By Niall Gartland

AT the GAA’s Annual Congress held in Donegal Town a fortnight ago, a motion was brought forth from the Augher club redefining an important element of the GAA constitution.

The brainchild of Augher vice-chairman Niall Mulrine, he took the mic and argued in favour of a change to the rules surrounding membership, so that GAA members over the age of 16 would be granted voting rights.

Mulrine cited the articulate youth delegates who had addressed Congress, and he received backing from long-standing Down secretary Sean Óg McAteer, who noted that as an u-16 he could not make his club team, but instead channelled his energy as the club secretary.

It was put to a vote and passed comfortably with the approval of 74.9 per cent of the delegates.

As things stood, there were three tiers of membership of the GAA: full membership, youth membership (10-18), and child membership (u-9).

Now, as a result of Mulrine’s notion, there will be four tiers: full members, youth members over 16 with a vote, youth members from 12 to 16 who won’t have a vote, and child membership redefined as up to u-12. Voila.

Mulrine, who is the head of volunteer development with the LGFA (the Ladies Gaelic Football Association) believes fervently that the GAA was missing a trick under the old arrangements, particularly given the existential threat of depopulation on rural GAA clubs.

He said: “To be able to vote or nominate or stand for election in your club, you had to be over the age of 18. If you take Benny Hurl, head of the demographics committee, he delivered a presentation to Congress about a crisis in playing numbers – there’s low numbers rurally and an explosion of numbers in urban areas, and it’s crucial we do whatever we can to tackle this.

“The GAA holds a Youth Forum every year, and there’s a Youth Congress as part of that. There’s a lot of really great young people who can articulate really interesting points, but they can’t have a say when they go back to their clubs.

“I looked at the rules surrounding membership and I suppose this became a passion project of mine.”

Mulrine is confident that teenagers on the cusp of adulthood will be able to perform important committee roles, particularly as they’re already so au fait with the digital world.

“Every 16 year old knows how to use every social media app going. We’re crying out for people to be PROs in clubs, assistant treasurers, assistant secretaries, to help out with coaching. I know in some of our local clubs, they’re already reliant on young people to be a real driving force within their clubs.

“Now we’re giving more people an opportunity to make their mark, and that’s what Gaelic games is all about ultimately – giving people the opportunity to be involved no matter what.”

Mulrine thinks that committees at every level of the GAA are too homogeneous, and he hopes that the amending of the membership rules goes some way to bringing down the barriers.

“I’ve sat on the planning and training committee for the last seven or eight years and there hasn’t been a lot of diversity in terms of the make-up of the group.

“If you look across county boards and provincial committees, the diversity is pretty low in terms of gender, background and age groups.

“I know the fears surrounding this motion – that delegates might take advantage of it by bringing their children down to vote, but if somebody really wants to do something like that, they’re going to do it anyway and our amendment isn’t going to stop or start that.”

Mulrine admits that he didn’t think his motion would actually be rubber-stamped at Congress, but he hoped that it would kickstart an important and necessary debate.

Now it’s been given the blessing of delegates, he hopes that it will go some way towards safeguarding the Association for many decades to come.

“To be honest, I didn’t think it would pass but I hoped it would start a debate. In saying that, in the week leading up to it, a lot of people made contact and told me they supported it. I’d see it as a potential game-changer in terms of officers at clubs.

“It’s an area where I can see massive potential for growth. If you look at volunteering trends within the GAA, research shows that the majority of volunteers are nearly 50. In a decade’s time, they’re going to retire, and yes they’ll still spend time with their club but research shows that when people retire they generally don’t volunteer as much – they might become groundsmen but not the chairperson.

“We have to safeguard our Association and I can see this change to our membership rules having a really positive outcome.”