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Commentator says GAA stats show rise in emigration
By Noreen Bowden | August 20, 2008
David McWilliams uses an intriguing index to attempt to chart emigration statistics: the number of international GAA club transfers as compared to domestic transfers. He says that for the last few years, the number of club transfers mostly reflected young players moving around the country; this month, however, there has been a huge increase in the numbers moving to clubs in London and New York.
The article is fascinating as he discusses the way demographic changes are reflected by the GAA.
But the analysis is flawed: he needs to compare transfers in the summer months, as it’s an annual tradition for players to go abroad to play for the summer.
The montly stats are available in Excel files under “club transfers” at http://www.gaa.ie/page/archives.html. I just checked July 07 and July 02 and it looked like well over three-quarters of the transfers were international for both of those months. A comparison of January and July stats just doesn’t put the situation in its proper context.
Read the article on David McWilliams’ website.
Topics: Latest News | 1 Comment »
August 20th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Well spotted! Mr. DMcW should be a bit ashamed of this basic analysis mistake.