Advertisement

Lunchtime

Does The GAA Need To Redraw County Boundaries?

Following Westmeath's heavy defeat to Dublin in the Leinster Senior Football Championship, the idea...
TodayFM
TodayFM

5:48 PM - 27 Jun 2017



Does The GAA Need To Redraw Co...

Lunchtime

Does The GAA Need To Redraw County Boundaries?

TodayFM
TodayFM

5:48 PM - 27 Jun 2017



Following Westmeath's heavy defeat to Dublin in the Leinster Senior Football Championship, the idea of county boundaries being redrawn by the GAA has once again been raised.

Is it a good idea? Would it give smaller counties more of a chance against the big ones?

Professor Paul Rouse, lecturer in history at UCD, says that Dublin has always been dominant in terms of population, going back to the earliest days of the GAA.

"It still was hugely disproportionate. The population of Dublin in the 1880s was about 350,000 which dwarfed populations in rural counties. It has always been a population imbalance."

He isn't so sure about the idea of redrawing county boundaries.

"It's impossible to argue with the logic of that. But as an Offaly man, I only want to shout for Offaly. I don't want to shout for Offaly, Westmeath and Laois."

Former Roscommon footballer and Sky Sports commentator Paul Earley feels that something needs to change.

"No county outside the top fifteen counties in population terms has won the All-Ireland since 1982. In the bottom fifteen counties, only Monaghan has won a provincial title in the last six or seven years. The other factor is that the bigger counties are growing at a much higher rate than some of the smaller ones."

"I think it's the GAA's responsibility to create a competition that's equal and to ensure that a relatively high number of teams have a realistic chance of being successful every year."



You might like