As part of an exclusive documentary produced by Her Sport; Simon Gillespie, Rosie O’Reilly, Margaret Brady, Nollaig Cleary, take us through the epic journey of women’s Gaelic football in New York and the creation of the NY LGFA.
It all started in the 1980s when 25 thousand Irish women immigrated to New York to escape the Irish recession. From that point, a drive to establish women’s Gaelic Football began to pick up momentum.
Initially, women only had exhibition slots for an hour a week to play and were dismissed and treated as a ‘joke’, but after persistence and some support from the New York GAA manager, 7 new clubs were established.
These were so popular that over 200 girls joined to learn the sport, some of whom had never even played before.
Soon, the first ever Ladies Gaelic Football Championship and League took place in the famous City.
However, the lack of funding and support from the NY GAA slowed their development. The team had to set up their own pitches and fight to be recognized amongst their male sporting peers. Despite this, membership grew year on year until they finally made it to their first All Ireland final.
‘There was a big rift, the men accepted Camogie because Camogie was big in Ireland and then when we started the football, they were like what’s this?!’ says Rosie O’Reilly as she takes us through the backlash she faced as a competitive player.
From their first training session to their wins and losses in major leagues, watch this feature for captivating insight into the development of the sport and why the slogan “if they can do it why can’t we” carried this movement to an international playing field.
What did you make of the documentary? If you missed it, check out @TG4TV player or keep an eye out on our YouTube channel for the full documentary and MORE exclusive stories from @NYLadiesGAA thanks to @gympluscoffee @LadiesFootball #ProperFan https://t.co/dUfoW5Uu1Z
— Her Sport (@HerSportDotIE) August 14, 2022
This documentary and coverage of the New York Ladies Gaelic Football Association is brought to you in partnership with Gym + Coffee.