Imperial College London
When I started playing Gaelic football my father told me, “One man doesn’t make a team, it takes fifteen.” He continues to tell me this every time I play. When I went to university I found out that it doesn’t take fifteen, it only takes three.
On January 10th, 2008 three students at Imperial College London came out of the students union with a new perspective on life and (more importantly) a football. A meeting had occurred that had established the first Gaelic Athletic Club at Imperial College London with the aim of promoting Gaelic pastimes and culture.
Our first venture as a club was to organise a men’s Gaelic football team. This team would compete in the British Universities Gaelic league and championship, playing against other distinguished universities such as Cambridge and Oxford. The Imperial team consisted of mainly Irish players, but soon English, South African and many others joined taking to the game. We also took the opportunity to play against Fulham Irish, a local Gaelic team in London.
In October 2008 we started our league campaign against Bedford on our kindly donated pitch from the university. Our pitch is exactly like a Gaelic pitch in Ireland; a set of posts in a field; a pub a stone’s throw away; and a church steeple that can be seen in the distance. It felt as though you were at home. The result of our Bedford game did not go our way that time but we had many more games ahead to improve (or, for some, to understand the game!). Training continued regularly and in the matches ahead we recorded our great wins and narrow defeats. The hospitality shown by many teams was admirable, especially when you get a bowl of Irish stew in the winter months. The University league campaign ended in December, just in time for going home at Christmas with the championship to look forward to after the holiday.
The British Championships took place in Birmingham on the 14th and 15th February 2009 – Valentines weekend. Like many times in your Gaelic career you have to make tough choices; luckily Valentines weekend isn’t one of them. On Saturday 14th at 6am we headed to Birmingham with a squad ready to play. We had the privilege of playing against our league rivals again and other teams from England, Scotland, New York, USA, and Rennes, France. To our delight we came top of our group to compete in the Semi-finals on the Sunday. However our campaign ended there with a defeat against Sheffield who went on to win the competition. Despite the loss, we had a great weekend playing football and an enjoyable journey back to the ‘big smoke’.
In the weeks after our club continued to progress with the creation of a Hurling team to compete in the British Universities 7’s competition. Some of the players weren’t sure what the stick was for, others how to hold it, some just feared for their lives but we worked together, learned and competed in the competition. From this tournament two of our players, Finian McCann and Stephen Gallagher, received British University Hurling All Star Awards and played on the British Universities Shinty Team. The Imperial Club were also represented on the British Universities Gaelic Football All Star 7’s team by Edward O Hare who competed for the team in Ireland.
Our season finished with our 125th Celebrations of the Gaelic Athletic Association. We flew the Gaelic Athletic Association flag above Imperial College during the 10th May weekend. We were privileged that the Rector of Imperial College, Sir Roy Anderson, celebrated with us and to mark the occasion we presented him with the Cúchulainn Statue. Cúchulainn, translates to, ‘The Hound of Ulster,’ and is seen as one of the most important Celtic Irish hero’s (Celtictwilight, 2000). An appropriate gift, we believed, to remember Irish culture, heritage and the Gaelic Athletic Association. The Rector spoke of how glad he was to see the inspiration this sport and the organisation had brought to us, hoping that we would succeed in all that we endeavour.
As a club we took this year to be a great success; however it is only the beginning. We look forward to our next year where our present teams are awaiting the new season and our future Ladies Gaelic football team and Camogie team will compete in British university competitions. We hope that our club will have better games, more wins and provide more pastimes that everyone can enjoy.
Our club consists of Imperial College students with students from other central London Universities participating in our games in undergraduate and postgraduate education. Imperial College London is ranked 6th in the world by the Times Higher Education Supplement 2008. Imperial offers an unrivalled level of education to its students in both undergraduate and postgraduate course. To find out more about Imperial and the courses offered please see www.imperial.ac.uk.
For more information about the Imperial College Gaelic Athletic Club please see www.imperialcollegeunion.org. If you or your business would like to be associated with the Imperial College Union Gaelic Athletic Club please feel free to contact us at gaelic.sports@imperial.ac.uk .
Edward O Hare
Cathaoirleach, I.C.U.G.A.C.
