In Focus.....Amsterdam GAC

Kenny Monaghan, PRO from top European GAA club Amsterdam GAC, kindly agreed to be our subject for our new In Focus section. Questions were posed by the posters of Global GAA and here is the result of our Q&A with Kenny, I'm sure you will find it a very interesting insight to the GAA in Europe -

Where did the idea for the club come from, considering that Amsterdam wouldn’t have been as popular an area for Irish men and women as say USA and Australia? (Bocerty)

The European County Board was formed in 2001. The initial idea to start a GAA club in Amsterdam came from two friends, an Irishman and an Australian living in Amsterdam, John McCann and Stephen Dillion. The first official club gathering took place on St. Patrick’s Day 2003 and from humble beginnings; a handful of players training themselves in local parks has evolved into one of Europe's leading GAA clubs with over 70 players and social members. In recent times clubs have been started in Estonia and France as a result of just one enthusiastic Irish person introducing local people to the game.

What structures are in place to govern the GAA in Holland? (Bocerty)

Amsterdam GAC is a GAA club in County Europe in much the same way as Tir Chonaill Gaels is a club in County London. The European County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association(ECB) is a board of the GAA outside Ireland, and is responsible for organizing Gaelic Games in continental Europe. The board is responsible for the European Gaelic football, Hurling, Camogie and Ladies' Gaelic football teams.

Amsterdam is known as a culturally diverse city. Aside from the Irish lads, which other nationalities of players have shown an interest in the game? (Thomas Clarke)

It certainly is culturally diverse. In fact Amsterdam is the city with the largest amount of different nationalities living there in the world;178 at last count!!! We pride ourselves on being a club who welcome and actively recruit non Irish players. It’s a fantastic feeling watching a Dutchman, a Spaniard or an Argentinean scoring their first point in training or taking part in their first competitive game. This is one of the really special aspects of the game in Europe. So far we have had players from all corners of the earth, Holland, Belgium, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Argentina, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Hungary to name just a few. It’s not difficult to arouse interest in our sports with non Irish people, especially when you show them video footage of a top level Gaelic Football or Hurling match. Last year we had Dutch, Australian and English players on our European Shield winning team.

In what ways does the club tap into the local Irish community to build support and what methods do you find most effective when seeking to gain new club members, are any players in any code offered any incentives to join the club for example free accommodation, money etc.? (Thomas Clarke, Bald Eagle, Bocerty)

We are sponsored by the Hole in the Wall, a well known Irish bar situated in Amsterdam’s famous Leidseplein. We hold numerous club events and fundraisers there; our AGM, Pub Quizzes, etc. We have posters with club info and contact details in all of Amsterdam’s 20+ Irish Bars. Many of our members are also members of other Irish expat networks in Amsterdam and the surrounding cities and this helps us spread the word about our club. I would say the most effective method of recruitment is word or mouth, existing players convincing friends and colleagues to come out to a training session. We have an extensive online presence also which helps to promote the club; Website (http://www.amsterdamgac.nl), Facebook Group (Amsterdam Gaelic Football Team), Twitter (@AmsterdamGAC), Blog (http://amsterdamgaa.blogspot.com), etc …

We don’t offer any cash incentives to new members but we will always do everything we can to help newcomers from Ireland or elsewhere interested in joining the club to find work and accommodation. With 70+ members, mostly young professionals working in Amsterdam, we have a network in place to help new members with all aspects of starting a new life in Amsterdam.

I’d imagine that there are a lot of travel costs involved in entering tournaments across Europe, do you have to rely on self-fund raising? What level of funding support, in broad terms, are you receiving from Croke Park; that is to ask, are you like beggars seeking the odd crumb from the table, or are you receiving "reasonable" treatment? (Boxtyeater, Jonsmith, RMDrive, Real Kerry Fan, Bocerty,)

The European County Board have been fantastic over the years in providing support to our club in so far as possible, mainly in terms of training and development. This year we have formed our own Hurling and Camogie teams and the ECB have provided hurls, sliotars and helmets to help us get started. They have also helped us acquire Ladies goalposts in advance of hosting a Benelux Ladies Football round in Amsterdam this year. Like any club in Ireland, we rely on membership fees and our own fundraising initiatives to pay the bills and continue our growth.

Players do incur costs travelling to tournaments but I personally think we get a lot of value from that investment (who wouldn’t want a weekend away with the lads in Copenhagen after all!!!).

If considerable GAA funding (within reason!) was available, what would you do in order to develop the games on a wider European/Global basis? (Thomas Clarke)

Personally, I believe that the future of the GAA in Europe lies in youth development. If we can introduce our sports to local youngsters from an early age, then we can take huge strides in establishing our national sports in Europe and I know that the ECB are already focusing much of their efforts on youth development. There have been underage games and coaching sessions for youngsters at recent tournaments in Guernsey and Benelux for example. Madrid and Valencia in Spain can now boast their own under-12s Gaelic football clubs!

Do you think the GAA scene in Europe could come to resemble America in that it could become a working/playing holiday for younger players? Is this something you would like to see happening? (Jonsmith)

I see no reason why not. Moving to mainland Europe provides an excellent opportunity for young people to experience a different culture and lifestyle as well as brushing up on language skills.

There are already plenty of employment opportunities for young people in cities like Amsterdam and Paris for instance and getting involved with a GAA club can help make the whole experience easier, healthier and more fun!

Do you ever see Gaelic games capturing the imagination of Dutch/Europeans, so much so that one day clubs will be run and played in by locals across Europe? (North Side Gael)

It already has. There are a number of non Irish members already doing valuable work on different GAA club committees across Europe and to the best of my knowledge every club has some non Irish Players.

What are the views of the non-Irish players of our games and why have they taken them up and is there much of an interest in Gaelic games from people with a non GAA background both in terms of wanting to learn to play or even just spectating? (Real Kerry Fan, Bocerty)

Some of our non Irish players have been involved with the club for several years and they just love playing. As I alluded to earlier, it never too difficult to arouse interest in Gaelic Football or Hurling in a non-Irish player given the uniqueness of our national sports. We work hard to encourage non Irish players to join to club and provide basic training for them in the first few sessions they attend so they can start to feel comfortable in the main training session’s a.s.a.p.

We often train in Amsterdam's parks during the summer months when the pitches here are closed for reseeding and people are constantly stopping to spectate and coming over asking us what game we are playing. Many non-Irish players just turn up to training having read about the sport and subsequently found out about our club online.

Do you find that Irish people abroad are more likely to look for solace in activities such as the GAA, whereas if they were at home they mightn't bother, similarly do you find that people are more likely to become involved in the administration and coaching within the club than if they were at home? (RMDrive, Bald Eagle)

I think this is possibly true. Speaking from my own experience, I stopped playing GAA in Ireland at about 16 years old and despite spending the next 14 years in Ireland and London where there were ample opportunities to play, I didn’t take up the sport again until moving to Amsterdam at the ripe old age of 30 and being introduced to Amsterdam GAC by an old university friend. We try our best to promote a spirit of inclusivity at the club, everyone is welcome and people buy into that plus it gives us Irish lads/ladies a tangible link to our own culture which feels good.

Given that the emigrating youth are venturing further afield, will you find it difficult to drive on from your current position and has the world recession affected the club in any way in terms of the number of players coming to Amsterdam? We're hearing very little, if anything, from North America or Australia. (Boxtyeater, Bocerty)

On the contrary, more and more Irish people are moving to mainland Europe in these tough economic times. Some very talented players have joined in the last 2 years who would have been playing football and hurling at a high standard in Ireland. Last year we fielded 2 teams in most tournaments for the first time. This year we have started our own Hurling and Camogie teams. Our ladies membership has more than doubled in size since 2 years ago. Many young people are realising that they don’t have to move thousands of miles from home and that there are opportunities closer to home in places like Amsterdam.

In your experiences, do you find that people living in Ireland have a condescending attitude towards clubs like yours? Such as ... they do good work but they are only an excuse for Irish lads to go on the beer together? (RMDrive)

The short answer is no. I think people are often surprised to hear that there are GAA clubs in places like Amsterdam, Warsaw and Estonia but the reaction I’ve had on telling people about our club has always been positive.

In the tournaments your club plays in, what is the set-up of a normal European GAA Tournament in terms of teams taking part, numbers of players per side and how these affect the overall season? (Bald Eagle, Real Kerry Fan)

Our A and B Men’s Gaelic Football Teams are competing in the Championship and Shield competitions in this year’s Benelux Regional’s (4 tournaments). In the first tournament this year 4 teams competed in the Championship and 3 teams competed in the Shield. Depending on the number of teams competing, the format is either round robin with a final and a 3rd place play off or 2 groups with semi-finals and finals and place play-offs. In general each team plays four to six 25-30 minute games over the course of the day. Teams are 11-a-side and rolling substitutions are allowed. Points are allocated to teams based in their placing in each tournament and after Benelux Round 4, the teams with the most points are crowned Benelux Championship or Shield Winners! Based on their performances in Regional’s, teams are then entered into the Pan European Championship or Shield competition (3 tournaments) and will play teams from other regional competitions (Iberian, Scandinavian League etc)

How does the European GAA Championship work? That is, how is a venue chosen and how are the European champions crowned? (Bald Eagle)

Taking Men’s Gaelic Football as the example again, the tournament format is similar to the Benelux Regional’s. The European Champions are the team which have accrued the most points once 3 Pan European Tournament’s featuring teams from all European Regions have been contested. Venues are chosen by the European County Board, obviously in conjunction with clubs who wish to host.

What I have found in playing Gaelic games abroad is that clubs are actually just a team that plays under a club name, in that they only have one senior team. You have senior teams across all codes of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie but what are your structures like below this for youth development and does the club have a strategic/development plan and if so what are the goals set for the club for the next number of years? (Bald Eagle, Bocerty)

Of course, European GAA is in its infancy and most clubs start out with just one Senior Gaelic Football team as our club did in 2003 and they need time to evolve and grow their membership and expand into different codes and underage teams but this is starting to happen all over Europe now. Last year was our first year fielding 2 Men’s Gaelic Football teams and this year is our first year offering Hurling and Camogie training in Amsterdam. The Holland Camogie Team was just formed this year and has already finished 2nd in its first tournament and our ladies captain was named Player of the Tournament. Our plan is to continue building on these foundations, brick by brick and we are busy strategizing on how we can start coaching underage players/teams in the very near future.

Would you like to see the European GAA try for provincial status in their own right instead of being County Europe? (Bald Eagle)

I think County Europe works quite well for now, given the number of clubs involved. Recently, The Leinster Council has been partnered with the European County Board to help develop Gaelic Games in Europe. At the recent GAA Congress, Europe gained a seat on GAA Central Council with 87% of delegates voting in favour of it.

Would you like to see Europe being invited to play in the British Junior Provincial Championship as a “guest” county, should the opportunity arise and be practical? (Bald Eagle)
Would there be any chance of the European champions competing in National championships i.e. Junior or Intermediate in future? (Real Kerry Fan)

I expect it would take a lot of careful consideration and organisation to enter a European Team into the Provincial Championships but it would definitely be interesting to see the top teams in Europe competing against teams from the UK and Ireland in some capacity.

Do many clubs from Ireland take the opportunity to travel out to Amsterdam for a team holiday/ challenge match? (RMDrive)

We are planning to host an Invitational tournament in Amsterdam next year to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and we hope to get some teams from Ireland to compete in that. In the meantime we would definitely welcome inquiries from any Intermediate/Junior teams in Ireland who would be interested in coming over to give us a game this year.

Outside of football and hurling does the club run any other activities, such as Irish dancing, music etc and if so what are they? (RMDrive)

Yes, we have many social members as well as players and most club events are open for all members to join (Socials, Pub Quizzes, Extra Fitness Sessions, etc). One of our Ladies players teaches Irish Dancing to Irish and Dutch youngsters and two of our Men’s members make up Irish Band, The CyclePaths!

Many thanks for taking the time to read our questions and for making the effort to answer them, we understand that you are busy and really appreciate the time you have taken in this matter.

I would like to say a personal thanks to Kenny for completing the Q&A session firstly. He could easily have turned down the chance to field questions from a GAA forum but didn't.

I think the work that the European GAA are doing is wonderful and always try and keep an eye out for the results, especially now on Twitter!

Please follow their Twitter feed @AmsterdamGAC for their updates, obviously i try and retweet their notices too!

Please leave us some feedback of what you though of the Q&A, especially if you are a guest to the site

I would just like to add my own experiences to RMDrives question regarding atitudes towards teams outside Ireland.

I have played football and hurling in various parts of the UK, Australia and in the US for a short time and i have always found people to be very positive towards it, some are stunned that there are clubs in some of the places i have played and are always asking about the standard of play and if any locals play. I have also found the teams and clubs a pleasure to be a part of with little or no trouble or in fighting that you get in clubs in Ireland.

Also what i have found is that people in Ireland can be GAA gear "junkies" in the way that they love having GAA gear from "obscure" places to them, i have one mate whose son loves it when i get him a polo shirt from a International club (not allowed to say overseas anymore). That would be a great area for clubs now as the world is smaller with the internet and there is the potiential for clubs to make some (not much) exra money from gear and merchandise online.

On the question i asked about Europe playing in the UK championship as a guest, an interesting development is that Europe has been invited to take part in (and accepted) the big All Britian Youth Championships later this summer in London!

great stuff once again BE very informative. Thanks to yourself and Kenny for the time and effort put into not only preparing the questions but also answering them in a very detailed manner.

Yes indeed, thanks to BE and especially to Kenny. There was obviously a lot of time spent on this, and the answers were both informative and interesting. Great stuff!

Top class questions and excellent detail in the answers. Well done to BE and Kenny appears to have his finger on the pulse.
Up there with the best Q&A session yet.....Great work.

I did note that Jonsmith was exploring the possibility of summer football in Amsterdam....FFS..He wouldn't play at home!!!

Good stuff from Kenny and as always from BE. It's great to hear about a thriving club like this.

Cheers for the positive feedback so far folks, i know Kenny put a heck of a lot of work into the answers so hats off to him.

In terms of this thread, this is an interesting article from today's Irish Times ...

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GAA: the social network for emigrants
Fri, Apr 27, 2012

GENERATION EMIGRATION : While GAA clubs lament the loss of their players to emigration, their games are flourishing overseas, and the organisation also provides invaluable connections to help young emigrants settle in, writes CIARA KENNY

AOIFE CAHILL hadn’t played Gaelic football since she was 14 years old, but when she heard that a GAA team was setting up near her new home in Warsaw in 2009, she and her roommate Aisling O’Loughlin, both in their mid-20s, had their old boots posted over from Ireland and set about re-mastering the art of soloing.

The two students joined Cumann Warszawa hoping for a break from their veterinary books for a couple of hours every week, but they soon discovered that the game could provide them with much more than just a distraction from their studies.

“It made us feel at home. We found the camaraderie and the community we thought we had left behind, that we were told we wouldn’t find out here in Poland,” says Cahill. “I’m probably more Irish here than I ever was in Ireland, and the team has had a huge part to play in that.”

The club had just four Irish members when Cahill and O’Loughlin signed up, which has since grown to almost 30, with a mixture of Irish, Norwegians, English, Swedish and Mauritians on the team. “Three years later, I am chairperson of a club for a sport I hadn’t played at home in years, in a country that has never heard of GAA, playing against teams from other European countries who are doing the exact same thing,” says Cahill. “It is a different community, a different camaraderie, but in a way, it is just like home.”

At the GAA Annual Congress earlier this month, incoming president Liam O’Neill pledged to tackle the issue of player emigration, which is decimating rural teams and causing a crisis in the GAA in Ireland.

But while the Irish clubs lament the departure of their players at both local and county level, the game is flourishing overseas, with GAA clubs across Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand enriched by the influx of young and talented Irish players such as Cahill and O’Loughlin who are eager to maintain their connection with Ireland by playing their national sport.

While researching the Irish diaspora in London for her PhD from Queen’s University in Belfast, Frances Harkin discovered that although other traditional features of the Irish emigrant experience, such as the pub or social club, are no longer as important as they once were, the GAA remains a strong focal point for young arrivals and older, more established Irish alike.

“Even those who don’t actively engage with the GAA as players will watch the matches in the local pub, attend functions such as dinner dances and fundraising events, and often wear GAA county jerseys while out and about in London,” she says.

The pastoral nature of the GAA network is just as prevalent in the clubs overseas as it is in Ireland. It can provide invaluable connections for Irish emigrants seeking work and friends when they arrive in an unfamiliar place, she adds.

Clubs such as the Tir Chonaill Gaels, one of the biggest of the 40-odd GAA clubs in London, offer to help new recruits with the practicalities of moving, with support systems in place to help prospective emigrants before they even leave Ireland.

“A lot of these young people are leaving home for the first time, which can be a very daunting experience,” says club chairman Tom Mohan. “They can call us before they go to find out what paperwork they should bring, or send us their CV so we can help them to find employment through the network of companies we have worked with over the years.”

The club has connections with several properties in the city where new arrivals can rent a room without having to worry about paying a huge deposit, and they often provide meals after training sessions where new and old players can socialise.

The club has signed up more than 30 new people since the beginning of the year, and has recently created two new teams to cater for its swelling numbers.

“The standard of the game in the UK has improved hugely, and it is only going to get stronger,” says Mohan. “We have four players at the moment who have played at county level in Ireland. With the amount of good-quality players coming over to London now, the clubs will soon be on par with any county team in Ireland.”

On the other side of the world, teams in Australia and New Zealand are also seeing record numbers turning up to training sessions. Jamie Fitzsimons, club PRO for Michael Cusack’s club in Sydney, says the GAA scene there has grown fast in recent years. “Increasing numbers of Irish are moving to Australia, and staying on longer than was the norm in the past,” she says.

“More and more are moving here long-term, obtaining sponsorship and permanent residency rather than backpacking through. At times there have been over 80 men’s footballers and hurlers attending training sessions, and growing numbers for ladies’ football and camogie too.”

As Sydney’s largest club, Michael Cusack’s has attracted some of Ireland’s top county players, who are looking for a place to continue the sport when they arrive in the city. Former Longford footballer Padraig Berry signed up to the team on his first day in Sydney in 2010.

“I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived because I had never played football away from home before, but the standard is very good,” he says.

“It has improved this year even compared with last year, with the number of emigrants arriving over from Ireland. A lot of the players have played at county level in underage teams, and there’s a lot of talent here.”

Berry is a qualified sports therapist but couldn’t find work in Ireland. He says that leaving the Longford team was one of the most difficult decisions he has had to make, but he is now working in construction in Sydney, and plans to stay for another few years until the jobs market improves at home.

“I still think about going home and going back to the team, but there’s nothing for me to go back to for now,” he says.

“The GAA out here has helped to keep my mind off home.”


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Philip O'Connor: Stockholm Gaels
Since I wrote A Parish Far From Home, a book about the formation of the Stockholm Gaels in 2010, one of the questions I often get asked is what GAA clubs abroad offer the Irish emigrant community.

The simple answer is that they offer exactly what the clubs back home offer, and a whole lot more besides.

When we started, I wanted our club and our sports to be the gathering point for the Irish community in Stockholm. Together with our sister clubs in Scandinavia, we have become hubs for the Irish community here, providing a gateway into these new and very different cultures for new emigrants.

We help them find jobs and homes and to register for tax and benefits. We find them baby-sitters and dentists, and priests when they’re needed.

We provide a place for them to train and to play the games they love, and we provide a shoulder to cry on when they are jilted or lonely or upset. We become their family and friends, because essentially, we are all any of us have.

As we grow in strength and numbers – there are now more than 50 clubs in Europe alone – we are increasingly taking on the role of marketers and ambassadors for Ireland.

In the heart of Stockholm, people see us practising a sport that is an integral part of our culture, and they stop us and ask questions. We tell them all about it, and everything else great about our country. One such Swedish passer-by is now a key midfielder for our ladies’ team.

More than anything, our clubs give us a platform to show our pride in ourselves, our homeland and our new-found communities. Most of us are sick of seeing the black headlines in European newspapers about our economy and our idiot politicians.

When we take the field in our competitions, it is a chance to show people that, contrary to everything that has happened in Ireland in recent years, we are strong and capable and brave, and we can work together to make something that our whole community can enjoy and be proud of.

very interesting read well done to all

I see that Amsterdam GAC have been in the Irish Examiner today -

Why going Dutch isn’t just for fun

Amsterdam GAA club chairman David Corcoran says foreign clubs are here for the long haul.

Kilcummin native Corcoran was disappointed with recent media coverage in Ireland of international GAA units being outlets merely for fun and emigrants to drop in and out of as they please.

"London have done a lot of good work building a team over there and people in Croke Park and Ireland should be praising that.

"I’m from Kerry and I know of one team in south Kerry that lost 15 players due to emigration. It’s obviously terrible but if they’re coming over and getting the chance to play in Europe and the US, then that’s a good thing too.

"They’re spreading GAA in other places. That’s something people in Ireland should be helping us with. To great degrees they are but there has been some negative media.

"It’s not just about a bunch of guys going for summer holidays or coming here because they can’t find jobs and coming home again.

"We ourselves are investing in cardiac screening and underage development. We’re no different from any other club in Ireland. We want to be here with a club in 20, 30, 40 years’ time."

Established in 2003, the Amsterdam club tomorrow stage their annual tournament, the second round of the European GAA’s Benelux League with three different competitions going on all day.

The club boasts two men’s football teams with 12 nationalities represented between the two sides including native Dutch who are beating Irish players for first-team places.

Rosie Holland, a 2005 All-Ireland senior medallist with Cork, manages the camogie team while the hurling team is being launched in August.

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Great to see them get more exposure, even if it is slightly lower brow than on here!!