Update on Gaelic Games in Lancashire - 16/10/2020

Following guidance from British Provincial Council this morning which stated that all GAA activity must cease immediately in areas that are placed under the UK Government's Tier 3 lockdown restrictions, Lancashire County Board have also applied this to the wider Lancashire area including Greater Manchester.

With Lancashire including teams from Liverpool that are already under Tier 3 and with Lancashire and Greater Manchester likely to follow it has issued the following statement:

"A Chara,

In these difficult times it has become apparent that to safely run GAA activities is becoming more difficult every day, and with the health and wellbeing of our GAA members at the forefront of everything we do, the Lancashire County Committee has held a meeting this morning and voted to suspend all GAA activity within the County with immediate effect. This applies to all codes, age groups etc within the region.

This move is supported by the instructions received from the Gaelic Council of Britain, with regards to Tier 3 areas.

As a unified County we must continue to work together to support all of our clubs and members, and through no fault of their own the clubs in Liverpool that are in a Tier 3 area are now prevented from competing in games and the committee decision was to support them in these difficult times and suspend all activities within the County until further notice.

As the County Committee has taken this position, we are also informing the Clubs that the player injury scheme is suspended until further notice, to ensure that the immediate cessation of all GAA activities including club training sessions is adhered to.

The position currently is that Lancashire is going to join Liverpool in Tier 3, and once the politics are sorted between the Government and the Manchester Mayor, we believe Manchester will also go to Tier 3 - with case numbers in the region as high as they are, logically and morally it is the correct decision.

The Lancashire Committee will review the position again in 2 weeks' time (or sooner if the Tier 3 classification is lifted), and decide whether we can play any further games this year or that we suspend the completion of the 2020 competitions to early 2021. This decision has not been taken lightly, and we trust the Clubs in our region will understand and support the position we have taken, the safety of our GAA members and their families/friends are more important to us. To those clubs who have members affected by COVID, we wish them all the very best and a speedy recovery."

We echo the sentiments of the county board and although very disappointing we ask all our supporters and members to abide by this and stay safe until we can get back to the sport we love once again.

The committee of St. Lawrence's would like to thank all the coaches, players and parents of all our teams for their hard work in getting back to games and training in the previous few months since restrictions lifted.

Keep safe,

St. Lawrence's Abu.