The GAA is holding open days across the country to try and get people of all nationalities and abilities on to the pitches

WHEN ALGERIAN Meriem Djazouli arrived in Ireland, for her a 45 was just a number, a square ball was a logical impossibility, and Croke Park was just a big stadium.

Yet nine months later, Gaelic football has become a major part of Djazouli’s life in Ireland.

“I absolutely love it. I originally started playing for the cultural part of it and to meet people. I didn’t know how to play at all. But now it’s been six months and, although I’m not great, I can actually play the game. Now I’m here for the football.”

Originally from Algeria, Djazouli moved here from Paris nine months ago. She wanted to take part in an activity that would allow her to meet new people while helping her learn about Irish culture.

“I thought the best way would be to join a GAA team because it’s such a cultural thing in Ireland that I thought playing Gaelic football would make me meet Irish girls, would make me get much more into the culture, so that’s why I decided to go for it.”

She soon came across Clanna Gael, which gave her the opportunity to try her hand at Gaelic football. “They just said if you want to give it a go you are more than welcome.”

While Djazouli might still be part of a minority of foreign nationals who have taken up the sport, the GAA is taking steps to welcome more and more non-Irish to join their ranks. As part of its inclusion and integration strategy, the GAA is organising Have a Go days across the country in an attempt to get people from all backgrounds and abilities involved in the sport.

“The idea is to try to encourage people from non-GAA backgrounds to play GAA,” says Eoin Vaughan, organiser and GAA development officer at Trinity College.

“I suppose with immigration into Ireland in the past 10 years, there’s upwards of 500,000 people from all over the world. Children of immigrants into Ireland are joining the GAA naturally and playing in schools but it’s more challenging to try and attract the older ones, people in their 20s, so that’s pretty much what it’s about, trying to get to these people.”

Have a Go days are designed to get people off the sidelines and on to the pitch, something which the Clanna Gael club in Ringsend had no difficulty achieving on Saturday. More than 200 people took part in the first such event to be held at the club. A huge array of nationalities took part in the day’s events including people from Algeria, Brazil, China, France, Italy, Poland, Pakistan and, of course, Ireland.

The event was publicised through immigrant networks and newspapers as well as attracting large groups of foreign-language students, all of whom participated in the day’s events, which included football, hurling and rounders.

Former Tipperary player and coach Paudie Butler and former Wexford player George O’Connor were on hand to demonstrate sliotar skills and puck outs to the gathered teens and twentysomethings. Meanwhile, former Galway player and Dublin selector Brian Talty coached the budding Gaelic footballers in some of the basic skills.

The activities were a resounding success among the participants, many of whom hadn’t even a basic grasp of the rules of the game before they took part. While some participated for a once-off experience of something typically Irish, others said that they would return to the sport.

National hurling coordinator Paudie Butler says that the GAA is part and parcel of Irish culture and something that other nationalities should be given the chance to embrace.

“Hurling is one of our main cultural events, along with the language, so people who come to Ireland who don’t get any exposure to one of our main cultural features, it’s a major loss to them. We have a responsibility to people who come to Ireland that they see hurling played and that they get a chance to embrace it themselves.”

What’s more, young players from ethnic backgrounds are proving their talents on the pitch. “In every urbanised area of Ireland now, young non-nationals are playing, having been introduced to it in primary school,” says Butler. “I was up in Wexford at a minor match and probably the most talented player on the pitch was a Chinese boy who is now 18 so the first bunch is starting to coming through and they will come through in time because obviously they have talent, they just need exposure to the game.”

But he says that the sport isn’t just about competing but taking part, regardless of what a person’s skill set or background is. “The image we have on television is of ultra competitiveness. That’s there. That’s for the elite athlete. But beneath that, there are many rungs there where anyone can come in. Everybody is more than welcome. Whether they have a Polish background or a Latvian background or Brazil, it doesn’t matter where they’re from, if they’re boy or girl.”

The hope is that through these initiatives, the GAA will become a means of bringing foreign nationals and Irish people together through sport.

“We have the vehicle through hurling and football,” says Butler. “We just must go out of our way now to welcome these people, to meet them on the highways and the byways and welcome them into our clubs.”