“It’s a home away from home.”
The Dubai GAA Festival took place over the weekend and had its fair share of trials, tribulations, superb skill and drama.
Abu Dhabi Na Fianna claimed the senior ladies football and camogie titles while Dubai Celts claimed the senior football and a hurling final that finished after midnight.
Finals day was well attended and fiercely contested but all sides came together in a show of support and respect once battle ceased.
Perhaps the most heartening part of the whole Middle East Leagues finalé was surely the personal accounts of the Irish men and women who have left their home but clung onto their love of GAA.
Darragh Walshe, the very youthful chairman of Dubai Celts, said, “To think, when I moved out here six years ago, I thought I was giving up on GAA. To myself and a lot of other people, this will be one of the happiest moments our our GAA careers we will look back on.”
Colin Leacy now plays with Dubai Celts but a large piece of his heart is still with Ferns St Aidan’s senior hurling club in Wexford. He says:
“You leave home, you leave family, friends, work; you leave everything. One of the most difficult things to leave is your club.
“It’s a very difficult thing and it is hard to tell your club that you’re leaving.
“Having the standard of hurling we have out here and having the quality of training, games and competition put on by [the clubs] is just huge. It’s the difference of you staying here and moving on. You’ve got your social circle, you’ve got your club and it makes you a lot happier.”
According to Michelle Dinan from Na Fianna, camogie is on the rise in the region.
“It’s a home away from home when you have such a fantastic GAA club… We’ll keep plugging away and it will always be getting bigger and better.”
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