Dublin, Junior Youth and Gaelic Football

I just got back from a wicked weekend in Dublin, Ireland. I had gone there to participate in a junior youth project with the local Baha’i Community of Dublin. The project involved a number of youth and adults working together intensively over a period of days to reach out to neighborhoods and invite the children (aged 5-10) and junior youth (aged 11-14) to join children’s classes and a junior youth group. I met some of the most amazing people… many of who were football and GAELIC football fans!

Gaelic Football

The junior youth project

So we went around calling on people in their homes and let them know what the project was for. An invitation might sound something like this, “Hi my name is Clare and this is Sarah and we are part of the Baha’i community. We are starting a new project in your area and we are visiting the neighbours today to let you know about the project and to invite you to participate. We are starting a junior youth group for young people between the ages of 11 and 14. The purpose of the jr youth group is to help young people to develop the skills they need to change the world, this includes developing spiritual qualities such as love, peace, unity, justice, courage and eloquence. Participating in a jr youth group helps young people to naviage through a really crucial part of their life. It helps them to develop their communication skills as well as their literacy. We help them to do this through using drama, arts, music, stories and games. We have a program running at the same time for younger children between the ages of 5-10.”At this point we find out if their are any junior youth or children living in the home, if there were then we would invite them to a taster session later in the afternoon. When needed we would make an appointment for coming back to collect them to take to the community centre If there are no children or junior youth we also tried to remember to invite any youth to come and help us.

The project went so well! That doesn’t mean that there were no challenges though. There were LOADS of challenges… mostly surrounding behaviour. When ever we had problems we would go back to book 5 and consult on what could be done better in the future. The group started off on the first day with 2 jr youth and 8 children, the second day there were 3 jr youth and 12 children and yesterday there were at least 7 junior youth and many more children came.

Gaelic Football

The Ball

I was so jazzed to find out that the majority of the youth participating love football… they also love Gaelic football. I tried hard to understand the rules of the game. For those of you, like myself, who don’t know what it is I have some more information from Wikipedia about it:

Gaelic football (Irish: Peil, Peil Ghaelach, or Caid), commonly referred to as “football“, is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. It is one of the two most popular spectator sports in Ireland today.^[1]

Gaelic football is played by teams of 15 on a rectangular grass pitch with H-shaped goals at each end. The primary object is to score by kicking or striking the ball with the hand and getting it through the goals. The team with the highest score at the end of the match wins.

Players advance the ball up the field with a combination of carrying, soloing (dropping and then toe-kicking the ball upward into the hands), kicking, and hand-passing to their team-mates.

Duration

The Pitch

All football matches last for 60 minutes, divided into two halves of thirty minutes, with the exception of senior inter-county games which last for 70 minutes (two halves of 35 minutes). Draws are decided by replays or by playing 20 minutes of extra time (two halves of 10 minutes). The under 12s have a half of 20 minutes or 25 minutes in some cases.

Teams

Teams consist of fifteen players (a goalkeeper, two corner backs, a full back, three half backs, two mid fielders, three half forwards, two corner forwards and a full forward) plus up to fifteen substitutes, of which five may be used. Each player is numbered 1–15, starting with the goalkeeper, who must wear a different coloured jersey to the other team.

Ball

The game is played with a round leather football, similar to a soccer ball, but heavier, and with horizontal stitching rather than the hexagon and pentagon panels often used on soccer balls, and similar in appearance to a standard volleyball. It may be kicked or hand passed. A hand pass is not a punch but rather a strike of the ball with the side of the closed fist, using the knuckle of the thumb.

The following are considered technical fouls (”fouling the ball”):

• Picking the ball directly off the ground (It must be scooped up into the hands by the foot). However, in ladies’ Gaelic football, the ball may be picked up directly.
• Throwing the ball (It may be “hand-passed” by striking with the fist or open hand)
• Going four steps without releasing, bouncing or soloing the ball. (Soloing involves kicking the ball into one’s own hands)^[3]
• Bouncing the ball twice in a row (It may be soloed continuously)
• Hand passing the ball over an opponent’s head, then running around him to catch it
• Hand passing a goal (the ball may be punched into the goal from up in the air, however)
• Square ball, an often controversial rule: If, at the moment the ball enters the small rectangle, there is already an attacking player inside the small rectangle, then a free out is awarded.
• Changing hands: Throwing the ball from your right-hand to left or vice-versa.

Scoring

If the ball goes over the crossbar, a point is scored and a white flag is raised by an umpire. If the ball goes below the crossbar, a goal, worth three points, is scored, and a green flag is raised by an umpire. The goal is guarded by a goalkeeper. Scores are recorded in the format {goal total}-{point total}.