Pictured from left: Carolyn Hayes, Triathlon Ireland; Gerard O’Donnell, Athletic Association of Ireland; Tom O’Brien, Pentathlon Ireland; and Oliver Dingley, Swim Ireland. Photo credit: Naoise Culhane
People can now discover their nearest sports club under the auspices of more than 30 sporting organisations from IRFU to Swim Ireland and Athletics Ireland thanks to a new GameDay app from Vodafone and the Federation of Irish Sport.
The new app, which is available in the App Store and on Google Play, uses location-based services to create a grassroots network of sports clubs across every county in Ireland.
This new venture is the brainchild of four-time All-Star Dublin Footballer Sinead Goldrick, who came up with the creative idea of the GameDay app after winning an internal Vodafone competition to encourage social innovation while ‘Connecting for Good’ in the workplace.
The app was developed by the Federation of Irish Sport (FIS) and the Vodafone Ireland Foundation, Vodafone Ireland’s philanthropic arm.
Sports at a touch
GameDay works by allowing users to search by sport, county and local clubs. Each club involved has a profile with their contact details, website, social media links and directions to their grounds using a combination of GPS and Google Maps.
The app currently holds the details of more than 2,000 sports clubs and their associated National Governing Bodies nationwide.
“Not only will the GameDay app get more people involved in Ireland’s huge variety of sports clubs, it is sure to offer additional support to our existing athletes, clubs and NGBs across the country,” said Bernard Brogan, president of the Federation of Irish Sport.
“The Game Day initiative aims to get more people involved in sport on a regular basis, and this new app is the perfect tool to help make that happen.”
