GAELIC SPORTS WORLD Issue 35 – October 6, 2015 | Page 7

SEVILLE, SPAIN
SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

BY DENIS O’BRIEN

In its short six year history, Eire Og Seville GAA Club with
a daring and open approach has made a difference in bringing Gaelic sports to this beautiful city in the south of Spain.
Like so many other GAA clubs around the world, Eire Og
in Seville, was born on St. Patrick’s Day when Irish emigrants
gather to celebrate the occasion and enjoy shared cultural
norms.
There is not a large Irish immigrant population in Seville
with a couple of hundred but most of those over the years
have put down solid roots intermarrying with locals. This
small Irish community is firmly embedded in the culture of
this southern Spanish city and as a result only gets to gather
together on feast days like St. Patrick’s Day.
CLUB BIRTH
So on that festive day back in 2009 two of those Irish immigrants, Waterford native and current club chairperson Kevin
Lenane, and Conor Guckian met, and discussed over a few
beers the idea of setting up a GAA club. Lenane was a former
minor and U21 county footballer (who also plays hurling)
and had arrived in Seville a decade before – one of those who
settled down and married locally.
“I always wanted to start a club but didn´t think there was
enough of interest until I bumped into Conor Guckian, a chef
in the local Irish pub ‘The Merchant’. We said we´d give it a
go and made the decision after getting a few names down on

paper that day,” Lenane explained to Gaelic Sports World.
The thinking at the beginning was to start a Gaelic football club in the hope of attracting Irish expats, locals and
anyone else with everyone looking to enjoy participation.
“Like any small club we just wanted to survive the first few
years and build on our initial enthusiasm. The main objective was to have a bit of fun and make up for the years lost
playing back home,” he stated.
Six years on and the club has a healthy sprinkling of local
players, other nationalities from around the world as well
as Irish ex-pats.
“The club is after going through a big change in the last
two years as we were a club very dependent on [Irish] Erasmus students and teachers, but now we seem to have an
established squad that look to be staying around. The majority of the players are still Irish and English, but we have
5 or 6 Spanish in the squad, as well as German, French,
American, and even a player from Cameroon,” noted the
club chairperson.
The club became known as Eire Og (Young Ireland) and
slowly but surely began to find its feet. There are two other clubs in the south and also new, the Costa Gaels from
Marbella and the Gibraltar Gaels. Like the others the Seville club played Gaelic football.

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