Let the GAA speak for rural Mayo amid serious depopulation issues

by Caoimhín Rowland

"Rural depopulation is a full‑blown crisis for our Association… It is unconscionable that we would be the generation who preside over the permanent demise of rural Ireland."

So remarked GAA President Jarlath Burns to club delegates in Westport a short few weeks ago.

What once appeared to be a pandemic silver lining, a rural renaissance driven by remote work, has, in the cold light of day, turned into a scattering of vacant parishes, particularly across the north of our county.

“The shift toward regionalisation, remote work, and digitalisation has reshaped how, and where, people choose to live and work.” For the rural areas, with its high quality of life, tight-knit communities, and improving digital infrastructure, this could have been a rural revolution.

Instead, we’re watching it slip away.

The Western Development Commission (WDC), in their recent strategy report, attended by all major politicians in the region, called for a place-based approach to development, one that supports working remotely and living rurally.

It’s a typically clear-eyed vision, and one every GAA club in Mayo should be championing from the rooftops to make it heard in Leinster House.

Why mention the WDC strategy here, buried in the sports pages? Because rural GAA clubs can’t survive without it. If the GAA is serious about safeguarding its future, it must recognise that the housing crisis, planning delays and weak remote work protections aren’t separate issues, they’re existential threats.

Michael McKenzie of Bonniconlon GAA Club and Mayo GAA’s demographics officer, puts it bluntly: “We have the fields. We have the goalposts. But we don’t have the people.”

In 2020, it looked like we had cracked it. Top salaries earned from the kitchen table in Killala or Belmullet would soon see GAA pitches bustling midweek, and, most crucially, players living locally.

But since then, corporate interests and regulatory neglect have slowly dismantled that dream. Remote workers are being pushed out of rural Ireland, and our clubs are feeling the pain.

“Most of county Mayo has broadband,” says McKenzie. “Starlink if you want it, it’s there. The infrastructure exists. But what can you say to a young family? ‘Come back and work in north Mayo, if you can’t get them a house? You can’t ask them to live with their parents or in-laws, we’re not giving young people a reason to come home.”

The numbers being gathered by Mayo GAA’s demographic’s committee on foot of HQ orders as part of a wider data driven survey of national schools look bleak.

McKenzie cites 44 pupils in Carn National School, the sole club in Moygownagh parish. That’s just 14 male players projected to sustain that team over the next eight years.

Northern Gaels, formed through a cooperation agreement, will draw from just 68 pupils across Lacken and Kilfian over the same period.

“Back in the day two families would often make up the team. But that’s gone now, people cannot build locally to where they grew up and can hardly afford to even purchase in bigger towns, if they can get a mortgage at current prices, they can’t afford kids, they would have to be working 24/7 to keep a roof over their heads,” McKenzie tells me.

“Naomh Padraig has already had to merge four clubs, Killala, Lacken, Kilfian and Ballycastle. Killala’s just about holding on. Ballycastle is under immense pressure.”

It’s not just the countryside. Even Ballina, Westport and Claremorris are struggling with an inverse problem - too many players means it’s a tougher task to maintain interest and players are leaving the game.

“Young lads can’t make the Ballina team, and they walk away. But they might’ve been your club chairperson, your secretary, your lotto fundraiser one day.”

In Clare, GAA members have begun to push their TDs. In Mayo, Seamus Tuohy named this issue as his top priority when elected in 2021. GAA President Jarlath Burns echoed the urgency at a recent Mayo address in Knockranny for the special delegates meeting.

Dr. Maura Farrell, a leading rural geographer, has called for rural clustering, encouraging compact villages to improve housing delivery and support local life. Mayo GAA, the county’s most influential brand, must lend its voice to this push.

“You have to open up planning,” says McKenzie. “There’s not a farmer in Mayo who doesn’t have a child who he would like to see come back home. But nothing’s in the pipeline to make it possible.

No one-off builds are happening anymore in the likes of Carrowteigue or Bofeenaun. Planning is so hard to get now, there needs to be a solution for the long-term because in the short term we will be seeing more clubs amalgamated.”

As Mayo County Council considers land zoning in the coming weeks due to a directive by Housing Minister James Browne to re-open county development plans, the county board and its demographics committee should be in the ear of every elected rep.

Remote working laws need to be copper-fastened to ensure people can work in companies in bigger cities while staying close to where they were born. The demand by employers to bring their staff up to Dublin should be seen as nonsensical, and legislation needs to support workers.

In north Mayo pyrite-riddled houses dominate the construction sector, a shortage of new builds make it impossible for young people to return home, even if they want to.

“Talk to any construction worker,” says McKenzie. “There are no new houses going up. If we can’t fix that, we’ll never fix rural depopulation.”

As we enter the glorious summer months with the club championship set to return, there will be a gnawing elephant on the field of play as we witness parish versus parish lock horns, all the while knowing that these 60 minute enemies may transform into team-mates in 12 months’ time.

Little else may remain in these proud parishes besides stories of old when villages were booming and rural areas sprung with life. At a time of intense housing need, beyond any crisis or emergency imaginable, it’s time our GAA clubs and county board make their voice heard on the matter.

We’re beyond ticking clocks.

“The demographic time bomb? It’s already exploded,” says McKenzie.