Exile clubs embody the true spirit of the GAA
The GAA is a special home for many all around the world — Marisa Kennedy visited St Peters in Manchester to find a community bound by the love of Gaelic Football.
Nowadays, you hear more grumbling about the GAA than praising; fixture congestion for club players, inter-county players having to wait weeks in between their games, lack of financial support at grassroot level and the price of entry for patrons. Add this to all the talk of restructuring and players opinions being ignored, and it’s easy to become despondent with the organisation.
But all it takes is one small encounter and you are reminded of everything that makes the GAA so special.
St Peters GAA club in Manchester is one of the most successful Gaelic football clubs in Lancashire with 11 senior championship titles and three All-Britain titles to their name. Yet, their unrivaled success is not what draws players to the club.
It’s hard for anyone to emigrate from Ireland, whether you head to far flung Dubai or Perth or nearby London or Manchester. And when you go in search of those familiar homely links, the GAA is there to welcome you with open arms. Because no matter where in the world you are, nothing uniquely unifies Irish people more than our national games.
St Peters pride themselves on being a ‘home away from home’ for the Irish community in Manchester. A way to stay connected and make friends for life. These people are from all different walks of life, from all corners of Ireland, but the one thing that binds them all is their love for Gaelic football.
The Chairperson of St Peters, Patrick McMahon, recalls his first experience with the club. “When I first came here, I got in touch with St Peters and I got an email back from one of the players here asking if I needed work, if I needed somewhere to stay, so it was very, very welcoming and accommodating.”
“Straight away I had 30 or 40 Irish fellas that I got to know very quickly.”
It’s a wet and miserable Wednesday night when I head to the all-weather pitch at the Armitage Sports Centre in Manchester to meet with the club. One of the first things to catch my eye is an established player bringing along a new friend to training. A handshake and a quick chat, do you know this fella and that fella, and that’s that; he’s part of the group, laughing and joking and sharing the love of the sport.
Like all exile clubs, St Peters battles with player migration and trying to maintain a consistent squad. But that doesn’t discourage the players that have turned up to train, nor do the conditions. They get down to it. Circuits first to test the fitness before footballs are produced and the enthusiasm levels noticeably rise.
This is their last training session before the first game of the season against local rivals, St Lawrences. Yet you get a feeling that although a win would be greatly welcomed, training is more about reconvening with familiar faces and having a laugh with your mates to release some stress after a hard day’s work.
“We all love Gaelic football. At times it can be hard, you’re coming out in these conditions on a Wednesday night after work so it’s really all about staying in touch with Gaelic Football, which we all love”, continues McMahon.
Of course there can’t be all work and no play and the social aspect is a massive pull factor to the club.
“Straight away you have a network of people who are all around the same age as you, all into sport and all into the same things as you, in Manchester, who you can go out with and play football with so yeah, it’s brilliant in that way”.
All around us in the other pitches, different sports are being played — soccer mainly. A few curious glances are aimed our direction so I enquire to know if any British players fancy a go at Gaelic football. “Very little”, I’m told, although the club is popular with second-generation Irish.
“We have three or four lads now whose parents are from Galway, Kerry and now living here and their parents got them into football at a young age and they absolutely love the sport.”
“Some teams have great underage systems, which we’re striving to do over the next few years, and they have 10 or 11 UK-born players and again, they absolutely love the sport, even more so than say, soccer or whatever else.”
I come away from that training session with the warm feeling of community, so many miles from home. This is what the spirit of the GAA is all about. Giving your all for the jersey you wear, for the friends and family that play alongside you and support you.
But more importantly, having that support network around you and having that shared connection wherever in the world you may be. It can be easy to lose sight of that, but as with a lot of things, sometimes you have to go abroad to appreciate what is right at your doorstep at home.
