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.
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