The Camogie Association and Connacht Camogie are delighted to be partnering with the Galway and Mayo campuses of Atlantic Technological University (ATU) to deliver a pilot programme for young women in post primary schools across Connacht.
This programme, Camán 4 Fun, is a redesign of the traditional Camogie model focusing on the holistic, fun and participation elements of the game.
Atlantic TU, through staff in the Schools Liaison and Sports Office, have supported this programme with their knowledge and experience as well as providing each participating post primary school with their own sports equipment pack. Staff from Atlantic TU have visited a large number of the schools involved to officially present each school with their equipment pack.
10 schools across Connacht are taking part but this number is just the tip of the iceberg with over 40 schools registering their interest. The Camogie Association, Connacht Camogie and Atlantic TU were delighted with the level of interest in this pilot programme. Through the continuation and strengthening of the relationship between Connacht Camogie, Atlantic TU and the Post Primary Schools, it is hoped that Camán 4 Fun can be offered on an even wider scale in the coming years.
Atlantic TU President, Dr Orla Flynn, says: “As a former camogie player myself I’m thrilled to see this collaboration and greatly encouraged to hear of the strong level of interest across Connacht. It’s so important to keep our young women engaged in sporting activity, and team sports can have a very positive impact on confidence as well as physical and mental wellbeing. Given our commitment to gender equality in Atlantic TU it’s very appropriate for us to work with these strong partners to nurture and grow women’s sport.”
Connacht Council Chairperson Brian Molloy “Connacht Camogie are delighted to have been given the opportunity to participate in this pilot programme and hugely appreciate the opportunity to develop a lasting and mutually beneficial partnership with GMIT and schools across Connacht in the development of our game. The extent of interest from schools demonstrates clearly the latent demand for programmes of this nature and we look forward to building on the success of the pilot in the coming years”
Camogie Association CEO, Sinéad McNulty welcomed “this fantastic initiative which will increase participation in Camogie across Connacht, enabling more schools to make Camogie part of their extra curricular activity. The level of interest in the programme is very exciting, and we hope to build on this years partnership to further grow the initiative over coming years, as we grow camogie across Connacht.”
