for a moment. It's important that we build it, but knowing why we build it is more important.

"With climate change being a big factor and too much idle time on children's hands, we are going to offer them a chance to be fit, to be highly skilled and to be fully prepared for the spring when we go outdoors.

"All these places have become a focal point for people to come into the GAA who were never part or the GAA. Children who never played will want to be in this new place and they will bring their parents in.

"They are saying now that there will be no improvement in a player without 300 touches, the brain needs 300 repeats to get an improvement. So we say practice makes permanent. This facility can turn a whole generation into a golden generation of hurling, but we have to serve our time. All Stars don't come easy, championships don't come easy, we serve our time.

"I'm asking everybody here to do their bit to ensure that this does what we are setting out for. In this parish that probably means around 120 coaches giving an hour of their time each week so that no one person is over-burdened.

"We don't need one person coming down for six hours at a time and gone in a year, burned out. Everybody gives an hour looking after young people so that they improve their game.

"Sixmilebridge has a great name in hurling, your vision is lofty, your dream is good and you have a reality about you to carry this off. Imagine us here in a decade's time and the U14s of tonight have spent ten years in this facility, what would we expect of them? Don't be afraid to tell them.

"Michael Cusack dreamt his dream when he was only 15, he single-handedly saved Ireland. There would be no 1916 Rising without Cusack's dream to retake the dignity of Ireland, our language, music and our games.

"Your business is to start dreaming your dream. What contribution can you make? Cusack made up his own mind at 15, imagine if you can Sixmilebridge without a GAA or Ireland without the GAA, what sort of a horror place would it be?
"Cusack gave us back our pride and our soul, he gave us our games and Ireland is now reaping the fruits of that. Sixmilebridge has had seven decades of glory, its a great privilege for me to be here, thank you for your attention."