GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 19 – February 7, 2015 | Page 9

ALL CANADIAN
The ladies team of the late 90s and 2000s, has had great
success and the make-up of the team back them was not
principally all Irish. Club PRO, Kerry Mortimer, whose
parents are from Antrim and who arrived in Canada at
the age of five is one those women who played with the
great ladies teams.

Asked if this scenario has ‘hindered’ the clubs growth
Mortimer didn’t quite go that far.
“I wouldn’t say that it has hindered it but it just means
that we haven’t been winning as we’ve had in the past.
We still have lots of people engaged in running the sport
- we’re just not winning the league and championship
like we used to in the past and it was you know mostly
Canadians playing against Canadian.”

“In the years of 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006 when we won
both the league and the championship, when I was playing, Breda [Kelly] was from Ireland but I don’t remember
[any others] that was about it and 90-95% were Canadian,” said Mortimer.

Thinking ahead
After the initial wave of Irish immigrants in the 70s and
80s that bolstered the club, there was a feeling that local
roots needed to be put in place in order to continue.

Since 2008, the Ottawa Gaels ladies have not won either
a championship or leag Ք