Niall McCoy: So, first off explain a bit more about your role and ultimately your aim.

Ryan Gaffney: The key purpose of my role would be to support, develop and manage camogie participation and growth initiatives for clubs, schools and counties across the province.

We work closely with Sport NI to help ensure we are meeting our targets in areas such as volunteer recruitment, recruitment of officials and coach recruitment and then it’s also important that we support all these members and provide them with the opportunity to upskill through workshops and training courses.

I suppose that’s last year was a bit of a challenge in a sense as normally all this upskilling would have been provided face-to-face. I started my role with Ulster Camogie last March and then a few weeks later we all went into lockdown so like everyone it took a bit of time to adapt to the new way of working. But in a way it has opened our eyes a bit and has no doubt shaped the way we will be providing upskilling in the future.

In terms of aims, I would have targets set each year and achieving those would be my main objective but personally I want to help ensure that all girls within the province have a chance to play camogie. Whether that’s through their school or the club scene, it’s up to us to help provide our players with the platform to achieve their full potential through our games so they play and stay within our sport.

NMcC: Can you just give a bit on where stand regarding camogie in each of the nine counties, particularly in the weaker counties?

RG: Currently there is a big gap between the top teams in Ulster and bottom teams. We have our traditionally strong counties such as Down, Antrim and Derry. But then we would have counties such as Monaghan or Fermanagh who need all the support they can get in terms of camogie development.

For the stronger counties like Antrim, a simple thing like getting games, which a lot of people take for granted, isn’t a problem. With 25 teams competing at most age groups, they are blessed with the game’s opportunities. But for counties such as Donegal or Monaghan, who have only three registered clubs, then the challenge of providing games for their players is a major problem.

There is no doubt that these clubs have passionate and enthusiastic people involved and camogie within their counties would be lost without them, but it’s hard to grow your membership numbers if the players aren’t promised a good number of games each season.

If we look at the intercounty scene, we had a great season in 2020 with Down and Antrim fighting it out for the intermediate title and also Armagh and Cavan competing for the Junior Championship. It was great to have four counties from within our province involved, but we must be aware that this year could be harder again seeing as the top teams could be allowed to enter their B sides.

In saying that, it was a real lift to camogie in those counties and it’s a nice reward for the people who put the years of work into our sport. I hope that this year all squads can build on last year’s performances. It could be hard to top 2020 but it is a challenge I’d expect our counties to rise to and I have no doubt they will give it their best.

NMcC: How do you asses Ulster Camogie’s state of health right now?

RG: In order to understand and assess the current state of health of camogie across the province, I think it is vital we understand the strength of the club scene. If the clubs aren’t improving then we have to make changes and find solutions to ensure it is moving in the right direction. We keep track of our membership numbers, coaching numbers, volunteers etc, which gives us a clear indication year after year of where we are in terms of participation levels.

Another way I try to assess the current state of camogie in the province is through meeting with clubs and county boards. By carrying out a SWAT analysis in these meetings, I can get a clearer picture of how many game opportunities their players are getting, how many qualified coaches they have involved with their teams, what upskilling they might need and what support their club might need. From these meetings we can look at providing clubs with workshops and game opportunities such as our development leagues, which we hope to start when restrictions allow us to do so.

NMcC: What would you like see put in place to help with its development?

RG: The biggest challenge to our sport is growing the numbers within the weaker counties. In order to tackle this, I would like to work towards setting up cross-county or even cross-provincial leagues. This would work similar to the Tain Óg leagues that myself, Martin Fogarty, Aidan Morgan and Pauric Dowdall implemented in 2018 for hurling clubs within weaker counties.

We were tasked with growing the profile of hurling within our regions and when we removed the county and provincial boundaries it became a lot easier.

We implemented the Tain Óg league at u-13 level in 2018. At the start we were hoping to have at least 16 clubs involved but ended up with 29 teams registered which spread across 11 counties and provided 68 more games opportunities for u-13s. This involved a lot of work with Damien Coleman from Connacht GAA and his development officers plus development officers in Leinster.

In 2019 seeing the appetite for games in these weaker counties, we decided to grow the league and included u-15s. Between the two age groups we had 46 clubs spread across 15 counties. A total of 68 teams involved and provided an extra 216 games in the calendar for those kids.

Before I left my post with Ulster GAA in February 2020, we had 74 clubs and 108 teams registered across both age groups with a total of 354 extra games to be played, but unfortunately Covid put the programme on hold.

Seeing the success of this programme in 2018 and 2019, Croke Park decided to introduce a new senior competition called the Cuchulainn League in 2020 for clubs within the weaker counties and we had 44 teams registered but, again, Covid put this on hold

I know that there are plans in place to try and implement the Tain Óg leagues for u-17s in 2021 so all being well kids in the weaker counties will be guaranteed a more competitive and regular programme of games as they move along the player pathway.

This programme shows the growth that can be gained from working across county boundaries. With all these extra games that needed played, we needed more coaches, more parents involved, more referees so the games become the convoy that helps grow everything within the sport.

I think that implementing a programme like this for camogie clubs in Ulster could really help grow participation in the weaker counties and will provide them with much-needed game-time. This would require a lot of work from ourselves in Ulster Camogie and our volunteers but it is definitely achievable.

I have had good conversations with our provincial development officer Declan Heggarty and we hope to build upon the development league we are running this year and, in the future, provide this to the younger age groups similar to the Tain Óg leagues.

NMcC: Is the growth and increasing profile of ladies’ football a help or a hinderance in growing camogie in Ulster?

RG: I wouldn’t see it as a hinderance at all and if anything, it is helping us get players out and get active through playing Gaelic games.

I come from a club (Middletown, Armagh) that provides all four codes and I suppose all any of us want is for more people to be provided with the opportunity to play our games. I have seen how successful clubs can be in terms of participation levels and providing enjoyment for their members and players if there is a good relationship between all codes and a shared goal.

There is some great work being done in ladies football across the province and I have a good working relationship with Ciaran Murtagh and Aidy McLaughlin from Ulster Ladies football so we try and collaborate as much as possible with certain projects like our coach academy and our elite camps.

Giving that the profile of ladies football has improved, it certainly hasn’t stopped the profile of camogie from improving either. As I said earlier, we had four counties represented in the All-Ireland Championship finals last year and the coverage that they received was better than any previous years.

We were all able to sit in the living room and watch the games wher as before Covid that wouldn’t have been the case. All young camogs where able to access them games and see the players at the top level playing.

So, I would say it’s a positive for camogie in the province that ladies football is improving as we now have more heroes such as Aimee Mackin or Niamh Mallon for our young female athletes to look up to and they get to watch more often.

If those girls can reach the peak of their sports then there is no reason why our young camogs can’t aim to do the same.