Galway college comes under fire over its attitude towards Gaelic games

GALWAY GAA CEO John Hynes has hit out at NUI Galway for what he describes as their “lack of focus on GAA activities” and, indeed, describes the College’s attitude towards Gaelic games at present as “worrying”.

In his annual report for 2016, to be delivered at the County Convention in the Salthill Hotel next Monday evening, Hynes said: “It was disappointing that NUIG again failed to field a team in our 2016 senior football championship and it is a cause for concern that they (NUIG) has confirmed recently that they will not be fielding a team in the 2017 championship”.

NUIG’s relationship with the competition has been tentative at best in recent years, with the College struggling to procure players from their home clubs across the country during the Sumer months. This has also been a period when many of their players go to the United States on J1 visas.

Consequently, quite often, they have ended up fielding makeshift outfits in the Galway championship and for the past two summers they have, in fact, been unable to line out teams in the competition.

This is the second year running that Hynes has expressed his concerns regarding the lack of direction NUI Galway has taken and he once again questions the College’s commitment to developing Gaelic games and its facilities.

“I believe many of our second level students and club players are making decision to attend other colleges outside the county as they see these colleges offering better facilities for elite training and better opportunities to play our games at a competitive level,” he stated.

In contrast, he highlighted that Galway GAA’s relationship with GMIT was continuing to go from strength to strength, with Loughgeorge, the county GAA training centre, now providing a base for GMIT’s newly accredited degree course in Sports & Exercise Science.

He said this was “a very positive development”, adding: “I believe that this strategic alliance will have a positive and significant impact on our ability to provide our players with the best in class training, testing and educational services and this will ultimately help improve the performances of all our county and club teams in the future”.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.