Gort’s French connection to the beautiful game

PROMISING young soccer players from South Galway will be given the opportunity of training with their contemporaries in an internationally renowned soccer academy in Brittany thanks to an international cultural exchange involving Gort Community School and a local secondary school.
Last year, Gort Community School student, Joe Gaughan, who plays with Salthill Devon, trained with young soccer stars in En Avant de Guingamp, the school academy for the town’s professional soccer club.
This is the club where Chelsea stars Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba and Arsenal centre-back Laurent Koscielny honed their skills before they were transformed into household names as a result of their English Premiership exploits.
Soccer fanatics in a 20-strong group of second-year pupils from Gort Community School were delighted to get the opportunity to visit the club last week as part of the school’s French Language and Cultural Exchange.
This is one of the sporting benefits of the third annual exchange between Gort Community School and Lycee Notre Dame.
However, Gort French and Irish teacher, Eoghan Hanley, who set up the exchanges, explained there were also several cultural and educational benefits from fostering strong ties between the two schools.
“Over in France, pupils stay in class for one hour and have two hours for lunch. In Gort, classes last for 40 minutes but pupils only have 40 minutes for lunch. The differences between schools in France and Ireland is often a question in French oral examinations.
“It is easier for Gort pupils to remember the differences when they have witnessed it in practice. It is very beneficial to visit a country when you are learning their language.
“I find the whole exchange programme brings French to life. When the Gort pupils return from the exchange, they are more interested and find it easier to learn French having sampled their culture,” he said.
Mr Hanley’s appetite for French culture was whetted during a one-year stint teaching English to local pupils in Lycée Notre Dame back in 2002, while he was in college. As a Shannon man, he appreciated what Guingamp had to offer when it was twinned with Ireland’s newest town.
The group travelled to Guingamp where they spent the week improving their language skills while appreciating Breton culture. This is the third annual exchange that the school has undertaken with their French counterparts and it is proving to be a huge success.
Over the course of their week in France, pupils visited the region’s historical sites and monuments, sampled French cuisine and improved their French language skills.
Their sight-seeing included trips to the walled city of St Malo, the so-called Pink Granite Coast and Ile de Brehat, a small island off the coast of Brittany, which has its own micro climate.
French teacher Tara O’Carroll said the exchange had been a huge success again this year and that the pupils had thoroughly enjoyed it.
This was the second leg of the exchange as 24 French pupils had visited Gort in April for a week. They stayed with host families following relationships built up through emails and facebook and were delighted to accommodate their Gort friends in Brittany a week later.
The French group visited the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, Galway and Limerick City. They were enthralled and taken aback with the ferocity of an U-14 hurling match between Gort and Loughrea, which, in the words of Eoghan Hanley, some found “barbaric”.
“The French pupils are used to playing non-contact sports like basketball and handball. They all loved watching it and thought it was a very fast field sport. Most of them went back to France with hurleys and sliothars,” he added.