Changes on under-age amalgamations 'heartbreaking'

The chairperson of Sliabh Rua has described as “heartbreaking” the situation whereby the club will have to split for certain age-grades and work under strict guidelines at others.

Feeding into the adult set-ups of both Ballymartle and Belgooly, the existence of Sliabh Rua actually pre-dates the formation of the latter, the entity having competed as far back as the early 1970s.

From 2026, independent under-age teams - i.e. those that are not directly linked to a single adult club - are subject to strict rules, with the new monitoring committee deciding on what should happen at each level.

While the maroon and white of Sliabh Rua may still be seen on the playing fields from U11 Go Games up to minor (U18) inclusive, there are conditions: the U11 teams must only consist of players born in 2015 and the U12 sides only 2014 births. For U14 and U16, a combined side will only be able to choose players on the age or the year below - if, however, Belgooly and Ballymartle were to compete on their own, they would be entitled to pick players born across a three-year period. For U8 and U10 Go Games, the clubs must operate separately.

Paul Hannan, the Clare native who is the Sliabh Rua chairperson “We're a community, two villages, one primary school in Belgooly and the boys play with Sliabh Rua,” he says.

“But, of course, we’re not technically recognised as a club - we’re class as a group of independent teams, even though we have our own structures, committee and governance, we have our own money, we do our own funadraising, all of that.

“The kids had their U6-11 end-of-year party recently - the first time holding it together with the camogie club, and we had a ‘Dunk The Coach’ fundraiser last year, which was obviously great fun for the kids, too.

“It’s heart-breaking, really, to see these young boys having fun together with their friends at the weekend and getting their medals - they’re in the one primary school and now they're being divided.” 

The strong identity created by Sliabh Rua’s longevity means that any impending changes have left people very upset.

“One of the mums came to a coach in tears the other day,” Hannan says, “she has two boys, one is U12 and the other boy is U8. One fella wants to play with Ballymarkle because his best buddy is from Riverstick and the other boy wants to play with Belgooly because his best buddy just around the corner, the family's from Belgooly.

“I've heard of mums and dads saying that they'll take their kids into Kinsale or off to Tracton, because they'd just prefer not to get involved in this split. I’ve had coaches say to me that, if it goes through, they’ll just step down and not be involved. He said he couldn't coach one team against the other.

“We can see from the demographics how, five years ago, there was a good number of pupils in the school, whereas in the last couple of years they’ve started advertising for enrolments.

“What’s there is a single strong structure, based on family and community engagement and increasing inclusivity, but when you’re splitting up our boys in the school, friendships will be fragmented and there’ll definitely be community division.

“Both clubs are holding EGMs this weekend and I wouldn’t like to predict the outcomes but, because of the restrictions and stipulations in place, they might say it’s unworkable and that it’s best to split the whole way up.

“It would be very sad if that turned out to be the case.”