Lark in the park:THE GAA social initiative which will see clubs holding social events for older men and providing transport for them has been launched by President Mary McAleese.
The President had floated the idea for such a scheme at a forum for older men she held in Aras an Uachtarain, having noticed the absence of them at functions she attended over the years.
Launching the pilot phase of the scheme at Croke Park yesterday, she said she hoped it would offset the isolation of some of the 200,000 men over 65, a third of whom are living on their own.
The project is based on GAA clubs which will be working with the Irish Farmers Association, Senior Help Line, Third Age Foundation, the Garda, Macra na Feirme and Muintir na Tire.
Among the 160 guests, mainly from the four counties where the pilot scheme will operate – Fermanagh, Wexford, Mayo and Kerry – were three west Kerry men who had never been in Dublin.
The project will involve personal contact with older men who live alone and are identified to some degree as being disengaged from the local community.
The President said that with great respect for the dignity and privacy of the older men, personal invitations would be issued to special social events which would be local, sports-related and welcoming.
Two special events for each of the pilot groups will take place in four local GAA clubs, in March and April, while five similar events will take place for each pilot group every month from November through until March 2010.
President McAleese had said at the forum that the men were best described by Dr Mick Loftus as “fellas who never leave their houses”.
“They spoke of lives that changed for them once they retired from work or when their spouse or pals died or when as one man put it, the half-door closed,” she said.
“Changing patterns of lives and lifestyles, from rural depopulation to rural transport issues, changes in pub culture, the hectic pressures of modern life, have all to some extent taken a toll and for some men it has been a process of drifting from the company and companionship of earlier years to the solitariness of their own company in later life,” she said
It was about trying to break through some of these barriers which kept the front door closed and it was about creating a path to that door which respected their dignity, pride and independence.
Older men, she said, had much to offer in experience, wisdom, skills, stories and talents to share at this anxious moment.
The President paid a special tribute to RTÉ’s Damien O’Reilly of Farmweek and Derek Mooney for airing the problems on the station over the years.
GAA president Nickey Brennan said many of the older men had done much to build the GAA as either players or administrators and this was a way of repaying them. Statistics have shown that as many as 10 per cent of older people have little or no social contact which heightens the risk of depression, illness or self-harm. The scheme will be reviewed next year with a view to making it nationwide.