Both rural and urban GAA clubs face increasing challenges as demographics in Ireland change. This is one of a series of articles exploring the issues clubs face and what they are doing to adapt.
Valentia Young Islanders (Kerry)
Founded: 1905 Members: 132
Number of teams: One adult team – reforming having last played in 2020. Under-9s and 11s mixed boys and girls. Combined minor team with Skellig Rangers. Other juveniles playing with various neighbouring clubs.
Green shoots on the island. Small and fragile. But green shoots, nonetheless.
The Valentia Young Islanders held their AGM last Saturday, where it was decided to run the club crest up the flagpole once again. One of the most storied clubs in Kerry, home of the legendary Mick O’Connell, but since 2020 they have not fielded an adult team.
But they are getting the kit bag out for 2023.
“We decided at the meeting we are going to venture out on our own again,” says club secretary Liam Lynch.
They never actually pulled down the tent but there has been a sense of the show going on without Valentia.
Ravaged by rural depopulation, for too long they had been surviving off a core of about a dozen players, managing to field teams by gathering a few extra bodies on a game-by-game basis. Everybody knew it couldn’t last. And it didn’t.
Following a heavy defeat in the 2020 South Kerry Championship, the future looked bleak.
“Morale went downhill after that, it was rock bottom,” says Lynch.
The players who were committed deserved better. But nobody wanted to see the club fold, for it is a core pillar in the identity of the island. Once you cross the bridge, you are in the home of the Young Islanders.
Rather than amalgamate they received a permission-to-play agreement that allowed their adult players to link with another local outfit while Valentia stayed afloat – albeit without a team. The players opted for Dromid Pearses, home club of Jack O’Connor. Four players joined in 2021 while last season Lynch says “eight to 11 players” agreed to move to Dromid Pearses, though not all played.
Still, the link proved successful and two Valentia men – Jim Lynch and Paul O’Connor – played in the South Kerry final last November when Dromid beat Skellig Rangers.
“We ended up with six or seven players getting medals,” says Lynch.
At juvenile level their players are scattered, but they do play as a combination with Skellig Rangers at various grades. Indeed, a combined Skellig-Valentia side won the South Kerry minor championship last year. Four of Valentia’s contingent from that team are eligible for adult football in 2023.
“When you take those minors, plus the players coming back from Dromid Pearses, then you have the nucleus of a team,” says Liam Lynch.
They are also anticipating the transfer back of two former players while another inward move is in the pipeline for a player not originally from the area. They believe it will be enough. For 2024 that group will be supplemented by some more minors.
There is great history here, so we want to try keep the club going
— Liam Lynch, club secretary
“It is a positive step and we’re hopeful it will work,” says Lynch. “It is positive they are wearing the jersey again and taking to the field, I suppose it’s like the phoenix rising from the ashes, but we realise there are no guarantees as to how it will all work out in the long run.”
The club has a membership – between ordinary and life members – of just 132. Still, at the AGM last weekend all positions on the committee were filled. There is a will among the people for it to survive.
“There is great history here, so we want to try keep the club going,” says Lynch. “We know it is going to remain difficult but I suppose we’re looking at this as green shoots in Valentia.”
Small and fragile. But green shoots, nonetheless.
