The Ulster GAA ‘Cairdeas’ series features case studies of people and clubs in Ulster who are making an effort to increase opportunities for their elderly members to be involved.
To find out more about the Cairdeas series and submit a case study of the work your club is doing in this area, contact niamh.mcelduff.ulster@gaa.ie or maura.mcmenamin.ulster@gaa.ie
This is a feature marks International Women’s Day, March 8th, and focuses on Anita Brannigan from Clonduff GAC Co. Down.
1. Describe the journey that took you to become a member of your current club
There was no GAA club in my Parish (Aghaloo, Co. Tyrone) when I was growing up – there is now. I played a lot of sport at school but didn’t actually have to join a club. I became involved in Clonduff club when my oldest son was U10 – he will be 50 this year! I haven’t left since. Initially, I went with the wee boys to both football and hurling and looked after them if they got hurt – I had completed First Aid through my teaching; help with the transport to away games. The two managers and I used to transport the entire hurling team! You couldn’t do that today!
The GAA was becoming computerised and because I’d moved into that field in my work I was invited onto the Executive (The Committee then) to help with emails and minutes and later registrations – been doing that since! In the mid-1990s I got involved in Scór Quiz as a participant and started coaching the youngsters for Scór na nÓg Quiz and before I knew it I was actually rounding up people to participate and I eventually became the de facto Cultural Officer when the lady who did it before that stepped down.
2. What roles do you currently have in the club?
Currently I am the secretary and have been mostly since 2006. I’m also still organising Scór.
3. Did you have any other previous roles?
I have done most roles on the Executive except for the role of Treasurer. I can’t look after my own money so I’m not taking on the responsibility of other people’s money! But I have served on fundraising sub-committees. I have done the PR role, built the club’s first website towards the end of 1990s, and set up the first social media platform accounts.
We were the first club in Down to have a website and to ‘tweet’ scores of games. In 2002 when we started Ladies Football I became heavily involved in the admin and became ‘Mammy’ to an awful lot of girls! More recently I’ve become involved in the Healthy Club Initiative helping organise events and updating the portal. I also take a lot of club photographs and encourage team mentors/event organisers to send little reports and photos of their teams/events for social media use. It’s so important to showcase our club’s involvement in the community.
4. Out of all the roles you’ve had at club level, what was your favourite and why?
Of all the roles I’ve done and still do, I just love the cultural and community side of things. There’s a place for everyone in our club and it doesn’t have to be on the field of play. Though both strands are intrinsically intertwined. We had a great Scór Sinsear involvement recently, competing in six of the eight disciplines and very few of our competitors are current players, though many of them played in the past.
5. Why did you decide to take on your current role in the club?
At our AGM in November 2019, I was nominated for Chair and no-one opposed that nomination. Our great club was founded in 1887 and I was very honoured to be the first female chair.
If you remember the first lockdown due to Covid came into being in March 2020 but our IT team ran a wonderful ‘Clonduff Connected’ programme which involved interaction not only with current club people but also with our ex-pats! The children got involved and sent in their videos of them carrying out the programmes their coaches had sent out. We also organised a database of local people/businesses who were willing to collect/deliver food, etc for the neighbours – there were over 200 on the database which was totally cross-community. Whilst this was a very strange and difficult time in our history, it was also a very rewarding time especially when people found time for each other.
6. Have you faced any obstacles as a female volunteer in any of your roles and how did you overcome them?
My husband died very suddenly whilst we were on holidays in Barcelona in 2008. We had been big attendees of games in all codes, especially club games. But for months afterwards I didn’t feel like or want to leave the house for months. However, the Executive at the time were having none of it! They would arrive at my door to take me to the games and eventually persuaded me to go back to the Executive. My Quiz team members did likewise. This was the best thing that could have happened for me! It kept me from losing my mind.
7. What has kept you involved in the club all of these years?
I’m not the type of person to feel content just doing nothing, I need to keep my brain active! Sometimes though it can be overwhelming when there’s 50 things that need doing! But I’ve got to the stage in my life that I can prioritise activities. My family keep saying that I need to slow down and take things easy but that’s not in my DNA! I great personal satisfaction from my involvement in Clonduff Club, it is an extension of my family and it’s so gratifying to know that perhaps what I do for my club helps foster a sense of belonging for every member of our community and keeps it more connected. Whilst I live alone, I’m far from being a solitary person!
But equally what I do for my club it does ten-fold for me! I’ve gotten to know a lot of people, not only in my community but throughout the entire country and a lot of people know me, which some of my non-GAA friends find strange. I’ve got to see places throughout the country and in my own county that perhaps I wouldn’t otherwise have seen if I hadn’t attended games, Scór and other events there, talking to different people and building lifelong friendships.
8. What does it mean to be a member of your club?
When Donal passed in 2008, I had retired from work in 2006 and my children had fled the nest, the Clonduff club became my lifeblood, kept me sane, gave me a daily purpose and generally became ‘my second home’. The club far transcends its initial purpose of providing men’s football – my club provides hurling, camogie, ladies football, handball, health and community support – truly a ‘hub of the community. I’m proud to be a Clonduffian.
