City council promises great sport this summer

Soccer, rugby and basketball associations have come together with Dublin City Council to promote a new summer sporting event.

Soccer, rugby and basketball associations have come together with Dublin City Council to promote a new summer sporting event.

It will involve three-a-side teams playing soccer, tag rugby and basketball.

The Summer of Sport initiative, aimed at 15 to 18 year-olds, will run this month in Cabra, Ringsend, Crumlin and Ballymun.

The Football Association of Ireland, the Irish Rugby Football Union and Basketball Ireland are all involved in the initiative.

READ MORE

Launching the event yesterday, Lord Mayor of Dublin Vincent Jackson said it would encourage young people to become physically active in short, sharp bursts of sport in a non-competitive way.

Each game will last three minutes, and each team will play 20 minutes of one sport, before rotating to sample the other two sports.

The three-a-side nature of the game is designed to encourage friends to make up their own teams, and to recreate the old Dublin city model of street teams.

"These will be great tester sessions for young people to give them an idea of what sport they might enjoy," said Mr Jackson.

"It will allow them to experience sport in a non-competitive, fun and simplified rules fashion. And if they do get involved with sport, I have no doubt that they will continue that involvement."

He said sport was the "biggest drug-preventative measure of all".

Mr Jackson said this initiative was targeting the over 15-year-old age group as many summer camps were aimed at younger children.

"The 15 to 18-year-old age group has a lot of spare time during the summer, and it is a difficult age so if they are not involved in sport they might get involved in some other alternatives."

He said Dublin City Council's sports development officers would be bringing their "sizeable community-development skills" to the initiative.

Some 13 sports development officers organise sports-related training such as hip-hop, horse-riding, basketball, soccer and handball in centres across the city.

Alison Healy

Alison Healy

Alison Healy is a contributor to The Irish Times