GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 19 – February 7, 2015 | Page 7

BY DENIS O’BRIEN Ottawa Gaels who celebrate their 40th anniversary this year are a thriving GAA club in Eastern Canada. The key to success is the ‘all-in’ attitude and efforts of the members to sustain what they have built and look to grow the club year by year into the future. The Gaels play Gaelic Football and have both senior Ladies and Men’s teams and a youth program that is perhaps the main ingredient of the whole club. The Gaels are part of the Eastern Canada GAA Division who despite some clubs having being around for some time like Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City’s Les Patriotes, it is a new division formed to cater for the growing interest in Gaelic Sports where new clubs such as Eire Og Ottawa Hurling Club, Newfoundland & Labrador St. John’s Avalon Harps and Nova Scotia Halifax Gaels all formed over the past four years. GALWAY FOUNDERS Ottawa Gaels start began four decades earlier when a Galway native got things going with a men’s Gaelic football team. “Back in 1975, Pat Kelly from Galway came to Ottawa with a couple of his friends. They had their first match in 1974 actually, unofficial, against a Montreal team and made it official in ’75. Then they entered the Toronto League and started playing games there and we’re celebrating our 40th year this year based on Pat Kelly founding this club,” explained Vanessa McLean, chairperson of the club and Canadian native, when speaking this week to Gaelic Sports World. Led by Kelly, who would go on to become long term president of the club, and founding members such as John Keenan, Don Kavanagh, Frankie Casey and Brendan Mulhall, the Gaels looked to new horizons when forming a women’s team. Kelly’s cousin Breda from Ballygar, County Galway found herself in the Eastern Canada city and in 1988 became the driving force behind the ladies initiative. Like so many non-Irish who take up Gaelic Sports, word of mouth via friends was what got McLean involved. “Four of five years ago, some of my soccer buddies were playing with the Ottawa Gaels club. They said that they ‘found a new sport for me’. “They told me to come out and practice next week and said I’d love it. So I came out and after the first practice they were right, I was in love and began playing Gaelic football then in 2010, and I haven’t looked back,” the Canadian native remarked. SEASON The Ottawa Gaels ladies and men’s team compete in the Toronto League and Championship during the summer through to September and at several tournaments that take place in Montreal and Quebec City and throughout the eastern region. Indoor winter training is a staple diet and the Gaels gear for the outdoor season travelling to indoor tournaments in Toronto, Montreal as well as Syracuse in New York. The club heads outdoors for training in spring at its base at the Pierre Elliott Trudeau School in Ottawa and the season proper begins at the end of May with the visit to the Montreal Tournament. 7