Emigration cuts deep into Galway GAA clubs and community

The devastating impact which emigration has had on communities throughout Co Galway in recent years is revealed today in a Connacht Tribune investigation into the “brain drain” from just four clubs across the city and county.

From the housing estates of the Westside of the city to the streets of Tuam, or the wilds of Connemara to the camogie heartlands of East Galway, it seems that no club has been immune from the departure of players since the economic crisis hit home in 2008.

The most successful club in Galway football history, Tuam Stars, has seen 20 adult players leave the country over the past six years. Tuam could almost field a full team in London these days, as eleven of the club’s players are based in the British capital.

Despite reaching successive county finals in recent years, Tuam have had to bring teenage players through ahead of schedule due to the departures of so many players to the UK, Australia, the USA, the United Arab Emirates, and France.

“I can tell you honestly that ten or twelve of them would be fighting for a place on the first team now – and nearly getting onto it,” said club secretary Ian Doyle this week.

Last Christmas, Carna-Caiseal senior manager Sean Ó Cualain issued a stark warning that his club could become extinct in as little as six years. The school-going population in his club’s catchment area has been decimated by the departures of young families, with the number of children attending Cill Chiaran National School declining from 91 to 21 in two decades.

Six members of the team who contested the county final nine years ago are currently living outside of Ireland, and two more are in Dublin. Three of the subs have also emigrated.

In the city, the St Michael’s club enjoyed glorious celebrations when the 2008 team earned promotion to the senior ranks, before contesting the All-Ireland Intermediate Final at Croke Park the following Spring.

Eight of the fifteen players on that All-Ireland winning team have left Ireland over the past five years.

See full report and graphic in this week’s Connacht Tribune.