Sport and underachievement among protestant youth in Northern Ireland: a boxing club case study

ABSTRACT

Published research provides support for the potential of sport to promote social, cultural and personal development. In the UK, a corresponding shift in sports development policy is evident, moving away from achieving sports-related goals towards contributing to the government’s social policy priorities. Substantial public-sector investment has been made in ‘sport for development’ projects as a result. However, other scholars caution against an over reliance on the perceived ‘power’ of sport to deliver upon sport’s often vaunted claims. Strategic priorities determined from the ‘top–down’ exclude those delivering such projects from involvement in decision-making. This article focuses upon a boxing club situated in one of Northern Ireland’s most deprived wards and where the prospects of so called ‘hard to reach’ young Protestant population remain modest subsequent to the Good Friday Peace Agreement. This article will examine how the club uses sport to improve educational and employability outcomes. Taking into consideration the community context, we conclude that the club offers an example of how sport can be harnessed at an individual (micro) and community (meso) level to contribute towards these priorities. Having identified the key elements of success in practice, the overriding question concerning whether, in a broader sense, the structures exist to permit macro-level impact from a micro- and meso-level project is unpacked and explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Educational attainment
• post-conflict
• sport for development
• employability
• protestant
• sport policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyle Ferguson

Kyle Ferguson is lecturer in coach education and management with responsibility for the Sports Enterprise within the School of Sport at Ulster University, developing synergies between business, research and practical sport in order to produce innovate products or services. Kyle has managed a range of European, national and international programmes in sports innovation, social inclusion and physical activity. He has led work from a research, policy and delivery perspective specifically focusing on the role of sport in the community and the subsequent level of effectiveness and efficiency across publicly funded programmes.

David Hassan

David Hassan is the Associate Dean of Global Engagement for the Faculty of Life and Health Sciences at Ulster University. His research expertise encompasses a number of related disciplines concerning the wider management of sport in global society. He has published in most of the leading journals in the field of sport business and management, led work on the socio-historical and political significance of global sport and, more latterly, and demonstrated a burgeoning international research profile in the field of sport and intellectual disabilities through active collaborations with colleagues at Ulster and leading European institutions.

Paul Kitchin

Paul Kitchin is a lecturer of sport management establishing his research focus examining how sport can be made more inclusive for anyone who wants to participate, specifically examining how organisations manage the engagement of people with disabilities since 2008. His work in this area contributes to understanding of how organisations alter their policies and practices to improve inclusion and accessibility for marginalised populations.