Pupils from schools from Clontarf, Harmonstown, Killester, Artane and Raheny took part in the project which focused on Anti-Bullying and Personal Safety and Show Racism The Red Card for fifth class Primary Schools.
Raheny/Clontarf Community Gardaí led by Sgt Jim Clavin and FAI Development Officer Jimmy Mowlds ran the classroom Anti-Racism, Personal Safety and Anti Bullying modules over three days at the beginning of February.
"We had 28 classes to deliver the full Show Racism The Red Card programme with the assistance of Paul Whelan and Jamie Wilson and their Project Futsal students from Ballymun who were complimented by the Gardaí on their professional delivery of the school football sessions and coordinating them with the classroom talks," said Mowlds.
"We then gave every class a country to represent as part of the Show Racism The Red Card programme with the teachers picking a squad of 10 players to play for that country and the rest of the class making banners and flags to support them.
"We also utilised the players from the FAI Fingal Transition Year course which is coordinated by Denis Hyland and Martin Doyle to organise the teams, groups and fixtures for the Blitz day. They also staffed, refereed and co-ordinated the teams on the day which couldn’t take place without their support.
"The Gardaí and DCC through Michelle Watters and Jason Brady transported all the schools and provided trophies for the event with the support of Dublin Bus and actively staffed the day as well.
"We also ran a supporters zone with Street Striker, Crossbar Challenge and penalty shootout competitions for all supporters with prizes for the winners supplied by the FAI Summer Soccer Schools while FAI Schools and Third level Department also supplied the footballs for the blitz."
The prizes were presented to the winners on the day by Chief Superintendent Finbarr O'Brien and the list winners on the day was as follows:
Boys
Winners : Albania (St. Brigids Boys NS)
R-Up : Brazil (Scoil Neasain)
Girls
Winners : Spain (Greenlanes)
R-Up : Norway (Scoil Neasain)
Fair Play
Boys: Ireland (Scoil Assaim)
Girls: Portugal (Howth Rd NS)
Player of tournament:
Boys: Luke McCullagh (St Brigids Boys NS)
Girls: Emily Ni Riann (Neasain)
Hear more about the event from FAI DO Jimmy Mowlds in the audio file at the top of this page.
FAI Garda initiative.jpg, by stephen.finn@fai.ie