Paris Gaels GAA

The Irish ex-pat community was very close knit and active in Paris. The mix of people involved at the time were students, publicans, teachers, embassy staff and other professionals working for companies such the Irish Trade Board, Aer Lingus and some other non-governmental organisations . Indeed the soccer club, Paris Gaels FC had been set up in 1987 by former Aer Lingus staff and still exists today playing in the Seine-Saint Denis District league. The Gaelic club had its ?????? in the College des Irlandais where the Irish Cultural Centre is now. In the summer of 1993, in the Champagne region of France, a Sports day was organised between Irish residents in Paris and the Luxembourg Irish association. A Gaelic football match was also organised by the Aer lingus GAA team and some of the Irish residents of Paris participated in that match. Two of the Irish residents from Paris involved that day were Peter Gavigan and Tom MacIntyre, decided that a sports society of some sort would benefit the Irish community in Paris.

Many Irish bars were approached for sponsorship and the first set of hurling equipment were funded by Flann O'Briens, Quigley's Point and Connolly's Corner. Peter Gavigan contributed 4 hurleys, being the total number of stock to 18. It was after mass on Sundays that the trainings started, another donation of footballs, hurleys, junior Camogie sticks and sliotars was given by Ballyboden St. Enda's club in Dublin.

"Basically, when mass was over we used to jump on the metro to go to Vincennes, while Sonny Delaney who had a car would pick up the gear from the pub Connolly's Corner and meet us out there" - Ann Donnelly (Paris Gaels member).

The first official match of the club was a hurling fixture against Den Haag GAA, in May 1994 in La Courneuve. Paris won on the day, the players representing the Paris Gaels on that day were; Michael Maher, John O'Rourke, Enda Breen, Terry Devers, Peter Gavigan, Paul Carlile, Sonny Delaney, Hugh Liston, Tom Hillary & Liam Connolly. Buoyed by the success of the match against Den Haag, the Paris Gaels decided to go on the road. A club in Brussels had started, taking advantage of the growing number of Irish ex-pats working in the EU institutions. In October 1994, in British International school, the Paris Gaels played Brussels GAA. It was also the first time that Paris played in their own jerseys. The match was a very tight affair, the half time the scores were level, but Brussels pulled away in the second half. The Paris team that lined out on that day were : Peadar Duignan, Johnny Hamill, Eddie Casey, John Ruane, Jim O'Mahoney, Peter Gavigan, Hugh Liston, Finoin Brown, Willie Fingleton and Padraig Fennessy. A bout of flu had kept Sonny Delaney, James Griffin and Michael O'Haodha out of action.

The trip to Brussels was also a memorable occasion as for the first time, the Ladies Football team played in a friendly match, the team that lined out were : Ann Donnelly, Bridgit O'Connor, Helen Galvin, Lisa Power, Sylvia Fleming, Maureen MacSharry, Phyllis Harte, Ann McSweeney and Aisling Long.

"Back in the early 90s, we hadn't the same kind of technology that exists today. There was no facebook, the internet was just being born and not many of us had a mobile phone either, but the one place where you could always meet Irish people was every Sunday at 11:30am for mass at the College des Irlandais, and it was there that the Paris Gaels GAA club was born."

In 2011 after an unsuccessful domestic campaign which saw Guernsey Gaels win the French Championship, the Paris Gaels participated in the European Championship which took place in Brussels that year. With only 12 players (several of whom were participating in their first) match, the men's team finished a disappointing 10th out of 11 teams beating only Niort Gaels. The Paris Gaels Ladies team, however got to the final but ultimately lost to a very strong Belgium GAA. The final fixture of 2011, was held in Toulouse for the Men's team, with the club finishing in 3rd place. As the end of 2011 loomed, they was a fear that the Men's team could fold, participation in training had been poor in the latter half of 2011. A mass exodus of established Irish players that had started in 2009 and ended in 2011 had saw numbers at training for the Men's team dwindle to between 7-10 every Monday evening. Before the AGM that year, an impromptu meeting was held in the Coolin bar with Florian Vaujany, Jean Rene Robert, two of the senior French players and Shane Harrison who had been with the team for a year.

"With the AGM in December, the three of us decided that we would nominate ourselves to run the men's team as joint coaches and code officers. The European tournament had been an eye opener to us, that player turnover when it comes to Irish players could have such a destabilizing effect on the club in such a short period of time. The Men's team had gone from challenging for honors at a European level to finishing second last in the space of 2 years. The team had been over reliant on Irish players at that time and a new focus on recruiting and developing French native players had to be inaugurated. Irish players would still be very key to the club to coach and help raise the standard of the game, but unlike cities like Brussels, Amsterdam, Den Haag and Luxembourg where expats can live without knowledge of the local language, we realized that we would always have less Irish players than those clubs, hence why native French talent became so key for this decade" - Shane Harrison.

The ladies team at the end of 2011 had still managed to maintain a strong Irish contingent, but this would be reversed later on in the decade and focus on recruiting and developing French women would become a major focus.

2012