Child protection in the GAA

hoodie6029

https://www.thejournal.ie/thomas-mckenna-crossmaglen-guilty-sex-crimes-5880128-Sep2022/

These were terrible crimes and hopefully the victims can find some comfort from the conviction and sentencing here.

I really do hope that this is an isolated case in the GAA. I have been thinking in the last few years, with historic and more recent abuse cases in other sports and voluntary organisations, how come the GAA never comes up? This is just based on the sheer size of it. Maybe it is just better set up, better systems to catch potential offenders early and better child protection measures. I’m not overly familiar with the day to day running of local GAA organisations.

What are people’s thoughts on this? Are there great controls in the GAA to protect young people or is there a potential of more cases like this in the future?

Billy Mays

There was the Tom Humphries case a few years ago aswell

BattleCorp

I'd imagine that the GAA child protection measures that were in place 30 or 40 years ago were equally as non-existent as they were in other sporting organisations back then. It's only relatively recently that child protection became a thing, mostly in the last 10 - 20 years.

Their controls should be pretty good now as there is legislation in place but nothing is foolproof.

Will there be more cases like the one in the OP? I'd imagine so. Every large organisation will have had their share of bad people years ago. But hopefully they will be legacy cases and the current safeguarding rules will help keep the kids playing today safe and out of harms way.

Mrs OBumble

They just have more sympathetic people who keep cases out of the media.

BaywatchHQ

It's a very complex issue, it means that childless men would feel quite uncomfortable in volunteering their coaching services as they know they would be viewed as potential pedophiles. The reality is that only father's can be GAA coaches nowadays.

Choochtown

Every club in the country now is mandated to have a Children's Officer who must have undergone training for the role.

In addition it is mandatory for every coach and mentor to have been both Garda-vetted (or the equivalent in the North) and to have completed a Children Safeguarding course.

This ensures that there is a definite process in place for every parent should they feel that their child is vulnerable in any way (including verbal abuse). The Children's Officer is the first point of contact for a parent.

These procedures should be in place now at every club in the country.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119688464#Comment_119688464

Fecking hell, sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare imposed by people hell bent on vilifying others as paedophiles. All this so some youngfellas can kick a ball around a field

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119687754#Comment_119687754

this is very true, I coach my daughter's team, if she decides to pack it in, that's me gone.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119690268#Comment_119690268

There’s no truth in it at all! 😳 It’s only that particular posters paranoid nonsense.

The coaches that participated were predominantly male (79%), aged between 25 – 54 (85.7%), and experienced, with 89.8% active for more than five years and 90% of whom have received some coaching qualification.

It found also that 70% of those involved were a parent of a player in their club and 26% of whom had little or no playing experience themselves.

Coaches in Gaelic games were reported as being very active: 39.8% are currently involved in coaching in multiple codes and a significant majority of whom do so on more than one day each week (78.3%).

Encouragingly for the governing bodies, some 63.1% of respondents said they intended to continue coaching for at least the next two years.

Of the potential threats to their continued involvement, the demands of work and family life were the most cited – almost three in four people said it was the issue most likely to force them to stop.

Of greater concern for the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association will be the 35% who cited scheduling of competitions as a major challenge and the 28.3% of whom stated that ‘poor games opportunities/structures’ were a concern.

https://m.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaa-survey-concludes-way-below-par-female-coaching-ratio-of-20-41228653.html

xxxxxxl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119689152#Comment_119689152

Not really tones of jobs need Garda vetting it's pretty standard if you look after old folks in their house for example. I would have thought it was a basic check to be doing in regards to interaction with other peoples children.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119690972#Comment_119690972

In our club, it's only parents of kids on the team who coach.

a couple of kids teams have folded in the last few years, because the main coaches left when their kids packed it it.

I had a discussion with a few other coaches yesterday, and we agreed that we can't see this changing anytime soon

Choochtown

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694976#Comment_119694976

I would presume that at your club (as per GAA regulations) that these parents will have undergone some training for their roles regarding both child protection and at least the preliminary coaching course?

It seems such a waste to see them not utilise these to coach another team or at least stay involved.

If underage teams are folding due to lack of volunteer coaches then it doesn't bode well for the future of the club.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695549#Comment_119695549

yep, we have all done the initial training and the garda vetting, and it's a real loss to the club to see experienced coaches, with good playing experiences going,

usually there is a big enough group of coaches to keep the team going but not always, and some of the coaches have never played GAA

RobbieTheRobber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695913#Comment_119695913

Exactly the same experience coaching underage soccer in Ireland.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119694976#Comment_119694976

Do you mean only parents of kids do coach or only parents of kids are allowed to coach?

RobbieTheRobber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698703#Comment_119698703

Only parents with kids in the team will give their time to coach.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698730#Comment_119698730

that isn't what i asked.

RobbieTheRobber

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698764#Comment_119698764

There is no ban in any club that I am aware of, that stops individuals who are not the parent of a current player in a team from becoming involved in coaching that team.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698773#Comment_119698773

that is the question I asked. thank you.