Travelling around the country over the years, President Mary McAleese and her husband Martin noticed an absence of older men attending functions to which she had been invited.
Yesterday in Croke Park, Mrs McAleese launched the pilot phase of the social scheme which she sparked to offset the isolation some of the 200,000 men over 65 years old who live in this country experience.
Called the GAA Social Initiative, it is based on GAA clubs which will be working in collaboration with the Irish Farmers Association, Senior Help Line, Third Age Foundation, the gardaí and Macra na Feirme and Muintir na Tire.
Among the 160 guests drawn mainly from the four counties where the pilot scheme will be operated, Fermanagh, Wexford, Mayo and Kerry, were three West Kerry men who had never been in Dublin before.
The initiative will involve personal contact with older men who live alone and are identified as disengaged from the local community to a greater or lesser extent.
The President said with great respect for the dignity and privacy of the older men, personal invitations will be issued to special social events which will be sport related, friendly, local and welcoming.
Two special events for each of the pilot groups will take place in four local GAA clubs, one in March and April 2009 and five similar events will take place for each pilot group every month from November through to March 2010.
According to the GAA President, Nickey Brennan, the necessary support such as collecting, accompanying and leaving home will form part of the invitation arrangements made with each older person attending.
President McAleese said at a forum for Older Men at Aras an Uachtarain, the voices told about problems and solutions for older men whom she said were best described by Dr Mick Loftus as “fellas who never leave their houses”.
“They spoke of lives that changed for them once they retired from work or when their spouse or pals died or when as one man put it, the half-door closed,” she said.
“Changing patterns of lives and lifestyles, from rural depopulation to rural transport issues, changes in pub culture, the hectic pressures of modern live, have all to some extent taken a toll and for some men it has been a process of drifting from the company and companionship of earlier years to the solitariness of their own company in later life,” she said
The GAA initiative, she said was try to break through some of these barriers which keep the front door closed and it was about creating a path to that door that respected the dignity of the person which would respect their pride and independence.