The GAA and Columbus Gaelic Football
June adds great Central Ohio events to the iIrish Festival Focus calendar! Columbus’ new Bank Run Metro Park hosted the Central Ohio Folk Festival for the first time this month, with Columbus based Irish folk singer Molly Róisín and perennial Celtic Music Podcast favorite House of Hamill from Pennsylvania performing. June 20 also brings Celtic Fest to Renaissance Park in Waynesville, Ohio—southeast of Dayton—for a day to celebrate Irish and Scottish culture.
If you liked April’s Columbus Irish column on Duchas and the Civil War Pensioners databases, make sure to check out https://nationalarchives.ie/. The archive now contains the full 1926 census of the Republic of Ireland, the first census to be collected by the then newly created Irish Free State. But for this month, with the All-Ireland Gaelic Sports Championships kicking off, we look at the history and future of Gaelic Football in Columbus.
Columbus Gaelic Football
Columbus lacks a documented history of hurling, camogie, or Gaelic football teams from the 19th or 20th Century, though the sports were undoubtedly played at least as recreational activities by Irish immigrants and their children. That all changed in 2011 when enterprising Irish Americans formed the Naughten Street Gaelic Club.
Taking inspiration from the modern street name of historical Irish Broadway, the club created a culture of seven person Gaelic football scrimmages followed by rounds at pubs throughout Columbus. That social beginning built the Columbus Gaelic Football Club, who were members of the Midwest GAA competition.
The Club traveled to Washington, D.C. for a St. Patrick’s Day Sevens Football tournament as its first official competition in 2012. By 2016, with an Irish immigrant as Captain and former Columbus Crew player Adam Bedell on the roster, Columbus Gaelic Football Club won a Junior C Midwest Division Football Championship. They traveled to Seattle for the USGAA National Championship that same year and went to San Francisco to compete in 2017.
Gaelic Games at the Dublin Irish Festival
While the city’s Gaelic Football team ran a Pub league and supported women’s football, no competitive Hurling or Camogie clubs have developed. Some students at Ohio State tried forming a Hurling Club to compete in NCGAA intercollegiate competition, but the team has yet to leave Ohio State’s campus.
The Dublin Irish Festival hosted a History of Gaelic Games exhibition for multiple years. There was a Hurling Contest at the 1989 Festival and a Gaelic Football and Hurling tournament in 2007. In 2015, a Cúl Camp exhibit was introduced, with skills training provided for hurling, Gaelic football, and Irish Road Bowling.
Growth of Gaelic Games Globally
Central Ohio currently lacks organized Gaelic sports competition, but examples are growing across America and the world of youth and Club Gaelic sports competition. The County New York under 17 boys football squad beat County Leitrim to win Connaught’s Third Tier U17 Championship this year, qualifying the American-born teenage squad for this Summer’s Seamus Heaney Cup, the All-Ireland Third Tier Gaelic football competition for males 17 and under.
Both the Junior New York football team and a Junior All-Star team of the United States’ GAA will contest the Semi-Final of the All-Ireland Junior Championship on Friday, July 10. The Junior All-Ireland Championship exists for American and British GAA County teams, as well as Kilkenny, who do not compete at Senior level in All-Ireland Gaelic Football competition. New York won the Junior Championship last year, having beaten London in the Final.
Europe Day, May 9th, included a Gaelic sports competition, with 11 youth clubs from across Europe, including Germany, Spain, Italy, Czechia, and others, coming together to compete in Hurling, Camogie, and Gaelic Football in a celebration in Dublin.
Columbus Gaelic Sports Future
The Columbus Gaelic Football Club’s members are still around in the city and working to re-start the seven-a-side pub league for the fall. Anyone with an interest in playing or supporting should get in touch through the Columbus Gaelic Football Club Facebook page or me. Both women and men’s Gaelic sports are growing in popularity in the US, Europe, and across the world, and Columbus has a great foundation from which to join the party.
