Five Sligo clubs - Ballymote Round Towers, Easkey, Enniscrone/Kilglass, St Farnans and Tubbercurry - were confirmed last week for participation in Phase Five of the Irish Life GAA Healthy Clubs project.

St Mary’s club, who deferred participation last year, will also be participating in Phase Five.

The participants on Phase Five were announced in the week when it was confirmed that  Irish Life Health has renewed its sponsorship of the Healthy Club project for another four years.

The Irish Life GAA Healthy Club model was developed bin partnership with Healthy Ireland, the HSE’s health promotion division and the National Office for Suicide Prevention. It aims to harness the capacity of the GAA club to take a lead on the community introducing good health, exercise and promotion practices with its members.

The work is based on international best practice which has identified that bringing the conversation about health into the day-to-day activities of a club enables strengthens the community’s sense of what activities sustain healthy outcomes.

The Healthy Clubs project works with clubs to identify priority activities that can be delivered in their area and using their facilities. Healthy Club Officers and project teams receive specialist training and  then work with their members and communities to identify priority action areas during their 18-month journey towards accreditation as an official ‘Healthy Club’.

The most common choices include

-         Physical activity for non-playing members (such as walking groups) and GAA social games (such as Gaelic for Mothers & Others, GAA for Dads & Lads, or Social Rounders, Handball or Camogie)

-         Mental health and emotional wellbeing

-         Gambling, drug, and alcohol awareness, including becoming smoke-free clubs (50% of participating clubs have to date become smoke- and vape-free clubs)

-         Diversity and inclusion, with inclusive camps/games opportunities for persons with additional needs proving particularly popular along with the engagement of other minority groups

-         Sustainability, under the new GAA Green Clubs programme

-         Supporting older members of the community and youth leadership initiatives

-         Healthy Eating

-         Community and personal development

The participating clubs are asked to document their progress to measure the impact of the project on club activities and the community generally.

The six clubs participating in Phase five will join the three who completed Phase four last year and the four Sligo clubs who previously completed earlier phases of the project - Coolaney/Mullinabreena, Curry, Eastern Harps, Owenmore Gaels, Shamrock Gaels, St. John’s, St. Michaels and St. Molaise Gaels

All of the clubs that have completed the programme have the right to fly the Healthy Club Flag above their grounds (endorsed by both Healthy Ireland and the Public Health Agency in NI).