Sport Clubs in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is one of the four home nations that constitute the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the smallest of the home nations both in terms of geography (13,843 km2, 6 %) and population (1.8 m, 2.8 %). The economy of Northern Ireland is heavily dependent on the public sector for employment and it has some of the highest levels of unemployment in the UK. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Northern Ireland is emerging from a 30-year conflict known as the troubles into a vibrant service sector lead economy with considerable tourism and inward investment. Sport Northern Ireland (Sport NI) is the leading public body for sport development in the region and enjoys the status of being a National Lottery fund distributor. Since the launch of the National Lottery in 1994, Sport Northern Ireland has benefited from approximately £9.3 m per year for sport. This has been used to develop and enhance Northern Irelands’ sporting infrastructure including financial investment in sport clubs. Like the rest of the UK, sport clubs are integral part of community life and provide the majority of opportunities for people to take part in organised sport. Consequently as part of the UK, the historical perspective of sport clubs in Northern Ireland is largely the same as for England as outlined in Chap. 7 by Nichols and Taylor. There are however some issues which are specific to Northern Ireland and these are covered later in this chapter.