“There is a real buzz around Gaelic Football in Louth at the minute and we want to be part of it,” the Dundalk Grammar School students say in a letter sent to the management and staff alongside a petition signed by over 400 students.
They have asked “is Gaelic Football banned in Dundalk Grammar School and if so, why?”
If not, they want to know for what reason is Gaelic Football now being prohibited, as they say their proposal clearly shows that other sports won’t be impacted from it being played at Senior level.
Sixth year student Jack Stokes, who lines out for the Dunleer-based St Kevin’s GFC club, is one of the many students who would love to play Gaelic football for his school.
“Lots of the students here play with their local GAA clubs and I have friends who play Gaelic for other schools in town like Colaiste Ris, the Marist and De La Salle. They get to play in the Lennon Cup so it’s very disheartening seeing them get that opportunity when we’re denied it.”
Not being able to play Gaelic was a big disappointment for him when he first went to the school.
“I did play rugby and soccer but I would have enjoyed my time at school more had I been able to play Gaelic.”
He is, along with other senior students, pushing to have Gaelic football added to the list of team sports that students can play and represent their school in.
“We started to push to be able to play Gaelic when we were in second year but didn’t get anywhere and began exploring it at the start of this year.”
He says that they have the support of the vast majority of students and teachers at the school, with over 400 students signing a petition calling for the introduction of Gaelic football in the school. In addition, the students say that 90pc of the staff are in favour of it being introduced and 50pc are willing to coach it.
Jack says that the students dispute the argument that Gaelic football would interfere with players’ commitments to the schools “pillar sports” of hockey, rugby and hockey.
“Our proposal is to only enter one team in the Louth Schools Senior (U19s) Lennon Cup for a probationary period of one school year, This would mean that the team would play a minimum of three games and a maximum of five if there were to win the competition.”
The proposal argues that “these games take place in the first school term and are flexible in so far as they could be rearranged if other sports were on so as not to clash. It would also act as something for Gaelic footballers in DGS to look forward to when they reach senior cycle in the school and to assist teachers in selecting who represents our school on the Dundalk Schools panel, a team which our school has a longstanding successful history with.”
In addition, boys don’t play hockey at senior level. At the moment, hockey is the only team sport offered to girls so the addition of Gaelic games would give girls the opportunity to play in senior regional competitions.
The students point out that basketball and cricket are played at the school and they want to know why Gaelic isn’t.
“A lot of parents are also asking why Gaelic isn’t being brought in,” said Jack.
The students are protesting this morning in a bid to get the Gaelic football introduced to the school in time to enter the draw for the 2024/25 Lennon Club which takes place on May 21.
As part of their protest, they are going to wear Gaelic jerseys and play football on the astro-turf.
According to the school’s website, the list of sports currently available are hockey, rugby, soccer, athletics, volleyball, basketball, spikeball, badminton and tennis.
