Formation of Gaelic football club mooted

A meeting to explore the formation of a new South Galway Gaelic football club will be held in Gort Community Centre this Friday evening at 8.30pm.

As numerous young people from the area emigrate, local clubs find themselves struggling to field teams and run clubs.
“The local club here is St Colman’s Gaelic Football Club. It is not disbanded but like many other clubs, we are finding a lot of the lads are emigrating,” said organiser Joe Beakey.
“Some lads in the area approached me about getting a club together incorporating other areas in South Galway like Kinvara and Ballinderreen. We have a lot of lads that have left. We are struggling to field a team.
“At the height, there were nine teams affiliated with St Colman’s incorporating all ages and the ladies’ teams. Last year, we struggled to have one team. The whole idea is to incorporate the other teams.
“We all want to play Gaelic football, even though we are in a hurling stronghold. The other clubs are in a similar position to ourselves with regard to trying to field teams. We might have a better chance if we got together and had a few lads in from neighbouring parishes. There was a South Galway team in the 1950s,” he added.
According to Joe, representatives of the club met with members of the Galway County Board in relation to whether such an amalgamation would be possible.
“They said they would support us in this. They didn’t want to see us disband completely,” he said.
Despite Gort being part of Galway’s hurling heartland, Joe believes there are large numbers of men interested in playing football.
“We have a lot of lads who are good footballers. We have a Gort man [Gary O’Donnell] on the Galway Senior Football team for the past two years. He had to move on to a bigger club though. He transferred to Tuam, where he works,” Joe said.
Friday’s meeting is open to everyone in the South Galway area.
“We don’t know what ages the club, if we set it up, would cater for. We will have to see what comes out of the meeting. We are really looking for lads who want to play football to come along.
“Anyone who has a strong interest in Gaelic football and who will put the onus on that are welcome.
“There are a lot of people here in Gort who we wouldn’t know. Some moved in to the area and unless they come along then we will never know about them. Gort is a satellite town and there are a lot of people living here who we wouldn’t meet. We are asking them to come out and show their interest,” Joe stated.
“The meeting will decide if a South Galway Gaelic football club is something worth investigating further. It might fall flat on its face, we don’t know,” he added.