GAELS will travel from all corners of the continent before converging on Lyon for Saturday’s Pan-European Gaelic Football finals on Saturday.
Hosted by Lugdunum CLG for the first time, teams from France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium and Jersey will all compete in the biggest finals day in the competition’s history.
Colin Bell, of the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust (KBRT), will be guest of honour.
With over 700 players taking part, there will be 32 men’s teams and 21 ladies’ teams competing – a great representation in the 50th anniversary year of the Ladies’ Gaelic Football Association.
The action will be played out across three divisions at Plaine des Jeux de Gerland, getting under way at 9am and running until 6pm – after which everyone will adjourn to Palais de Sports de Lyon for an evening of music, food and friendship.
It will a celebration of much more than the Irish diaspora too, with the manner in which people from across Europe have taken the GAA to their hearts.
Warrenpoint native Eoin Campbell, who has lived in Lyon since 2008 and is chairman of Lugdunum, has seen that first hand during recent years.
“GAA clubs are somewhere you can contact as soon as you arrive almost anywhere, and that’s true for nearly all the clubs across Europe.
“A lot of the French clubs might not have any Irish involvement – our club is majority French, and has been for a long time. That’s really beginning to bear fruit in that, when it came to organising this, those guys had contacts who were able to help with the organisation.
“The reality is you cannot build a team around your Erasmus students, for example, because they go home. They’re there to boost you and bring people on at training, and they do that, but it’s not a long-term plan for a club.
“Even looking at Saturday’s finals, because myself and Dave Lewis [head of football/chief coach] will be busy running the event, our men’s and ladies’ teams will be coached by French coaches - Gabin and Max taking men’s, Pernelle and Manon taking the ladies.
“They’re well fit to do it themselves, which is great to see.”
Another welcome bonus for Lugdunum, and Campbell in particular, is the continued relationship with his club back home.
It is six years since Lugdunum joined forces with Cumann Pheadair Naofa, Warrenpoint in the first international twinning venture of its kind in Ulster. And while Covid scuppered best-laid plans initially, that bond is being built upon again this weekend.
“A lot of our players took part in the world games in Derry in 2023, and we finished that weekend with a visit to Warrenpoint, had a challenge match there a dads and lads team, and a mothers and others tournament – three of the Lyon girls played for Warrenpoint G4MO.
“Then for this trip we have Warrenpoint chairman Paul McKibben, Shane Lavery and Danny Bird, members of the senior committee, coming over for the finals.”
The Lugdunum teams will wear the KBRT emblem on their jersey for the Pan-European Gaelic Football finals.
The charity works to alleviate the financial burden of bereaved families by repatriating the bodies of loved ones who have tragically passed away abroad, bringing them home to Ireland.
And Campbell is delighted to welcome Colin Bell to Lyon in a bid to spread the word about the remarkable work they do.
“We’re going to try to encourage other clubs across Europe to get involved with the trust.
“People who want to get involved, or speak to Colin about his work, he’ll be there to answer their questions on Saturday, and we’re delighted to have him.”
