The GAA team for children with additional needs: ‘It’s a real joyful vibe and something totally different’

This morning, and every Saturday at 9.15am, you’ll find Stuart Banks putting out the cones on an astro pitch at Herzog Park in Rathgar, Dublin 6.

Rain or shine, training for this Ranelagh Gaels GAA team will always go ahead.

“We have been up here some mornings when the rest of the club has called off training. We don’t have that option,” says Banks. “Unless it’s a blizzard, the kids with autism have this in their diary. Saturday morning is Ranelagh Rockets morning.”

Children who are autistic often value routine. If you say something is going to happen, it better happen. Training for Ranelagh Rockets kids always happens.

That They May Face the Rising Sun: The best Irish film in a very long time

---

‘When our last embryo failed, the clinic told us there was nothing more they could do for us’

---

Take That in Dublin review: ‘Whose idea was it to have stairs?’ puffs Gary Barlow as the band roll back the years with dazzling show

---

Ranelagh Rockets is a team in Ranelagh Gaels GAA club for kids with additional needs. Every weekend you’ll find up to 24 six-to-10-year-olds togging out. There’s a waiting list. A senior Rockets team, with no upper age limit, started last year. There are 10 on that team.

Banks, a Limerick native, says he proposed the idea for this team to his club, where he coaches and his daughter plays Gaelic football, because of a lack of inclusive activities for kids in the area.

He and his wife, Ruth Hennessy, are parents to twins Paddy and Oliver (9), who are autistic. “We felt our children should get every opportunity that every other child gets in the local community,” says Banks, adding the club got 100 per cent behind it.

If you’re a parent of a child with additional needs, there’s one box on club and school application forms you might pause before ticking: “Does your child have any additional needs?” If you answer truthfully, will your child get a spot?

“In Ranelagh Rockets, there is a place for them.”

There hasn’t always been a place for children with special needs in this part of south Dublin. Some living in Dublin 6 and 6W have felt the brunt of exclusion. Growing up in two of the most expensive postcodes in the country hasn’t shielded them – in fact, it has exposed them to a particular type of segregation.

The area has some of the most prestigious schools in the country. These schools have taken the brothers and sisters of children who are autistic, but there hasn’t always been a place for them.

“Dublin 6 is the worst area in the country for this because we are so bloody posh,” Minister for the Environment and Dublin Bay South TD Eamon Ryan told the Dáil in 2019. Ryan’s son Tommy is autistic.

“The schools are so high in the league tables that they cannot afford to have a school with integrated autistic students,” he said.

“Those kids in those schools will not grow up with other kids with disabilities, so they miss out on that part of their education. They may end up with a kid with special needs, and if they have not seen it in school, how will they know about the good and the difficulties coming with that?”

We understand there will be challenges, there will be meltdowns, there will be difficulties, but we are all open to that from the start

—  Stuart Banks

Advocacy group Involve Autism has been campaigning since 2018 for autistic children in Dublin 6 and 6W to be able to access appropriate educational placements in their area. There have been wins, and many autistic children who can attend mainstream classes are now supported to do so.

Last September the Spiritan Education Trust opened a new special school for 24 children with complex needs in the grounds of the non-fee-paying Templeogue College.

However, children in the area who need the support of a special class in a mainstream school are often still locked out.

“Unfortunately, some schools have been reluctant to set up special classes, meaning local children who should be able to walk to school and be included in their community, they can’t go,” says Miriam Kenny, chairwoman of Involve Autism.

There were 1,974 children all over south Dublin being transported to schools outside their area in the 2020-2021 school year at a cost of €63,579 a day, according to data received under a Freedom of Information request by Involve Autism.

The segregation cuts children and their parents off from their community.

“If your child is not going to school in your local community, as a parent then you are isolated too, because you don’t know the parent down the road bringing their son to school,” says Kenny.

Activities that are inclusive of families with additional needs are in short supply no matter where you live.

“You want your child to experience all the same things that other children do, and in their community, so that they know people and so that they have a sense of belonging. Most parents would share that,” says Denise Keoghan, whose son Evan (15) is autistic.

“Evan went to our local [mainstream] primary school, which a lot of children who have autism don’t get to do, but we had no alternative. There were no special classes we could send him to,” says Keoghan.

Evan has tried lots of activities. “You keep going to things, keep trialling things, but because they aren’t focused on children with additional needs, it rarely works – unless your child is very ‘high functioning’ and can just about manage, but even then it’s a struggle,” says Keoghan.

“It was very much, look, I’ll go down to the local club and I’ll see what’s happening; and, look, he can join in and maybe he’ll get something from it,” says Keoghan. “And then actually you realise, he’s not able to fit in, he can’t follow things and so he would disconnect.”

[ A strengths-based approach to raising autistic, ADHD and other neurodivergent children ]

Standing on the sidelines when your child is having difficulty with something can bring a particular kind of heart-sink.

Clubs, even with the kindliest volunteers, sometimes aren’t sure what to do with kids with additional needs.

“They’d be directing him in the same way that they’d be directing other kids and nothing would be happening. It becomes hugely apparent to your child that ‘This is a little bit strange and I don’t know what’s going on’ and they feel a sense of ‘I don’t know how to do this and I can’t belong’,” says Keoghan.

Before joining Ranelagh Rockets, Keoghan used to make a near-70km round trip to Co Meath for Evan to attend an inclusive karate class. It was shuttered by the pandemic.

“You feel a bit isolated. Community life is all about being involved in clubs and meeting others. The parents connect as much as the children and, when you can’t access that, it limits your experience of the local community,” she says.

When the message went out inviting players for a new inclusive Ranelagh Rockets team, some of the parents who got in touch were initially tentative, says Stuart Banks. “They had the fear of God in them. They were saying, ‘Oh my God, he has been to a number of things and it hasn’t worked out. I’m not sure if it will work out this time’.”

He knew the feeling. “When you start out, you are on your own and going to sessions – basketball, soccer, Gaelic football or whatever. You are thinking: My child is different. The coaching environment is not set up for them to succeed. You are apologising going, Sorry he’s like this, or she’s like that, and it gets very challenging and difficult.”

“You are scarred from the experience elsewhere because the environment is not set up for them to prosper and progress, and that’s the environment we want to create at Ranelagh Rockets,” says Banks.

“The beauty of this thing is that we are all really in the same boat. We understand there will be challenges, there will be meltdowns, there will be difficulties, but we are all open to that from the start.”

The volunteer coaches were “petrified” at first too, he says. He understands how coaches in other clubs can sometimes struggle with knowing how to include a child with additional needs.

“Some of the coaches are fantastic, they have tried to do their best, but it can be hard to accommodate someone with special needs when you have 20 other kids to look after,” says Banks. Bringing one of my children into a group of eight with one coach, which is the ratio generally, just wouldn’t work for these kids.”

There can be a fear of disability and difference, and it can come from an assumption that there is a “norm”, says psychologist Dr Moira Kennedy. “The message is to accept that everyone is different and neurodiversity is the norm,” says Dr Kennedy, who is co-founder of the Children’s Clinic, which specialises in autism services.

When Ranelagh Rockets sought help in training volunteer coaches for kids with additional needs, Kennedy and her colleagues stepped up. Kennedy has a cousin on the Rockets team.

The workshops were based on a neuro-affirmative mindset. “You have to assume that all people are different and that some of them might need a different way of communicating, a different way of receiving instructions and you just go with that,” says Kennedy.

“Even if it’s not a special needs team, all children will have different communication and sensory needs.”

On the pitch, there is a lot going on. The instructions, the listening, the cheering, the waiting, the turn-taking, the eye contact, the winning, the losing, the scratchy jerseys, the helmets, the sock seams – these things can be challenging for kids with a disability and for those who don’t.

“If you assume that all six-year-olds are going to do as you ask, when you ask, you are going to be frustrated and disappointed. Break the steps down into small chunks. Make them achievable, celebrate the milestones, but keep them moving.”

A Community Games volunteer herself, Kennedy advises clubs to proactively invite parents to share their child’s needs.

“I always put in the email to parents: if your child has communication or sensory differences, please let me know in confidence and we’ll make sure that it’s a happy experience for them,” says Kennedy. “I had one parent saying: ‘My child doesn’t have a diagnosis, but they find loud cheering difficult. Is it okay if they run wearing headphones?’ Of course, no problem. If that’s what they need, that’s what they need.”

ADHD Ireland was invited to give a talk at the club too. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can affect those parts of the brain that control attention, impulses and concentration, says chief executive Ken Kilbride. It occurs in about one in 30 children.

Physical exercise and activity can channel the high energy, drive and hyper-focus that can be part of the condition – just ask sports Olympians with ADHD Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Michael Jordan, or Tour de France winner Greg LeMond.

Republic of Ireland soccer international James McClean made his diagnosis of autism public last year.

“The amount of all children who go on to play for Liverpool, it’s the 1 per cent of the 1 per cent,” says Kennedy. “For the most part, sport is something to be enjoyed, and a place for children to feel accepted and part of a team.”

The first months of Ranelagh Rockets training were chaos, says Banks.

“We just did a kick around and threw a lot of equipment down, and it was great craic. The kids felt comfortable, they had a smile on their face and there was nothing wrong with it.”

After six months they took stock.

“If you have a kid going to training every week and they are not developing any skills, you have to ask yourself why is that happening, so we had a reset after six months and said, let’s try to introduce some drills.”

The kids are developing kicking, hand passing and throwing.

“When you do that, and the level of development that happens, the level of confidence that goes with it, the parents are sitting on the sideline and getting excited,” says Banks.

He is full of praise for his wife, Ruth. “She does an enormous amount of work. We have to do a plan every week and it’s quite meticulous. She organises the sessions. She matches up the coaches and the kids. She arranges the coffees. If a kid wants Buttons instead of jellies, she knows that. She thinks of everything.”

The team has called off just two sessions in 3½ years. They are looking to play a game this year and are arranging a blitz with another club in Co Meath.

For some other clubs, I suppose there is that little bit of fear of the unknown. They are not sure if they want to get into this space. They don’t know what’s involved – they are worried it’s onerous. But it’s not really

—  Denise Keoghan

Ranelagh Rockets has been great for Evan, says Denise Keoghan. The one-to-one coaching has been key.

“Often there is so much stimulus, especially if you have 20 kids and one coach and they are shouting instructions and there are kids running everywhere. The child who has autism or an intellectual disability is not able to process all that information. There is too much going on. They just can’t hear it. When you have that one-to-one, it allows for that connection, that focus and incremental encouragement, she says.

“It’s slow but it’s amazing. Over time, you see a huge difference.”

“There must be nothing more soul-destroying for a child than trying to do something they can’t manage and everybody else is thriving and moving forward, not finding any of that stuff difficult,” says Keoghan.

“Oftentimes, you are just trying to find a space for your child where they can have a sense of what success feels like, and that’s so important to confidence.”

Sporting organisations and clubs tend to be open to additional needs but can be reticent, she says.

“I suppose there is that little bit of fear of the unknown. They are not sure if they want to get into this space. They don’t know what’s involved – they are worried it’s onerous. But it’s not really.”

The Rockets experience has enriched coaching across all Ranelagh Gaels teams, says Banks.

“A coach will ring me and say, I’ve got this kid in my group and I don’t know how to deal with this situation.” He advises having a conversation with the parents. “Say, look, he is struggling with the instructions, can I help in any way? Parents will usually recognise the coach is trying to do the right thing.”

A few players have moved to the Rockets team after such a conversation.

“The parents see their kid’s enjoyment factor goes up and they see them prospering and progressing. It’s about having an environment where your kid can thrive.”

In some instances, he advises them against joining Rockets. “They might have some slight issue with dyspraxia [which affects motor skills and co-ordination] or ADHD that just needs a bit of understanding from coaches on your neurotypical teams and they will prosper best there.”

Two years ago Colm Gilmore answered a WhatsApp message calling for coaches for the Rockets. His two daughters play for Ranelagh Gaels. “I was a bit nervous at the start. I didn’t really know what was involved,” says Gilmore. Banks was persuasive.

Gilmore shadowed another coach first, and then started working with Alex.

“Alex is a gas man, there is no other way to describe him,” says Gilmore. “He is one of these bright, bubbly, enthusiastic kids. I go down there on a Saturday morning, and Alex comes barrelling in through the gate. He has a big smile on his face, he comes over, he gives you a big hug and you just get stuck in.”

Alex has Down syndrome and attends a mainstream primary school in Ranelagh.

“His dad would say Alex loves coming down. It’s a regular thing in his week. He looks forward to it,” says Gilmore.

Gilmore looks forward to it too. “Outside of my own family time, it’s the best hour I spend all week. No doubt about it.

“My wife Carmel laughs at me. I jump out of bed on a Saturday morning and I come back with a smile on my face. It’s a brilliant way to kick off the weekend. It’s a very positive atmosphere. It’s a real joyful vibe and it’s something totally different. It’s brilliant.”

Ranelagh Rockets is about far more than coaching GAA skills. They may be the least of this team’s achievements.

“When you have a child diagnosed with a condition, whatever it is, ADHD, autism or Down syndrome, you definitely feel isolated, and I can speak from experience,” says Banks.

“But also from the people who come to our sessions going: ‘I’m the only one in the area, there are only a few of us dealing with this.’”

“Now, they go up to a place on a Saturday where they feel they are not alone,” says Banks. “They are very much part of a community and they are very much front and centre of the community locally.”

Denise Keoghan agrees. “I know a lot of parents who have autistic children in particular and because their child is bussed out to another area with a special class, they have missed out completely in getting to know anybody in their local area.”

Ranelagh Rockets has helped with this. These children may not be able to wear the same school uniform as their siblings, but they can wear the same jersey.

“The thing I love about Rockets every Saturday morning is all the parents hang around and have a chat, coffees are ordered and sometimes we are chatting so much that we forget to look at the kids,” says Keoghan.

“There is no stress at all. There is no worry. The children feel like they can regulate themselves whatever way they want and nobody is going to be looking at them funny. That takes enormous pressure off parents as well because we are all in the same boat.”

After training, everyone decamps to the nearby playground to chat.

“It’s a community of people now that know each other and feel comfortable with each other,” says Banks. “If my lads have a meltdown in front of everyone here, I don’t bat an eyelid because I know everyone understands it.”

“My twin boys now say ‘our friends’. They recognise the kids at Rockets as ‘my buddies’.”

Gilmore, originally from Co Down, says the club has helped his family find community too. “I’ve got to know a bunch of people, the Rockets coaches and parents through this. It builds a strong sense of community. You are walking through Ranelagh and you bump into somebody from Rockets, and it’s good.”

Coach Gilmore’s daughter Maggie (11) now joins him every week.

“She and Alex get on. I think it’s good for her to see this too, to see kids who don’t have it so easy, who struggle maybe,” says Gilmore. “But it’s also the joy they get out of it as well. It’s very life affirming. It’s a very positive experience.”

In recent years, the GAA set up the ‘All Stars Inclusive Club’ programme with the objective of including children who might find participating in a typical team game challenging. GAA Clubs like Naomh Mearnog in Portmarnock had already been leading the way on including kids with additional needs.

Raheny GAA club had one of the first official ‘All Stars’ teams. The GAA estimates there are now about 150 clubs with additional needs teams.

Stuart Banks is on a Whatsapp group with 40 Dublin-based GAA clubs, sharing ideas around inclusion.