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ST. PATRICKS - A CLUB FOR THE COMMUNITY
St. Patrick’s Athletic A Club for the Community The steps St. Pat’s takes to engage themselves among residents of Dublin 8
Community officer David Morrissey highlights the steps St. Patrick’s Athletic have taken to engage themselves amongst the residents of Dublin 8.
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32 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.
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 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.”
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.
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.
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’
are being spoken about for the first time, you can’t put a value on that.” In a league where attendances are low and not much coverage takes place, St. Pat’s are planting a seed for the next generation of football supporters to arise within their community.
The overall feeling around the club is that football is positive for the community. It gives Inchicore a platform on a Friday evening for families to attend games and embrace the matchday experience. Anti-social issues can be minimised by football programmes to give minors a focus. “We can reach people in the area through football.” St. Pat’s are not only looking to help youngsters but also focus on attracting elderly citizens to Richmond Park.
Morrissey highlighted the significance of giving those who live on their own something to look forward to every week. This season the club sold OAP season tickets at the same price of 3rd level student tickets as an added incentive for the elderly to go to the games regularly and become a part of the club.
David touched on the topic of social inclusion among the community, and how important involvement is. “I think it’s vital that we show people how much of an asset they are to the area.” The maths and football programme will continue into 2020, with St. Pat’s hoping to reach
‘The exterior of St. Pats Atheletic club, adorned with grafittiw’
five hundred more students within the community. The primary aim for Morrissey now is to “help the schools most local to us.” The programme has been running for nearly two years now and from the club’s perspective, it can only have a positive impact on the club and community. “It’s not just about getting a player in, signing a few autographs and getting some photographs. It’s actually about making a real difference.”
Overall, I think the ten-week programmes which are taking place in local primary schools are outstanding, the workbooks that are in use in the primary schools are very informative to the kids, it educates
33 them about the running of the club as well as different aspects which the club has to offer. Having the goalkeeper and lifelong supporter Brendan Clarke on the cover is very slick advertising for what they are trying to achieve, a club that represents the community. Inchicore and the greater Dublin 8 area is blessed to have such an engaging club on their doorstep. I’d encourage anybody local to Richmond Park to pop down on a Friday evening to see St. Patrick’s Athletic in action.
By Luke Jennings
