No French occasion would be complete without a rousing rendition of La Marseillaise. So it was that the France Gaelic football team marked their historic first game on Irish soil with their national anthem, taking their cue from a spectator who had the song on his mobile phone.
Their Irish opponents, Portobello GAA, a junior Gaelic team based in Rathmines, followed with Amhrán na bhFiann. That was where the sporting bonhomie ended. Watched by the French ambassador Vincent Guérend, the France international team proceeded to hammer their Irish visitors by 1-10 to 0-2. The margin of victory would have been even greater but for some wayward shooting and over-elaboration.
They followed it up with an impressive 2-09 to 1-08 win over a Na Fianna selection and completed their tour with a 2-04 to 1-07 draw with Binn Éadair (Howth), their third game in as many days.
The performance belied the fact that many of the players, all of whom had taken up Gaelic football in adulthood, had never played 15-a-side before. There is only one full-length GAA pitch in France – in Rennes. Otherwise they play nine or 11-a-side on soccer and rugby pitches. Neither had any of them played an Irish team. They only had two training camps before arriving in Ireland.
Nevertheless, in terms of fitness and strength, they were more than a match for their opponents and moved the ball fluently and at speed.
“We knew we were good judging by the World games, but we hadn’t played any Irish games before. It gives us even more confidence going forward,” said France GAA secretary Stephen Hegarty who doubles as a member of the French panel.
“We missed too many chances. We need guys who can make the difference in taking our chances. That’s where we have to work at present.”
Their coach Olivier Kowarski is a PE teacher in Brittany. He was as animated as any Irish-based bainisteoir on the sideline taking out his Gaelic football tactics board to explain the nuance of 15-a-side to his charges. It is quite a novelty to hear a manager shout at his players in a foreign language.
He discovered Gaelic football 20 years ago. “It’s a very complex and a competitive sport. I played soccer when I was young, but I wanted to discover another sport. I love Gaelic football.”
GAA is thriving in many parts of the world. France, along with Galicia in Spain, are two hotbeds for Gaelic football in continental Europe. Uniquely the growth of the sport in these two places is driven entirely by those with no connection to Ireland. Of the 23 member France panel, only Hegarty, whose father is from Kerry, has any Irish link and he was injured for their tour.
The first French club to be affiliated to the GAA, Paris Gaels, was only founded in 1995. There are now 30 clubs, 15 in Britanny, and more than 1,100 players. The size of the country means that the national championships have to be held as tournaments in one place.
French captain Arnaud Vitrai (35), who lives in Nantes gave up playing soccer after 20 years. His team-mates used to tease him about all the shots he took that ended up over the bar.
He heard somebody on the radio talking about it. He never heard of Gaelic football, or football Gaelic as he calls it, before he took it up. Now he plays for Nantes Don Bosco which has two men’s teams, a women’s team and a junior academy.
“I love the game because you can play with your hand and feet. I visited Dublin once, but I didn’t know much about Ireland,” he said.
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Vice-captain Mika Bonnet (32) from Clermont Ferrand took up Gaelic football in 2011 in his first year at university where he was studying sport. He found himself frustrated with the limitations of Olympic handball. “A friend of mine who plays Australian football told me there was a Gaelic football team in Clermont and asked me to try it.”
His first game in Ireland was in Croke Park as part of the world GAA games in 2016.
Dubliner Mark Brannigan joined Paris Gaels as a 22-year-old and is now one of the team coaches. “The dream is to be competing with London and New York in All-Ireland junior championships. How long it takes us to get there we don’t know as they have a bigger infrastructure. The first objective is to find out where we sit competitively, where is our level?”
Mr Hegarty points that the main team sports in France, soccer, rugby, handball and volleyball, all have aspects which can be adapted for Gaelic football. “It’s an easy game to pick up. There is a really friendly aspect to the game in France. There is great potential to grow the game in France. We need to create more clubs and get people involved,” he said.
“We are looking forward to getting youth on board. We have an under-15 team from Britanny that are European champions and are only French-born players. We are looking at putting together a youth French team.”