Gaelic Athletic Association

Slugging it out at Bonner

Normally, it’s the players on the losing team who look stunned. Ciarán Ó Braonáin had that look in his eyes last Saturday afternoon at Monsignor Bonner—and his team, the newly formed Radnor Saints of Villanova University, had just won the Junior B Gaelic football trophy at Philly’s first-ever collegiate Gaelic sports tournament, sponsored by St. Joseph’s University Gaelic Football Club.

‘Nova’s opponents were more experienced by far. “We had our first practice in November, but then we had the bad winter, so we didn’t really get going until February,” Ó Braonáin said. “But we’re off to a good start. I couldn’t be happier.”

Villanova was just one of many college and university teams from throughout the Northeast that descended upon Bonner’s artificial turf for the day of football and hurling. The teams were purposely small—seven a side. That enabled two games to be played on the Bonner field at the same time. The host Hawks kept things moving with revolving door precision. One game would no sooner end, than the next game would start. Sometimes players from the previous game were jogging off the field even as the referee was blowing the starting whistle for the next game.

Most of the players were American, but not all were Irish-American, and a few of the teams were co-ed. And every player on every team fought as fiercely as if they were slugging it out in the All-Ireland Championship Finals.

All of which was gratifying to David Cosgrove, who coached the hurling club from Kean University in North New Jersey.  Kean undergrad Dave Lewis founded the club. Cosgrove is also founder of the Hoboken Guards hurling team, and chairman of the New York Gaelic Athletic Association hurling division.

“It’s great to see the game growing so fast in the Northeast,” Cosgrove said. “We’re getting the word out. It’s just like lacrosse exploded 30 years ago. This is what’s happening here.”

Iona College players assisted the Kean team in the tournament. Cosgrove says a joint Kean/Iona team will take the field in the 2014 NCGAA Championships May 24-25 in Gaelic Park, Riverdale, N.Y. Fifteen other collegiate GAA clubs from around the U.S. will take part.

The footballers from St. Joe’s came away without a trophy, but they still notched up the day as a big win, both for their club and for collegiate Gaelic athletics nationwide.

“It went very well,” said the Hawks’ Brian Mahoney. “Boston College was the biggest question mark, whether they would make it, but they traveled the farthest and they brought the most people. We took an important step at St. Joe’s to get cleared to be a club. Now when other teams approach their administrations, they can say, ‘This is how St. Joe’s did it.’ It just feels like it’s viable.”

Competition at the college and university level is vital to the future of Gaelic athletics in the United States. There are vibrant youth leagues, up to the Under-18s, but after that there’s nothing until the adult leagues.

“When you see something like this,” Mahoney said, “you know it’s working. There’s a gap being filled.”

Never too young to learn hurling.

Why do hurlers wear helmets? Every one of the little people who lined up to learn a bit about the no-hold-barred Irish sport, knew the answer, summed up by one little girl eager to take a crack at the ball herself: “‘Cause if you don’t, you will hurt your head.”

The football field at Bishop McDevitt High School on Sunday afternoon was filled with small, enthusiastic kids, all of them running, jumping, and kicking. Because those are the things you do when you play the traditional Irish sports of hurling and Gaelic football.

Brendan Gallagher and his many colleagues on the new Glenside Gaelic Athletic Association club are hoping the fun of the weekend clinic will carry over into a season, and more, of youth GAA competition.

“I’m very happy with the turnout today,” Gallagher said. “We probably had around 35 kids. I’m not sure how many have registered so far. Some were here out of curiosity, and some were friends of kids who had already signed up. We’re encouraged by the numbers and the interest level. For a club to get off the ground with a sport that maybe 99 percent of the population in an area have never heard of, that’s always going to be a challenge, but we’re very happy.”

A hands-on clinic is one of the best ways to get kids interested in Gaelic sports, Gallagher said. Also helpful? A demonstration game by kids from the Delco Gaels GAA.

For Gallagher, a youth GAA club based in Glenside is about more than sports. It’s also about the survival of Irish culture in the Philadelphia area, including music, dance and more.

“Any Gaelic club formed in a parish in Ireland is well known because of its sports, but it also has speech and drama. It has music. It has dancing. It’s all part of the club. It’s a hub for the whole community. And that’s what we want; we want to be part of the community.”

Other Irish cultural organizations have had a good deal of success in perpetuating all the various aspects of Gaelic culture—notably, the dance schools. “They’re our role model,” Gallagher said. We’re trying to emulate their model. They’ve been so successful. We have a little catching up to do. If we want our culture to be passed on down and survive, we have to step up and do something about it.”

The next registration will be held April 20 at 10 a.m. at the MacSwiney Club, 510 Greenwood Avenue, in Jenkintown.

For more information, contact: gaelicclubglenside@hotmail.com