GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 20 – February 22, 2015 | Page 7

FEBRUARY 20, 2015
BY DENIS O’BRIEN

In just under two weeks, history will
be made on a global sporting front
for the Gaelic Athletic Association
(GAA) as the inaugural GAA World
Games take place March 6-7 at the
Zayed Sports Complex in the city of
Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The GAA amateur organization
founded in 1884 in Ireland, governs
the sports of Gaelic Football and
Hurling, and up to now has principally been concerned with the domestic affairs of their sports. Since
the associations founding, Irish emiPhoto: Arabian Celts
grants have helped spread the sports
to other parts of the world in setting up international
clubs largely for Irish diaspora but over the past 10-20
years the makeup of such clubs has evolved to accommodate more indigenous and international players.
ON THE RISE
Indeed, with the rise of increased travel to Ireland by tourists and exchange students, and the advent of the Internet,
and more recently social media communications, today
more and more clubs are being set up and administered
by non-Irish people. There are many examples of nonIrish people taking up Gaelic Football in places like the
Celtic regions of Galicia in Northwest Spain and Brittany
in France, along with thriving football and hurling clubs

springing up across the US, Canada, Europe and throughout Asia. In the 70s and more recently in the 90s and start
of the new millennium, efforts to form international GAA
competition took place, with three World Cup type events
taking place in Ireland.
The last of these was in 2000 with teams from North America, New York, Canada, London, Scotland and Europe, but
the event was discontinued for reasons that are unclear,
though a lack of funding from the GAA, are said to have
been a nail in the events coffin. Players taking part 15 years
ago would have been principally Irish immigrants from 5
different GAA international units (called county boards)
returning home for a tournament. But since then, as noted,

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