THE pupils of Christ the Redeemer Primary School, Lagmore were visited by a host of Antrim senior footballers yesterday morning to try and light the spark for more of them to take up Gaelic Games.
Marc Jordan, who teaches at the school and organised the skills day with colleague Caoimbe Bunting, was joined by county team-mates Patrick McBride, Ryan Murray, Michael Byrne, Jack Dowling and Odhran Eastwood.
Over 700 children attend Christ the Redeemer – but the teachers are keen to increase sports participation and made the school a hub of sporting excellence.
"Events like today re-iterate the importance of sport, in particular the GAA," said Ms Bunting. "There was a huge buzz about the school, not just today but in the weeks leading up to the event.
"The children were so excited to meet the Antrim players and the coaching sessions led by the boys were an extra bonus.
"As PE Coordinator, I'm well aware that school may be the only place that our children have the opportunity to engage in physical activity, so we try our best to utilise the expertise we have in our school with so many young teachers with sporting backgrounds who are role models to the children and our community."
Lamh Dhearg clubman Jordan said the idea of a skills day was to try and fire the imagination of the children that maybe aren’t involved in Gaelic Games outside of school.
“Around the area it’s a real soccer hotbed,” explained Jordan, “so we’d like the children to first of all discover a love for Gaelic Games and then join a local GAA club because we really need to improve the participation rates in the area.”
