GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 17 – January 10, 2015 | Page 8

EUROPE
We start with Europe because it
is one of the best organized international GAA entities or ‘County
Boards’ outside of Ireland. It is able
to publish an annual schedule of
events, covering a huge geographical
area across many nations and their
respective languages. While the likes
of London, New York, Sydney, Boston, Perth, Melbourne, Milwaukee,
Indy, US Northeast, and others, have
their respective local schedules organised and published, it is a credit
to Europe that there is a schedule or
fixture list organised given the number of countries involved.

Photo courtesy of Marcos Gañete.

Europe GAA with 75 clubs and an impressive 15-20% annual growth rate, organises itself into six regions – Benelux, France (Northwest), Iberia, Italy, Nordic, and East &
Central, with France comprising of sub regions, Federal
& Brittany, and Iberia subbed into Galicia.
Competitions across Europe are run on an
11 a-side basis.
The latter two Brittany and Galicia are
well into their respective competitions with
Galicia starting the second part of their
20 round league, comprising of 8 teams in
men’s football and 7 in ladies. Irmandinhos
and Fillos de Brogan are tied on top of the
Ladies Liga with the former ahead on scoring difference, while in the Men’s, Estrela
Vermelha have two points to spare over
Fillos. The competitions take place across
Galicia with good local support coming out
to see each game.

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In Brittany meanwhile, Phase 2 of the Brittany GAA
Championship gets underway on Jan 17 at Guerande with
Round 1 of Division 1 taking place with 5 teams involved,
while Div 2 begins the following week and a further five

Photo: Gaelic Football Bro Sant-Brieg.