Today, Ireland will use its Presidency of the Council of the European Union to put traditional sports and games at the centre of a European policy discussion taking place at Croke Park today.

The Presidency Conference on Traditional Sports and Games brings together senior sporting administrators, international federation representatives, academics, athletes, National Governing Bodies and policymakers.

Minister of State for Sport Charlie McConalogue will give the opening address at the one-day conference.

The event will examine traditional sport not simply in the context of heritage but through its potential contribution to social cohesion, integration, volunteering and active citizenship.

That provides us a particularly relevant story to tell.

Gaelic games represent one of Europe’s most developed examples of traditional indigenous sports operating at significant scale through a combination of community clubs, volunteers, elite competition, media coverage and commercial partnerships.

The Irish Presidency is seeking to ensure that traditional sports and games secure greater recognition within European sports policy.

The conclusions from today’s discussions will feed into a Policy Summary Report which will be circulated among EU institutions and member states as well as sporting organisations across Europe.

McConalogue has indicated that the ambition is to build towards conclusions at EU Council level later in the year which recognise the role of traditional sports and games.

The conference also comes at the beginning of a significant week for participation policy, with European Week of Sport running from September 23 to 30.

 

Sport for Business Perspective

Gaelic games are so deeply embedded in Irish sporting life that we sometimes fail to appreciate how unusual the model looks from elsewhere in Europe.

An indigenous sporting culture has developed into a nationwide network of clubs and facilities, supported by hundreds of thousands of members and volunteers, while sustaining major stadium events, national broadcast audiences and substantial commercial partnerships.

Governments generally evaluate sport through participation numbers, elite success and increasingly health outcomes.

Traditional sports add other dimensions: identity, culture, community cohesion, volunteering and a sense of place.

Those benefits are harder to measure but no less important.

Ireland’s EU Presidency creates an opportunity to move those arguments from sporting conversation into European policy.

If traditional sport is formally recognised as contributing to culture, active citizenship, social cohesion and participation, there is a stronger argument for accessing funding beyond conventional sports budgets.

That could also bring cultural, regional-development and community programmes into the conversation.

It is a great opportunity to shape policy in a direction that will bring material benefit to Irish sport.

 

 

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Image Credit: Croke Park

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