COMMUNITY SPORTS: The future of the Community Games is in doubt as they search for a new venue to stage the finals. It's often the things we value most, we take most for granted, writes Derek O'Connor.

Try to name an Irish event that has seen talent of the following calibre pass through its ranks: Sonia O'Sullivan, Brian O'Driscoll, Roy Keane, Eamon Coughlan, Niall Quinn, Steve Staunton, Stephen Roche, Terry McHugh, John Tracey, Karen Shinkins, Sinead Jennings, Michael Carruth - and Ronan Keating. The answer? The Community Games. The majority of our contemporary sporting heroes (and, alarmingly enough, most of the members of Westlife) have all participated.

Think, then, of all the jostling for attention and funding that innumerable Irish sporting organisations have engaged in over the years, and the reams of impassioned media coverage generated as a result of their efforts. It has to say something that, while robust bodies fall over themselves to claim any of the aforementioned talents as one of their own, the only organisation that has played host to them all remains content to get on with the job in hand. As long, however, as they can.

The ongoing saga concerning the Community Games's search to secure a new location for its national finals - the former Mosney Holiday Camp, now a asylum seekers' relocation centre, is only available as a venue until 2005 - has rallied the grateful. Messages of support have been flooding in, from long-time volunteers and thankful parents, not to mention any number of official sources; what hasn't been as forthcoming, however, is any firm commitment from the Government concerning assistance.

While the opening of this year's national finals saw some positive utterances from the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue (who promised a reappraisal of funding, and pledged to look favourably on any requests for capital investment in the event of the organisation acquiring land), last Sunday's closing ceremony saw the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, retreat behind the usual non-specific platitudes and abstract niceties.

The sad truth is that the things that mean the most are the things we most take for granted - and the Community Games mean a lot to the young people of Ireland.

While the social and cultural landscape of the country might have changed beyond all recognition over the past few decades, the games have, quietly but effectively, changed with those times while remaining utterly true to their original purpose. That is, to provide kids with constructive and enjoyable activities, to encourage nascent athletic ability in a non-pressurised environment (one that is open to absolutely all comers) - and, above all, to have fun.

"We were very hopeful that we would hear something from the Government by this point," says public relations officer Noreen Doyle on the morning after McDowell's speech. "And instead we got nothing. Nothing at all. There are a lot of people devastated at this end of things. We simply don't have the funds to secure a new venue, and if the Government can't offer financial support and help us to find one, we can't see a future. The Community Games will die."

Perhaps situations affecting valued institutions always have to reach a crisis point before people truly appreciate what they have.

"Think of it this way: we're what you'd call a Montessori for sport," says marketing manager Mimi Doran. "Everybody comes in, the kids always enjoy it, and we just want them to be positive and have a bit of craic."

When extolling the considerable virtues of the Community Games, it's counter-productive to focus on the successful athletes who have risen through the ranks; after all, it's most certainly not just about the winners. Consider, instead, the untold tens of thousands of children who have benefited immeasurably from merely participating, from mustering the courage to take part.

Does this read like the impassioned ramblings of some poor unfortunate who won a Community Games gold medal when he was seven, and has never quite recovered? Well, I did win the medal, for an art competition, and my mother still has it somewhere. And I consider it to have been a turning-point.

A recent increase in funding by the Sports Council - the main sponsor of the Games, alongside the ESB - has enabled the recent appointment of a full-time chief executive officer, but the overall budget, as it stands, can only cover rented offices and a full-time staff of four.

Take a cursory look at what other major sporting organisations have been receiving - it's all there on the Sports Council's website - and you'll swiftly notice the considerable discrepancies. At present, for example, the Community Games receive an annual subsidy of €178,547, while the Badminton Association of Ireland, to offer but a single example, gets €221,931. Some might contend that the Community Games have a major sponsor: that's right, but they're providing urgently needed - now more than ever - activities for a half a million children every year. It's hard to argue with that.

Still reeling from the passing, within the past month, of their long-time chairman Michael O'Brien, the Community Games soldier on, hoping for good news.

"The government have told us, time and time again, 'We'll support you, we'll help you'," says Mimi Doran. "We're delighted that they're interested, but we need an answer. Tell us what you're going to do."

A spokesman for Minister O'Donoghue says: "The Minister is anxious that the Community Games continues to have the facilities to continue to provide the opportunitites that they provide for young people. We don't have a record of any direct approach made to us, as of yet, concerning our providing assistance in securing a new venue for the Community Games Finals, but we would welcome any submissions forthcoming."

That response is rather baffling to the Games organisers, considering that they have just spent two years working closely with O'Donoghue's Department on the structuring of their strategic plan.

The Government has also stressed that its financial support for the Community Games Finals - courtesy of the Department of Justice - already amounts to some €20 a head towards each child's stay at Mosney. All very well and good, except that the need for such a subsidy didn't exist until the aforementioned department's aquisition of the site, some three years ago, drove up the price of each child's room and board. By contributing towards the cost of the extra bedding and supplies now necessary to stage the Community Games at Mosney, the Government is just attempting to mop up a problem of its own creation. Why not, then, tackle a more permanent solution?

www.communitygames.ie

[ www.irishsportscouncil.ieOpens in new window ]

The games, the statistics

Now 35 years old, the Community Games operate in every county, North and South.

The Community Games offers a range of 32 different sporting and cultural activities (from basketball to draughts) to up to 500,000 children, aged between six and 17.

The games have more than 6,000 branches and 20,000 organisers across the country, all working on a voluntary basis.

The national finals alone involve some 6,000 competitors and 1,000 officials.

Over the two weekends of the finals in Mosney, they consume 1,000 litres of orange juice, 11,400 litres of milk and 4,300 litres of soft drinks - it's thirsty work.