Irish Football

Irish football is clearly a full-contact sport. Click on the photo to see the full slideshow. (Photo by Gwyneth MacArthur)

It’s the last season of Philly Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) football and hurling at Cardinal Dougherty High School, now that the venerable Olney institution is closing its doors.

(It was once the largest Catholic High School in the world, with more than 6,000 students, but has fallen victim to falling enrollments. The Archdiocese is shutting it down in June.)

Next summer, the hurling and Irish football are set to move to a new facility at Sanatoga and Longview Roads in the Upper Montco town of Limerick.

It’s a bittersweet moment for those who have played, coached or cheered along the sidelines at Dougherty over the last nine or 10 years. “They were pretty good facilities,” says Tom Higgins, a longtime Philly-area GAA player and coach, although he adds that Dougherty was somehow never as attractive to fans as the previous field at Leeds Junior High in Germantown were. “We had great crowds there,” he says. “That was just a super setup. The second we went to Dougherty, the crowd dropped off.”

The GAA has broken ground at the site in Limerick and is in the process of trying to raise $250,000—to be matched by the GAA in Ireland. “I believe it’s going to be ready for next year,” Higgins says.

For now, though, all of the adult games and a few of the youth games will play out the 2010 season on the field at Dougherty. “We had a talk with the priest there, and we knew our lease was good,” Higgins says—though the arrangements will be a little less convenient. “After the end of June, we won’t be able to use the dressing rooms. Through July and August, we won’t be able to use any dressing or shower facilities there.”

And so the season will end. But … there’s still a lot of hurling and football to be played. Games are scheduled every Sunday in June and July, and three Sundays in August.

If you’ve never taken in the fast-paced, full-contact sports of your forebears, you simply must head out to Dougherty. (You might rub shoulders with the Korean athletes who occasionally stop by to watch hurling or Irish football after their soccer game is over on an adjoining field. They clearly know a great sport when they see it.)

In fact, the games have already gotten off to a head start. We dispatched our intrepid photographer Gwyneth MacArthur to Cardinal Dougherty last Sunday to take in a cluster of games. She took more than 50 action-packed shots. Want to see what you’re missing? Click on the photo at upper right.

[googleMap width=”600″ height=”600″]6301 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19120[/googleMap]

The team from San Francisco making their way up Gay Street.

Tracy Guerriero was wandering down Gay Street in West Chester, her maple-leaf flag of Canada draped over her shoulder—and looking a bit at half-mast herself.

Guerriero, accompanying the Brampton, Ontario, Rebels, had only just arrived in West Chester that afternoon after a long bus ride. They had just marched in the parade to kick off the Gaelic Athletic Association’s Continental Youth Championships. All the kids had taken off in search of pizza or burgers or whatever they could find to eat.

Leaving Guerriero holding the flag, and with a severe case of bus lag.

“We left this morning at 4:30,” she said. “Ten hours on the bus with the kids—and one bathroom. We’re all a bit punchy.”

Looking only slightly less bedraggled were N. Martin and Miriam Skelly of the Gaeil Colmcille na nOg Club from Kells, County Meath. They’d just flown in from Dublin to Philadelphia the night before. Like all the other teams post-parade, they were checking all of the Gay Street restaurants—opening doors, looking, and seeing huge crowd. Places like Vincent’s, Peace a Pizza and Kildare’s were doing land-office business. The Skellys were hoping for a quick bite before heading back to the hotel. Other than the parade, they hadn’t yet had much time to sample Philadelphia hospitality. “We went to the films this afternoon,” said Martin Skelly, still looking a bit done in.

As night fell—and it was falling pretty quickly even as the parade wound down and the last team made its way up Gay Street escorted by local pipe bands—the town was crawling with kids and families from Ireland, England, and from as far away as San Francisco in the U.S. Ask them what they want to see and do, and the answers are predictable. Like the kid from Chicago standing in line at the Sprazzo gelato joint, who hoped to see the Liberty Bell.

For the group from Brampton, one stop seems essential: “We want to run up the Rocky steps,” said Guerriero. “And we have to have a cheesesteak.”

Of course, the main attraction for the 1,700-plus athletes is the Continental Youth Championships, held today, Saturday and Sunday at Greater Chester Valley Soccer Associations’ Line Road Complex in Willistown, Chester County. For details, visit the CYC Web site.

If you want to see the future of Gaelic athletics in the United States, this is where to see it. The CYC happens but once a year, and this is the first time it has been held in Philly. Check out the games and support the cause of Irish athletics on your home turf.

That's why they call it football.

It was a close one for the Philadelphia Shamrocks hurling team who went up against the Allentown Hibernians again at Cardinal Dougherty High School on Sunday, June 1. The Shamrocks won 3-5 to 3-2.

The Shamrocks team, like the Hibernians, is a brand new bunch of guys, many American who are just learning the game. “We have a stronger team as well, largely Irish, who are going up against Washington, DC, later this year,” says Frank O’Meara, team captain. The other hurling team in Philadelphia, the Brian Borus, folded this year because of lack of players.

Also on the field: The Kevin Barrys GFC trumped the Young Irelanders 1-11 to 1-8 in a fierce game that left three footballers with minor injuries.