Queen's GAA Female Participation Programme

Who are we?

Queen’s GAA supports students across all five GAA codes. With over 600 members, our students are driven to improve as players while they work towards a world-class qualification during their time at the University. In recent years, the support programmes have continued to grow. At present we field 14 teams across men’s and women’s Gaelic Football, Hurling, Camogie, and Handball.  Our men’s, women’s and Fresher Football teams field at National League Division 1 level and in the Sigerson, O’Connor, and Billings Cups respectively. Our Hurlers and Camógs feature in National League Division 2 and the Ryan and Purcell Cups respectively. Handball has seen a revival in recent years with several talented players winning Intervarsity, Ulster, and All-Ireland titles.

Community impact

Over the last number of years our membership has continued to grow however, Covid-19 has slowed our progress in developing our student sport development. Our entire sporting season was cancelled and when matches were allowed to return, no spectators were allowed. There were no opportunities for new members to bond with the existing teams as all large gatherings were prohibited. This prevented our members from feeling part of their club. When we re-started the university sporting season in 2022 we had over 300 female students join our club. We believe with increased funding we can continue to develop and promote female participation at Queen's GAA and develop these players through our coaching pathway. 

Queen's GAA students are considered leaders within their peer environments and ambassadors for Queen’s Sport and the University.  The Queen’s Sport Pathway has been carefully designed to help recognise our students' achievements and support them in their development during their time with us. Our students are from all over the world and they have always used the skills they learn with us to impact on their local community in a positive way.

We plan to run participation and taster sessions for all our female students to include both local and international students. We want to provide an opportunity to those who may not have played before, particularly focusing on young females. We aim to also reduce social anxiety post Covid as well as increasing physical, social and mental wellbeing. Post training session, we aim to cater for our students who can relax and get to know each other off the pitch as well within the social setting of the club through various social gatherings during the incoming term.

What we intend to do

Post Covid, we realised the hugely positive effect GAA at Queen's had on our female student community with great benefits on their physical, social and mental wellbeing.  

Our Targets

Increase our female membership- we will continue to promote and provide the support to allow female students to take part in Gaelic Games at Queen's. This will be achieved through our various taster and International Student sessions as well as our six teams we currently field. 

Coach/volunteer education - we will embark on a education scheme to ensure every new student coach is qualified to a minimum of foundation level. We want to increase the number of female coaches within our club. More established coaches will move on to complete their level 1 or level 2 coaching award. All coaches will also have to update/complete their Safeguarding one qualification as well as first aid.

Equipment -  We will plan to have new equipment for each coaching team.

Player/Project identity - we will give every  player a piece of merchandise with the Queen's GAA  image.

Health and Wellbeing - we want to run a raft of initiatives/events to promote healthy lifestyles and to create environments for social interaction for all students but particularly our  new members many of whom are moving away from home for the first time.

Student Safety and Mental Wellbeing - We want to deliver education and advice to our students regarding their safety and how to improve their own mental health and wellbeing.  We will establish workshops together with external organisations who are experts in this field as well as our own student support network.

How we will spend the money raised

TAKE THE NEXT STEP

Your support for Queen’s GAA  provides our Ladies Football, Camogie and Handball players with the best possible resources to enable them to excel in their sporting endeavours. Queen’s GAA has produced some of the games sporting greats and we continue to nurture some of Ireland’s best sporting talent. Your gift  benefits players at all levels and helps us maintain the GAA tradition in Queen’s. 

1.We will employ specialised coaches for each of our sports to

a) help develop each player's skill set.

b) help train up our existing internal and indeed newcomer coaches so they can continue carrying on the good work at Queen's.

2. We will purchase relevant equipment and other coaching aids which will be beneficial for the attainment of the students' coaching and fitness goals

Some of our players after a game at The Dub.