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I am much more of a savory person. Yet, oh my goodness do I love scones!
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Taking the Fields of Glory:
- iIrish Admin
- November 3, 2024
- Edited 2 months ago
Table of Contents
By Vincent Beach
USGAA News
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The County Junior team will again have trials starting this November in Chicago. In addition to the All-Ireland Junior Championship, the steering committee is laying plans for a match against the New York Junior team in the spring of 2025. New York fields a senior team that competes in Connaught and will be facing Galway on April 6, 2025, at NY’s Gaelic Park.
To feed into the County team, divisional development boards are at work to further develop players and clubs. At the same time, the county youth board is also looking to develop a feeder program through the promotion of an all-county minor team.
Cleveland St. Pat's - St. Jarlath's GAA
The hurling and camogie teams headed down to Richmond, Virginia, for their Hurl-o-Ween tournament on October 5th. The Cleveland gang had the opportunity to challenge other clubs from the Southeast Division. The men walked away with another cup. Comhghairdeas lads.
On Saturday, October 12th, Cleveland partook in the inaugural Shamrock Game festivities at John Carroll University. The club proudly tailgated, showing locals the skills and rules of both Gaelic football and hurling. At half-time of the JCU-Capital football game, the club exhibited both codes on the field for the crowd.
In the lead up to the JCU Irish game day, Cleveland GAA historians reached back to see exactly how many Blue Streak alumni donned a GAA sweater on the pitch. Astonishingly, over 26 players combining for six national championships can claim the dual status. The 1990s and early 2000s were most prominent, and the club looks to reignite the connection.
Great Lakes Tournament Pics by Gary Dize, used w permission:
Youth Football & Hurling
Cleveland youth and the rest of the Great Lakes contingent of clubs from Toronto, Mississauga, Akron, Detroit, and Chicago gathered in Canton, Michigan on September 21st, back where it all started for the Great Lakes circuit of Youth GAA tournaments! Three years ago, Detroit and the Midwest coordinated with Chicago and Toronto. Now, hosting for the third straight year, the Detroit tournament reached 165 players, 15 teams, and 41 games from ages U8 to U16 in Gaelic Football, Hurling, and Camogie. Numbers were high enough for a ladies-only match.
The clubs also honored two stalwarts of the games here in North America: Mr. John Treanor for his development of youth football in Detroit, and Mr. John O’Brien for his years of service to the North American and USGAA Boards, as well as local support for Gaelic games in Cleveland and the Midwest. Bios on the two as follows.
John Treanor was born 100 years ago in Emyvale, County Monaghan, Ireland on a Holy Day August 15, 1924. He was raised a devout Catholic, on a dairy farm, and one of eight children. He loved school (as well as playing Gaelic Football) and took pride that Master Smyth at Knockconan National School, Ballyoisin, Emyvale met him on Saturdays for extra schoolwork. In 1948, with two of his brothers, John boarded a US warship returning from Germany after WWII. They sailed to NYC and then boarded a train to Toronto. He had played Gaelic Football on the Toronto team and planned to do the same when he moved to Chicago, until he heard that Detroit was forming a new team.
John was excited about the opportunity to be a founding member of that team. He moved to Detroit for Gaelic Football alone – not for a job or to join up with others he knew.
John’s second love has always been Gaelic Football, second only to his wife Kathleen, from County Mayo, whom he met on the dance floor of the Friendly Sons of St Patrick Hall in Detroit. They married in 1954. To this day, Kathleen and John are remembered as the first on the dance floor and the last off – their secret to longevity and 70 years married!
In 2010 they became the first married couple to become Grand Marshals of the Detroit St Patrick’s Day Parade. They also shared the title of honorary chairpeople of the St Patrick’s Senior Center Festival in 2009 for their generosity and love of the elderly.
They were known for financially and physically supporting every Irish organization in Detroit, all while raising a family of six sons and one daughter. John was also honored as Pallottine’s Mission Man of the Year in 2003.
John was a member of the 1957 Padraig Pearse team that won the Midwest States Championship. In 1992 John was honored at the North American Gaelic Athletic Association Convention in Philadelphia for almost 50 years of dedication to the GAA in native County Monaghan, Toronto, and Detroit Padraig Pearse Club. In the 1960s, together with Tom Kennedy, John organized youth Gaelic Football in Detroit, later expanding to play teams from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Boston.
John O’Brien was born in Kiltoom, County Roscommon, Ireland. As a young man playing county football, he won the 1951 Minor All-Ireland. Moving to Kiltimach for the 1952 and 1953 seasons, he returned to Roscommon in 1954 to play on the county panel.
In 1956, he arrived in Montreal, Canada, where he met his wife, Eileen. There he played both hurling and football and was quickly elected president of the Montreal GAA. In 1959, he was a delegate at the first American Board Convention in Philadelphia, and the following year was elected as the national registrar.
John maintained the post in 1961 while also winning a North American County Board (NACB) hurling championship. While on the NACB board, he met Clevelander, Henry Cavanagh, who later convinced John to stop by while on his honeymoon.
Henry showed John the lay of the ‘Land’ from his CPD squad car. The invitation proved monumental for Cleveland, for in 1963, the O’Brien’s settled in town.
This same year, John became secretary of the NACB. He also donned the red with green trim geansaí of St. Pat’s, where they were the NACB senior football champions of 1964, 1965, 1966, and1968 seasons.
Through the 1970s and 1980s as the O’Brien’s raised their four children – Noreen, Catherine, Patricia, and John Jr. – John was active with the senior, junior, and minor teams in Cleveland, as well as remaining highly active in the North American County Board. All in all, he served as national secretary in 1963, 1964, 1973 through 1977; national registrar in 1960, 1961, 1983, 1984; and honorary chairman in 1986. He was widely considered to be one of the most efficient secretaries the board has ever had.
In the early 1980s, John organized and served as director of one of the most successful Irish festivals in the mid-west area. His efforts carried the festival into recent years, where family have now shouldered the load.
In 1995, John was elected president of the West Side Irish American Club and remains an active board member to this day. He continues to be the heart of the Club, the Irish in Cleveland, and the GAA. There are few USGAA Conventions or Finals that he has not attended.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh!
Thanks, y’all, to our readers and supporters. We need your help and involvement but would most like to share the fun of Irish sport and the Cleveland community with you. Consider getting involved at any level.
Fáilte (welcome) to all. The Gaelic Athletic Association is Ireland’s largest sporting organization and a bit of home for the Irish abroad here in the US of A. Beyond sports, the Association also promotes Irish music, song and dance, and the Irish language as an integral part of its objectives. Cleveland GAA is open to all who want to play competitive sports, meet new people, and join an athletic, fitness-minded club for all ages.
Follow @ClevelandGaelic on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the 2022 activities for Men, Women, and Youth, or visit ClevelandGAA.com. Email: [email protected].
Read more of Vince’s Taking the Fields of Glory columns HERE!
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Vincent Beach
*Vincent Thomas Francis Xavier Beach is a proud Greater Clevelander and emigrant of Michigan (GO BLUE!). He joined the St. Pat's Gaelic Football Club in 1999 and, with much help, is the current caretaker of the Cleveland St. Pat’s – St. Jarlath’s GAA. His Irish is a cross of dialects from the University of Cincinnati (suaimhneas síoraí d’anam Edgar Slotkin) and An Cheathrú Rua. With his wife, Michelle, he enjoys watching time fly by as their three children grow. His other hustles are coaching CYO basketball at St. Mary of Berea, coaching soccer in Olmsted TWP, teaching Construction Management at CWRU, and laying down some engineering skills on local water/wastewater projects. His 1912 farmhouse and twelve darling hens beg for attention.
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