Paris Gaels GAA
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| Club Gaelique Football de Paris | ||
| Founded: | 1995 | |
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Paris Gaels GAA is a Gaelic Athletic Association club located in Paris, France. It is often regarded as one of Europe's most successful Gaelic games club outside Ireland. Paris Gaels are the first Gaelic games club in Continental Europe to be affiliated with the GAA.
History
Gaelic games has a long but anecdotal history in Paris. The first recorded mention of Gaelic Games, was during the French revolution in 1789, when Irish priests from a seminary in central Paris were arrested while playing hurling on the outskirts of Paris. They were released soon afterwards after a translator had correctly explained that they were playing a game and not carrying out any military training or parades.
The club was founded officially in 1994, but joined the Gaelic Athletic Association in 1995 becoming the first club to do so in continental Europe. However, Irish expats in Paris had been playing hurling and Gaelic football on a regular basis since the early 1980's. The mid-90's in Europe saw Gaelic clubs being set up in nearly every capital city in Europe and the creation of the European County Board. Paris Gaels members were instrumental in the creation of the European County Board, but also in assisting the newer clubs to get up and running.
Paris Gaels in the early 1990's
The Irish ex-pat community was very close knit and active in Paris. The mix of people involved at the time were students, publicans, teachers, embassy staff and other professionals working for companies such the Irish Trade Board, Aer Lingus and some other non-governmental organisations . Indeed the soccer club, Paris Gaels FC had been set up in 1987 by former Aer Lingus staff and still exists today playing in the Seine-Saint Denis District league. The Gaelic club had its ?????? in the College des Irlandais where the Irish Cultural Centre is now. In the summer of 1993, in the Champagne region of France, a Sports day was organised between Irish residents in Paris and the Luxembourg Irish association. A Gaelic football match was also organised by the Aer lingus GAA team and some of the Irish residents of Paris participated in that match. Two of the Irish residents from Paris involved that day were Peter Gavigan and Tom MacIntyre, decided that a sports society of some sort would benefit the Irish community in Paris.
Many Irish bars were approached for sponsorship and the first set of hurling equipment were funded by Flann O'Briens, Quigley's Point and Connolly's Corner. Peter Gavigan contributed 4 hurleys, being the total number of stock to 18. It was after mass on Sundays that the trainings started, another donation of footballs, hurleys, junior Camogie sticks and sliotars was given by Ballyboden St. Enda's club in Dublin.
"Basically, when mass was over we used to jump on the metro to go to Vincennes, while Sonny Delaney who had a car would pick up the gear from the pub Connolly's Corner and meet us out there" - Ann Donnelly (Paris Gaels member).
The first official match of the club was a hurling fixture against Den Haag GAA, in May 1994 in La Courneuve. Paris won on the day, the players representing the Paris Gaels on that day were; Michael Maher, John O'Rourke, Enda Breen, Terry Devers, Peter Gavigan, Paul Carlile, Sonny Delaney, Hugh Liston, Tom Hillary & Liam Connolly. Buoyed by the success of the match against Den Haag, the Paris Gaels decided to go on the road. A club in Brussels had started, taking advantage of the growing number of Irish ex-pats working in the EU institutions. In October 1994, in British International school, the Paris Gaels played Brussels GAA. It was also the first time that Paris played in their own jerseys. The match was a very tight affair, the half time the scores were level, but Brussels pulled away in the second half. The Paris team that lined out on that day were : Peadar Duignan, Johnny Hamill, Eddie Casey, John Ruane, Jim O'Mahoney, Peter Gavigan, Hugh Liston, Finoin Brown, Willie Fingleton and Padraig Fennessy. A bout of flu had kept Sonny Delaney, James Griffin and Michael O'Haodha out of action.
The trip to Brussels was also a memorable occasion as for the first time, the Ladies Football team played in a friendly match, the team that lined out were : Ann Donnelly, Bridgit O'Connor, Helen Galvin, Lisa Power, Sylvia Fleming, Maureen MacSharry, Phyllis Harte, Ann McSweeney and Aisling Long.
"Back in the early 90's, we hadn't the same kind of technology that exists today. There was no facebook, the internet was just being born and not many of us had a mobile phone either, but the one place where you could always meet Irish people was every Sunday at 11:30am for mass at the College des Irlandais, and it was there that the Paris Gaels GAA club was born."