As part of Culture Night celebrations, the GAA tonight launched its Fun & Run programme in front of the Pav in Trinity. The event saw children from several clubs, though mainly Kilmacud Crokes, take to the cricket pitch for an evening of fun and inclusivity.
The Fun & Run initiative is designed to develop the ideas integration and inclusivity within the GAA, particularly among people with disabilities. There were several games held to promote this. Darren McGuckian, treasurer of Trinity GAA’s football team and one of several volunteers from the club helping out at the event, spoke to The University Times about the programme. Pointing to an unusual-looking game being played in front of us, he tells me that “this is a version of rounders, but it’s more inclusive because everyone is doing something. It’s not just one person running around, everyone is doing a fundamental movement. It’s all-inclusive, and that’s what the GAA are trying to promote”.
Present at the launch was the President of the GAA, Aogán Ó Fearghaíl. Speaking to The University Times, Ó Fearghaíl described the GAA’s vision in introducing the scheme: “We’ve been always hoping that the GAA would spread for everybody. We’re not just about what everyone sees in Croke Park on all-Ireland day. It’s not about the very greatest athletes – that is very important in the GAA, we’ve always set high standards – but we’ve always been for everybody.”
Ó Feargaíl also expressed the GAA’s delight at having the use of Trinity’s facilities to inaugurate the plan: “This will roll out, believe me, to every school, within a few years, to every club in Ireland. And we’ll be delighted to know that we launched it on the pitch in Trinity College Dublin.”
The importance of physical activity to a healthy lifestyle is a highly topical issue at the moment, and Ó Fearghaíl also stressed the emphasis placed by the programme on participation in physical activity in an enjoyable atmosphere. “People will no longer turn up at a GAA pitch and do a few laps, and a few press-ups, that’s gone. We’ve now moved into a new era. The name is important, it’s ‘fun and run’, it’s all about fun”, he continued.
“Exercise and movement feeds into what knowledge tells us is right, that we need far more movement, that we need a lot more activity for young people. And the GAA have to be in that space, and we are, and we’re delighted to be.”
