GAA Hits The Big Time In Dalian

I posted something about Gaelic football a few months ago. Well, the sport has come on in leaps and bounds since then. Last Saturday, the Dalian Wolfhounds (the Irish wolfhound being a famous breed of dog) played host to the Shanghai Saints (men) and Shanghai Sirens (ladies) for a series of exhibition games ahead of the Asian GAA championships, which will be held in Shanghai next month.

With difficulty, a grass pitch was located at the Red Flag Football Grounds in XiShan ShuiKu (西山水库，红旗足球公园). All the universities were using their grass pitches at the moment as they are doing military training with the first years!

Both men and woman, from all corners of the world play Gaelic football in Dalian. It was decided to stage a few short matches with reduced team sizes (normal size for a Gaelic football team is 15 players). Men played men and women played against women. The lads tell me that they play mixed matches in training and some are the women go in harder on the tackles than a lot of the men! Here are the fine men of Dalian Wolfhounds. I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of the women’s’ team.

I definitely think the local spectators took to the game with interest and wonder. First of all, it’s not often that you get this amount of foreigners in one place in Dalian: this itself is a spectacle. Compound that with the fact that they were playing some wacky form of football where you could catch the ball in your handy must have added to their bewilderment!

I was quite impressed with the football. A lot of the players there weren’t Irish and they took to the sport quite well. It was really a great occasion to see people of many countries coming together to enjoy sport. They all came together to enjoy drinking and music in the Tin Whistle Pub that night. I think it was one of the best nights I have experienced in the Tim Whistle. Everyone was in great spirits, the beer was flowing and the music was pumping. We got out the guitars after that and had a good old Irish sing-song! What a day to remember!

Dalian TV filmed a report of the Gaelic Football. I tried to record it off the telly with my digital camera. It didn't turn out very well and I missed some of it. However, one of the lads on the team (Philip) made a vid of it as well, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Enjoy!