This coming weekend will be St. Patricks Day, and it is the perfect opportunity to get to know more about the amazing country that is Ireland. For this reason, I had a chat with Taiwan’s Gaelic Team president Sean Costello and the two times Gaelic champion Bryan Fitzpatrick who now coaches the Taiwan Celts Team.
One of Ireland’s main sports is Gaelic Football which is a combination of football, rugby, and other sports. Nevertheless, Gaelic has its many unique features and it has been played for centuries in Ireland, but it was not until 1884 that the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was born and Gaelic became a more worldly recognised and organised sport.
Irish people value and respect the GAA and its members for many reasons but the main reason being that all athletes are not paid. Every single team plays for the pride of its country and athletes must play for the county they were born and changing teams is not an option.
Gaelic players train as hard as soccer players or other pro athletes, but the only difference is that gaelic players must go and do a days work after morning training or do an evening training after a day at work. Therefore, those players who want to play the Inter County (top level) have to be ready to make huge sacrifices.
Even though, the GAA does not pay the players, it does provide grants and funding to GAA clubs in Ireland and throughout the world. Many communities in ireland have great amenities like astro turfs, club gyms and club fields thanks to the GAA so they do put a lot back into communities and provide excellent facilities and amenities for both rural and urban areas.
It has been more than 20 years now since the Taiwan Gaelic team was formed. The team has more than 6 different nationalities amongst its players. Most of the players on the male team and the female team started playing Gaelic here in Taiwan. They meet every Saturday for training and twice a year they go to different tournaments in Asia.
Each training session usually starts with some warm up exercises and then coach Fitzpatrick proceeds to teach the basic rules of Gaelic to the new players and the old players proceed to practice different drills. After a while the team gets together for a short break and then continue with other activites. Each training session is full of banter and happy people, something very Irish as well.
If you would like to experience Gaelic in Taipei this coming Saturday, 17th March, in the afternoon the Taiwan Celts is organising a St. Patrick’s tournament welcoming everyone regardless of your gaelic or non-existent gaelic level.
This will be a perfect opportunity to meet new people, do some sports, try something new, and experience a little bit of Irish culture. You can check the Facebook event here. Also there will be a St.Patrick’s after party provided by the Taiwan Celts sponsor The Brass Monkey.
Meanwhile these are two questions you can answer in the comments (here) for a chance to win a prize at the Brass Monkey after party.
What is the longest place name in Ireland?
In 1447 what body feature was made illegal?
Regards,
Randall Vargas B.