To be fair, as soon as I pressed ‘post reply’, I knew that the case in Dublin contradicts my point but for the rest of the country, it certainly rings true. Growing up, most lads I know played (and continue to play as adults) football as a means to stay fit in the GAA’s off season. Primary school sports, for the majority of the country, is also heavily centred around GAA.
Rugby, certainly in my experience anyway, is a sports that competes with the GAA for players rather than competing with football. The cross-over of athletes who play rugby-GAA is more numerous than that which plays rugby-soccer, IMO. That may be less true with the behemoth that is Leinster rugby in some suburbs of the capital but I’d have thought their catchment area wouldn’t impact the traditional hotbeds of Dublin soccer in the inner city.