Tweet In February this year, we reported that Irish Gymnastics was to receive an increase in funding from the Irish Sports Council (ISC). Funding to sports has always been an issue in Ireland with GAA, IRFU and FAI (Gaelic Athletic Association, Irish Rugby Football Union and Football Association Ireland) being known as the three big sport governing bodies in the country. They receive the most funding compared to the other 65 recognised  sports governing bodies in Ireland.
According to an article in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post newspaper, funding for the ISC …

Tweet Yesterday Full Twist posted about Why Irish Sport Matters. €7.8 million is to be invested in high performance Irish athletes and sports in 2011. The Irish Sports Council announced the major funding package for 2011 with a total €25.6 million which will be invested into 57 National Governing Bodies of Sport, including 18 high performance sports, and 32 Local Sports Partnerships.

Irish Gymnastics has been given an increase in funding for 2011. This is particularly fantastic because IG is one of 8 out of 57 sports funded by the Irish …

Tweet It was announced today that six summer Olympic Sports have been awarded extra funding by the UK Sport’s annual review ahead of  the London 2012 Games. The six sports are boxing, canoeing, gymnastics, hockey, rowing and taekwondo. Unfortunately for figure skating they have had all funding cut. What an awful pity, I’m sure that  Going For Gold will have something to say about that.There’s a very strong and powerful quote on the Ollie Williams BBC article by Gordon Farquhar, BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sports News and Olympics Correspondent;
For every …

Tweet By now the rest of the World are aware of Ireland’s current financial difficulties. Ireland officially applied for a bailout or “loan” from the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and European Union.  Within the last week, Ireland has made the headlines everywhere, insisting the country didn’t need a bailout from the IMF, to a badly organized press conference on Sunday evening announcing that the bailout is required and to the Green Party announcing that they will withdraw from the coalition Government and called for a General Election (GE) as did …

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This Saturday, six members of Bath Rhythmic Gymnastics Club will be performing live on the BBC1 National Lottery Show. Helen Christie, Annabelle Bartlett, Lynne Hutchinson, Sarah Dennis, Hannah Waite and  Francesca Fox are among a number of groups showing off skills developed using Lottery grants. The National Lottery is underway searching to find the country’s favourite Lottery-funded projects.

Read more This Is Bath.Co.Uk

Tweet A team from Bracknell Gymnastics Club has been invited by British Gymnastics to represent the UK at the Team Gym European Championships in Sweden in October. Unfortunately, as British Gymnastics are not funding their trip to the event, the gymnasts may not be able to travel to compete next month unless they receive extra funding. Between team kits, travel, expenses and accommodation the club estimates that it will need over (at least) £2000 to fund the trip.

Read more on GetBracknell.co.uk

If you or your company are in a position …

Tweet I was so delighted this morning when I opened my reader and saw The Couch Gymnasts latest magazine issue, and was even more so delighted when I read that it featured a section on Irish Gymnastics. I’ve spoken before about the problems that Irish Gymnastics has with funding, I think  Ariel Edesses of Renmore GC has given a fantastic explanation in her interview, as to why you don’t see Irish gymnasts in the Olympics, coach education in Ireland and the levels of fundraising done for clubs and why.
Check …

Tweet Over the last few years, the interest in gymnastics seems to have increased. There are many possible reasons for this, obviously Spelbound winning Britains Got Talent has caused a surge in interest in gymnastics among children in the UK and Ireland. I think another major factor that has added to this interest is the new level of competition involved in the sport at Olympic level. For many years it was the Romanians, USA and Russia etc dominating the sport but as we have seen in the last few months, …

Tweet 1. There are 9 different disciplines in Irish Gymnastics (IG)

Womens Artistic (WAG)
Mens Artistic (MAG)
Tumbling
Acrobatics
Special Needs
All Disciplines
Aerobics
Trampolining
Rhythmic

2. There are eight different regions throughout the country in IG. In these eight regions, there are currently 92 clubs registered with IG, the governing body.

3. While Ireland is not renowned for producing gymnasts to the standard required for Olympic competition, Barry MacDonald became the first and only Irish Gymnast to compete in the Olympic Games when he performed at the 1996 Atlanta Games

4. In Ireland, Salto Gymnastics Club in Lisburn, Co Antrim …

Tweet We are all aware of the Global Recession. How is it affecting your club? Surprisingly, we have not noticed a drop in numbers nor a lack of interest for gymnastics since the global recession came to light. However, we have found during fundraising events that people are not as generous as they would have been a year ago.
 You can read here how the Irish Sports bodies are calling on the government to protect the remaining sports budgets. Hopefully it will work out as Irish Gymnastics gains significantly less funding from …