Manager fears end is in sight for one of Galway’s best known GAA clubs

The manager of one of the county’s best known GAA teams reckons the football club may have as little as six years left before extinction. Senior team manager Seán Ó Cualáin based his assessment on the numbers coming through the schools in the club’s catchment area, as well as the impact of emigration on the Connemara community.

There has been a decrease of over 50 per cent in the primary school going population in Carna parish over the past 20 years and that is also reflected now in the local Community School.

It’s less than a decade ago that the yellow and black jersey of the Carna/Cashel club contested a senior county final, losing narrowly to Salthill/Knocknacarra.

But in an interview in Iorras Aithneach, the new Cill Chiaráin/Carna Yearbook, Ó Cualáin admitted that it was difficult to see how the club could have enough players at senior or intermediate level by about 2020.  

Seán Ó Cualáin says that the signals are clear when the school going numbers are assessed; he says that it must be accepted now that the Carna club will not be able to field teams in the minor and under-21 grades on its own in the future – that has been the situation for some years. 

He says the youth team’s amalgamation between Carna and Na Piarsaigh in Rosmuc/Camus is working well and that they have won some titles this year.

However, Seán Ó Cualáin gives the indication that the demise of the Carna team as a force on its own at the adults levels, is now looming.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune