May came and went so fast and still so much was achieved in the GAA World across Canada!
Kicking things off in Vancouver, we saw the culmination of the Vancouver Spring League which ran from mid March with the finals taking place over two days in mid May. Saturdays games included the Junior Men’s & Junior Ladies Football Finals which saw St Finnian’s get the win in the Ladies and Eire Og get the win in the Men’s. Sunday saw the Intermediate & Senior Final’s take place with the Intermediate Final contested by 2 teams from St Finnian’s, the Men’s Senior Final was contested by St Finnian’s & Fraser Valley Gaels with The Valley coming out on top. Finally, the Ladies Senior Final was an all ISSC affair fighting it out for the coveted Senior Cup while 2 St Finnian’s teams went head to head in the Men’s Senior Final. The Spring League brought with it lots of new players, with record numbers of players in Vancouver!
With these high numbers brings greater competition and as teams headed to Victoria for the Vancouver Isle Highland Games which took place over the May Long Weekend (May 20-21 to our non-Canadian readers!) 9 clubs represented at the games. Played out over 2 days with 43 teams involved, the Vancouver Isle Club did an incredible job organizing and hosting the competition, winners from the weekend were Eire Og in the Men’s Football, ISSC in the Ladies Football, CuChulainn in both the Hurling & Camogie! A weekend of GAA, bruises, laughs and questionable sunburns, no better way to spend a long weekend!
May Long was a busy weekend across Canada for the GAA community, over in the Eastern Division clubs descended on the city of Montreal for the annual Montreal May Long Tournament with all four codes on display. With some teams having to drive over 5 hours to get to Montreal, many started their journey on Friday evening to rest up before the games. And it seemed to pay off for those clubs, with the gold going to: Ottawa Gaels in Men’s Junior Football, Eire Og Ottawa in Hurling, Na Piarsaigh in Camogie, Junior Ladies Football Halifax, Peterborough & Na Fianna who all joined forces and boy was that a good decision as they lifted the trophy after a long day of games! The Ladies & Men’s Senior Football winners didn’t have to far to travel, with both trophies staying close to home with the hosts battling hard to keep them in Montreal!
In the Toronto Division, the Toronto League kicked off on May 7th with 8 teams togging out for opening day. The league will run weekly until mid June, to date games have been intense and very tightly contested! With 3 weeks of games under their belts St Mikes are sitting pretty in the Senior Men’s Football League, with St Pat’s & St Mikes tied for first in the Senior Ladies Football. Over on the small ball field, Cuala Sarsfield’s are in first place having played two games, with Na Piarsaigh and Clan na Gael both having a game in hand. As the League hits the half way mark it is building up to be a cracking weekend for the finals on June 17th at Centennial Park with rumor’s rife that a VIP is headed to Toronto for the finals….
On May 20th Le Cheile Camogie packed their bags and headed to New York for a practice game against a mixed Senior New York side compiled of players from Liberty Gaels & Annie Moore’s in Gaelic Park. Le Cheile put in a hard fight and came away with the win on the day but more importantly they left with great memories and new friendships further strengthening the relationship between USGAA and Canada GAA.
While clubs are working hard to win their Divisional Games, many players are keeping a close eye on the World Games coming up in July in Derry. They are putting in the extra hours, going the extra mile and it is sure to pay off when they get to Derry and show the World what Canada GAA is made of! And we cant wait to be there to watch the magic happen!
