Gaelic Games starting to go global
Gaelic football and to a lesser extent Hurling are starting to go global. Still mainly Irish expats, but in places there are sure signs of locals getting involved.
If the GAA had been a more outward looking organisation then it could be bigger than rugby and approaching even soccer today, given that the Irish diaspora is so vast. But GAA games in most new countries remained the province of the recent Irish immigrants, lack of youth competitions and spread to the general community meant the games have essentially marked time in London and New York for a century and in Australia for half a century.
However that is all starting to change. The lack of new immigrants and "visa players" has led GAA clubs in Nth America, England and Australia to start to look to home-grown talent. In Adelaide, South Australia, 50 years of GAA had dwindled from 10 football teams and 4 hurling teams in the 1960s to close up shop by the late 1990's. A switch to summer nights, initially with 7's, attracted local Aussie rules and soccer players, now there is 9 men's and 6 women's teams and 21 9-a-side teams - 95% of players being born and bred Aussies. Similar in other states of Australia - especially Queensland. Whereas strong Irish visitor numbers to Sydney have kept the local GAA strong but at the same time little growth comparitively to non-Irish participants compared with states like SA and Qld. check out gaelicfootball.com.au
In North America there has been a real push for junior development in recent years and each year the continental youth GAA championships grow impressively in numbers and standard. check out Nth American GAA and New York minor board .
In mainland Britain there is also a lot of recent youth development and GAA sports are now on the school curricula. Birmingham is becoming something of a mini-Croke Park for Feile Peile.
London's website reflects new growth in the old GAA county.
And beyond the traditional Irish emigrant countries, more recent expats in the new global village are taking GAA to continental Europe and Asia . In Spain and Belgium the games are getting into school curricula.
But all this could be better coordinated. Aussie rules is in fact doing better as a look at Aussie footy international news site shows. Interestingly there is a bit of International rules played by GAA and Aussie rules clubs in USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore - all on an increasingly regular basis.
It is all small stuff compared to world soccer - but at current trends Gaelic football or even the hybrid with Aussie rules could be major world sports by the end of the century. Imagine Germany or the USA bringing a Hurling side to play Ireland at Croke Pk one day. Or a Gaelic football world cup for that matter. There is already a Finnish Hurling club
