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Objective: The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is part of the cultural fabric of Irish society with a club in almost every community nationwide. The aim of this project was to carry out a pilot evaluation of the GAA Healthy Club Project (HCP), which is a unique effort by a national governing body to include health as part of the core business of the organisation at grass roots level. Design: A pre-post intervention group only design was used across 18 clubs recruited to a pilot phase of the project. Setting: GAA grassroots sports clubs across Ireland. Methods: Twelve Healthy Club Officers completed a self-evaluation survey of their club at two time points to indicate the health promotion orientation of their club and the extent of health promotion activity in the club. Results: Data showed improvements in the health promotion orientation of clubs, from moderate to high health promoting overall and particular increases in policy and practice scores. This is likely due to the widespread appointment of Healthy Club Officers and the delivery of health-related initiatives in clubs. Conclusion: The impact of the project, while not demonstrable as an intervention effect at this stage, was real for the clubs involved. The GAA HCP is a novel way of carrying out health promotion in Ireland, serving as a meeting point between the 'push of health' and 'pull of the sports club'.

In Ireland, a GAA sports club exists in almost every community. The purpose of this analysis is to present the health promotion orientation of clubs who have been recruited to a project run in partnership with the GAA and the Irish Department of Health. Clubs completed a questionnaire and took part in a focus group to explore why they were willing to take part in this initiative. Clubs viewed health promotion as a natural progression of their existing work. They scored low in relation to policy and coaching activities specific to health promotion, and higher for their ideology and environmental considerations. GAA sports clubs are already engaging in some health-related activities and are eager to engage further. Clubs require support to ensure health promotion is embedded into their core business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]