Another busy month across Canada for the GAA community, kicking things off in the Toronto Division, we saw the Toronto GAA Awards Night take place on February 24th. Teams from across the Toronto Division gathered to enjoy food, drinks and take a lookback at a momentous year of GAA in 2022 for everyone in Toronto. The competition for the player of the year in all four codes was hotly contested across the Division with the results as follows:
- Camogie Player of the Year- Le Cheile’s Cara Cassidy
- Ladies Footballer of the Year- St Pats Heather McCormack
- Mens Footballer of the Year- Toronto Gaels Aaron O’Hara
- Hurler of the Year- Cuala Sarsfield’s John O’Brien
Congratulations to all nominee’s from across the Division and well done on an extremely successful season!
In the Eastern Division, it was time for indoor training for some club’s with Eire Og Ottawa and Halifax Gaels kicking off their 2023 season indoors. Montreal continued their indoor training while the games in their SuperLeague got more intense, special mention to Cu Chulainn and Na Fianna camog’s who racked up a scoreline of 17-12 to 06-04 in favour of Cu Chulainn, the girls are absolute goal machines!
On February 18th Ottawa Gaels hosted an indoor co-ed football tournament with Peterborough and Na Fianna Kingston attending, games were competitive and saw great numbers togging out, well done to all involved! Following on from this event, Ottawa Gaels hosted a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser on Saturday February 25th which saw all those in attendance treated to a tasty dinner, tunes and mighty craic!
Celebrations were also taking place in Peterborough on February 24th when the club celebrated their first birthday, well done to everyone involved in setting up the club and keeping it going! Enjoy the well earned post-training cupcakes!
In the Western Division, the people of Red Deer were treated to a stellar day of GAA on February 18th with the first round of the Alberta Cup. Three games took place; Men’s football, Ladies Football and a co-ed exhibition game with Calgary taking the 2 wins for the Men’s and Ladies Football. A great day for both clubs which saw many non-Irish take to the field and demonstrate the skills they have been practicing in the off season.
In the Vancouver Division, Cu Chulainn started their season off with a cracker of a first session that saw over 70 girls and boys tog out for the small ball. In what looked like a typical Irish winter morning; cold and wet, it was fantastic to such numbers show up for what is looking like a super year of Hurling and Camogie for Cu Chulainn. On February 4th Fraser Valley Gaels also kicked off their year with a first football session that saw ½ of Vancouver show up to train. Another Irish morning in Vancouver but one that didn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd of over 100 people that kicked off the Fraser Valley season. February 25th saw ISSC line out for their first session of the year and they did well to get a few wide’s kicked before the snow came to Vancouver! Great to see such high numbers across the clubs of Vancouver getting out each week. It was time to celebrate for all in JP Ryan’s, the lads donned their finest shirts & got the ankles out to celebrate the cracker of a year that 2022 was. Awards up for grabs on the night included Senior Hurler, Junior Hurler, CNC Senior Hurler and CNC Intermediate Hurler of the Year. Well done to everyone who won awards and to those that worked hard to make the night the fantastic night it was. The newest kid on the block, Vancouver Wolfe Tones took to the field for their first training session which saw a great turnout on the day, February 14th, fair play to the lads for choosing to spend Valentine’s Day with their mates and not their dates! A dedicated bunch of hurlers that is for sure!
February also saw the GAA Congress take place in Dublin, Canada GAA were represented by Chairman Matt Healy, Secretary Sean Harte and Treasurer Kim Budd. While attending Congress our representatives also met with Uachtaran Cumann Camogaiochta Hilda Breslin an Ard Stiurthoir Cumann Camogaiochta Sinead McNulty to announce the Camogie All Star Tour would be coming to Calgary, Canada in May 2023. The highlight of the tour will be an exhibition game which will see the 2021 Camogie All Stars take on the 2022 Camogie All Stars at the GAA grounds of the Calgary Chieftains. An invitational tournament is being organized for Saturday May 20th where teams from across Canada GAA and US GAA will be invited to take part, along with development workshops and skills clinics delivered by the visiting All-Stars teams and the Camogie Association Development Team. Well done to the Calgary Chieftains for being awarded the honour of hosting such fantastic athletes.
