Where it all began?

In August 2021 the Offaly Traveller Men’s Football group was initiated under a Social Inclusion project with the Offaly Traveller Movement. The programme ran once per week for an hour offering exercise and fun activities for traveller men. In the first few weeks, 7-8 Traveller men took part with Frank Kavanagh from the Offaly Traveller Movement and Gary Seery from the Football Association of Ireland delivering the sessions. Participation rates from men from the Traveller community taking part in a physical activity and team sports are worryingly low. Young Traveller men often experience a high degrees of discrimination, racism and social exclusion from different sports. The aim of the project was to try to engage men from the Traveller community to take part in a physical activity as these young men often experience high discrimination and racism and social exclusion from different sports.

There was an initial fear that it would be difficult to get the men to engage, but as the weeks progressed, attendances increased on a weekly basis. The project grew to the point that a second night was organized for the group to train. Participants numbers grew to 26 men over a period of 9 months. They came from many different traveller families in the area. This is a major accomplishment as it is usually difficult for some many families to come together in such close environment.

Growth in numbers and the birth of St. Michael’s Athletic FC

By March 2022 the project had evolved to the point where the group wanted to organise games, a discussion on entering a team into the Combined Counties Football League followed. After a meeting with the chairman of the League, the decision was made to start the process of entering the league for the 2022/23 season. The coaching team could see the potential in these men who before this had never had a chance to be part of a team and participating in something that they were really enjoying. At this juncture the coaches formed a committee, and the club’s name was voted on by the men and St. Michael’s Athletic FC came into being. The next challenge was to secure pitch facilities for matches and training. Frankford Utd in Kilcormac, Co. Offaly were approached as they did not have a senior team. Frankford Utd were willing to hire their pitch and astro-turf facilities to St. Michael’s and thus a major barrier to the further development of the project was removed.

Support from Healthy Offaly crucial to progress

Key to the success of any sports club is funding. With adequate funding the football team could acquire equipment and kit to further aid their progress. Healthy Offaly staff met with Frank Kavanagh from St. Michaels in October 2022. An agreement was reached to provide funding for the duration of Round 4 of the Healthy Ireland Fund (2023 – 2025) to the team and coaches to acquire these necessary supports. Training equipment, clothing kit, coaching costs were now able to be allocated through Healthy Ireland Funding by Health Offaly to enable the fantastic progress that had been made to continue and to take part in the league. The team management provide regular updates on the team performance on and off the pitch at the quarterly Healthy Offaly Subcommittee meetings.

Results on and off the pitch

Being part of the Healthy Offaly Subcommittee has brough additional benefits for St Michaels through creating valuable partnerships with the other agencies represented on it. For example, Laois Offaly Education and Training Board have provided digital skills training to the team players helping them to develop off the pitch.  Partnering with Healthy Offaly created the structures to allow the team to make rapid progress on the pitch also. In just their second season participating in the Combined Counties Football League, with a very successful end to the season having won the  St.Michaels Athletic won the Third Division Cup Final. This success has seen members from the settled community approaching the team to join the club and it is now creating an excellent platform to break down barriers between the Traveller and settled communities.

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