GAA club in NY ?!

[holidaysong]

But why are NY and London included in the Irish championship then and not other American or English clubs and not Barcelona etc ? Why do NY and London want to play in the Irish leagues and why does the All-Ireland board accept them ? (I have nothing against them, but the costs for those two games per season must be killing for the average Irish GAA club)

and the NY GAA club plays in the Bronx ?? there are worse things that can happen to you there than losing a GAA match

The London GAA and New York GAA teams that play in the All-Ireland Championship are not clubs but a team chosen from ALL the clubs in London and New York respectively and so pool their resources to make the trip/trips (ususally only need one as they are always knocked out early) over to Ireland. For example the Louth GAA teams would be picked from all the clubs in County Louth, it is not just one small club..

[Aberdonian Stu]

Yeah the only argument against entry is that North American Board have the best record in the biennial international tournament so perhaps they're more deserving.

THe British club champions take part in the All Ireland club championships in a quarter final with the provinces going in rotation (all four in football not sure about hurling) to play them. Not always a London team, I remember Castelhaven thumping a Manchester team before losing to Kilmacud Crokes in the 1995 All Ireland semi.

There's also some participation the All Ireland Junior football championship, and I would assume in the special junior championship in hurling (or whatever it's called these days). I know Warwickshire have been involved at the business end of the football one a few times.

[ruckrover]

Yes 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

I might take liberty, even though this is my first post on foot.ie - to post this as a separate thread also.

[Alena]

.Here is a little info for you about Hurling, Gaelic Football and Camogie, in America. The North American County Board is the governing body for these games for men and women, in all 50 states of the US, excluding the New York City metropolitan area. In 2004 they had 62 Men's Football Clubs, 29 Hurling Clubs, 21 Ladies Football Clubs, 10 Camogie Clubs, and 12 Youth GAA Clubs (outside New York City who has there own county board). There are 12 divisions set up across the US that are under NACB that help govern certain areas. The championship play-offs are being held in Philly this year September 2nd to 5th and will bring teams from all over America together to compete. Some areas have teams comprised of mostly Americans, some are comprised of mostly Irish (some of who never really played until moving here) and others are evenly mixed it all matters on where you are and how strong the Irish community is there. These sports will continue to grow and thrive here as more and more people hear about them. Most people are intrigued and amazed when the first hear about these games and see them played. You will likely see some amazing players coming from here very soon as teams and players grow and develop and the youth from the youth programs grow up. Hope this clears some things up.

[MacAonghusa]

There is already a Finnish Hurling club

Not any more, those lads have stopped playing.
But there are some small groups around Finland who have tried to get the sport going.

There are a couple of handball clubs there if that counts for anything...