St. Patrick’s Athletic A Club for the Community
The steps St. Pat’s takes to engage themselves among residents of Dublin 8
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ommunity officer David Morrissey highlights the steps St. Patrick’s Athletic have taken to engage themselves amongst the residents of Dublin 8.
are five primary schools within the Inchicore area, which have over one thousand students. Morrisey said, “we can reach people in the area through football.”
The Inchicore club has been based in Dublin 8 since they were established in 1929. Since then, St. Patrick’s Athletics support has always been predominantly local. Richmond Park, the home of St. Pats, is based in the heart of Inchicore. The people of Inchicore share pride in their club as St Pat’s take honour in being part of the South Dublin suburb. Community Officer David Morrissey’s role involves visiting schools every week. These visits help inform students that St. Pat’s is a doorstep club and wants to help promote the idea of live football on a weekly basis. St. Pat’s is a vibrant club founded by local workers for the community.
When Mr. Morrissey arrives at these primary schools, he provides a ten-week maths and football programme. These schools include Our Lady of Lourdes primary school and Oblates primary school. By using a St. Pat’s themed workbook, students are seeing maths as identifiable by relating season tickets and jersey prices. Player statistics and Europa league away trips are also used in mathematical capacity.
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The Inchicore area is changing regularly. David Morrissey’s role is to make sure “the club itself remains active at the heart of the area.” There
David is a lifelong St. Patricks Athletic supporter and feels the more students St. Pat’s reach, the better it can be for the future of the club and the Inchicore area. “I try to bring it back to what I would have liked if I was in school now, because I grew up a Pat’s fan. If someone came in and did the work that we do, it would have had a huge positive impact on me.” Morrissey took up the role in April 2018, and since then match attend-
ances have been on the rise. St. Pat’s are currently in transition on the pitch, but that isn’t stopping Mr. Morrissey from shining the light on the Inchicore outfit to the rest of the community.
“ St. Pat’s is a vibrant club founded by local workers for the community” On the 13th of September 2019, St. Patricks Athletic hosted University College Dublin (UCD) in Richmond Park. As an incentive, David Morrissey and his colleagues decided to give out special tickets for the game to local schools. This meant if the child was accompanied by an adult, the child would get in for free. More than two hundred school children attended the scoreless draw versus UCD. It wasn’t the scoreline that mattered but the matchday experience as a whole. David added, “after the game, the kids go home and Pat’s Photographs by Joshua Teoh ‘St. Pat’s reaches out to local schools by relating maths to Jersey prices and season tickets’
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