Europe 1 players, including Vanessa Morin, 7, celebrate after winning the Ladies Football International Plate Final during day four of the FRS Recruitment GAA World Games 2023 at the Owenbeg Centre of Excellence in Dungiven, Derry. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
On November 22, 1999, the then GAA President Joe McDonagh and representatives from five GAA clubs (Brussels, Den Haag, Luxembourg, Paris, and Guernsey) met in Amsterdam to formally found the GAA’s European County Board.
The growth of Gaelic games on the continent in the 25 years since that red letter date has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Gaelic Games Europe is now the governing body for 114 Gaelic games clubs with over 5,00 members across 23 countries, a vista probably none of the founding members could have imagined was over the horizon when they met in Amsterdam back in 1999.
Perhaps in another 25 years we’ll also look back on February 8, 2025 as another very significant date in the history of Gaelic Games Europe.
On that day in the fitting setting of the Irish College in Leuven, Belgium, Gaelic Games Europe will launch a new Strategic Development Plan that will plot the path to further growth.
The man tasked with overseeing its implementation is Chris Collins, who was appointed as Gaelic Games Europe’s first ever full-time Head of Operations last December.
Collins has been seconded from Derry GAA where he did tremendous work as Head of Games for the last 18 years to make the Oak Leaf County best in class.
The youth development structure he built from the foundations up has delivered three All-Ireland minor titles in five years, five ulster minor titles and three more final appearances in nine years, and one Ulster U20 titles and four more final appearances in eight years.
His appointment is a real coup for Gaelic Games Europe, perhaps especially because Collins’ modus operandi in his role with Derry was to take a collaborative approach by building a capable team around him and delegating according to their strengths.
Gaelic Games Europe’s Head of Operations, Chris Collins, pictured playing for Derry in the 2000 All-Ireland Minor Football Final against Cork.
That approach should be ideally suited to an organisation like Gaelic Games Europe which has five regional committees and a 28-member county board administering a huge geographic sprawl.
Collins has spent the first few weeks since his appointment getting to know his new colleagues and is hugely enthused by the energy of everyone involved.
“There's really good work already happening in Europe and I don't want to come across as someone who is coming in here and taking them all by the hand,” Collins told GAA.ie.
“We have 28 officers in the European County Board and you're talking about really intelligent professional people that are volunteering their time for the GAA. I’m really looking forward to working with them and learning from them as well which is going to be important.
“My role initially is to focus on strategy and structures and take a leading role on that.
“They have done work on this strategy before I have come in and it's probably just trying to focus the 28 people, split them into work-groups, make sure there's governance and lines of communication, and nearly act as a conduit for each of the working groups so that we can get our strategy over the line and then work through that over the next two or three years.
“Gaelic Games Europe is 25 years in existence so it's a fairly fresh organisation and there's loads of positives with that. There's loads of energy, enthusiasm and good-will.
“My role is about making sure we have alignment with the committee members, clarity around what they’re being asked to do and provide them the support to go and get it done as efficiently as possible.
“There's so much energy and enthusiasm that has grown organically that it's nearly at the point now where, like any organisation, we need to just look at is what we're doing really good practice? Is our governance structure suitable to what the demands are now because they all were set up 25 years ago?
“I've had the opportunity in the last month to look at what's happening in USGAA, Australasia, what' happening in Britain, and probably taking examples of best practice there to try to help us implement and shape what happens in GGE moving forward.
“Regionalisation is going to be key. Having 28 people managing the whole continent of Europe from a central level doesn't make sense. There’s five regions and I think there needs to be a conversation around almost devolvement of Government and giving these officers more power, autonomy and support around what we need them to do.”
The EC Gaelic Club Brussels players celebrate after winning the 2024 Gaelic Games Europe Féile Final.
The GGE Strategic Development Plan has identified four pillars of growth on the continent – Coaching and Games Development, Local Development, Regionalisation, and Commercialisation & Brand Awareness.
The number of children playing Gaelic games in Europe is growing rapidly year on year, and catering for this will be a big part of the Coaching and Games Development strategy.
“Pearse Bell who is our youth officer in Gaelic Games Europe has been doing huge work to ensure we have growth in our youth development which is really bearing fruit,” says Collins.
“We’ve got a Gaelic Games Europe Féile in Amsterdam later this year which is going to be a huge event with clubs from all over Europe participating.
“There’s great work going on in terms of Games Development and my experience of being in that space with Derry for so long will hopefully be of benefit to the likes of Pearse and Anna Marie O’Rourke who is our coaching officer and has done a massive body of work with Jamie Queeney, Leinster GAA over the last couple of years to try to develop coach developers in each region.
“At the beginning of March this year we hope to get eight new coach developers validated across Europe which is absolutely huge in the context of World Games. Their role then will be to get into their regions, establish the needs of the clubs, and then try to meet the growing demand that exists.
“It is really about participation, looking at our nursery programmes, looking at our Games Development Practices right the way through the pathway.”
In some ways Gaelic Games Europe are a victim of their own success. With more and more people keen to play Gaelic games on the continent, scaling up to cater for that demand is a challenge.
Native Galician Gaelic games coaches taking part in a coach education day as part of the Erasmus+ exchange which is a GAA National Games Development project supported by Leinster GAA and Gaelic Games Europe.
But with growth also comes opportunity, especially in the commercial space. Collins believes that a young, vibrant organisation like Gaelic Games Europe that has a network of people throughout the continent should be a very attractive partner for prospective sponsors.
“We had a meeting last week with a potential sponsor and that will be part of my work, to try to help generate brand awareness and commercial revenues,” he says.
“What Gaelic Games Europe have is new, it's fresh, it's exciting. There is a massive network in terms of Gaelic games happening across the continent of Europe and obviously, there's a large number of Irish companies that are currently operating on the continent so I think there's a piece in terms of alignment there.
“Perhaps our values align to their values and that then turns in to them seeing the benefit of that from a commercial point of view on the continent. To me I think that's what we're going after. Somebody that aligns to us in terms of our values.
“I think a company coming on board needs to appreciate the growth and the journey that Gaelic Games Europe have been on, but also the potential for further growth. I mentioned the committee members, you're dealing with 28 highly skilled people, some of them are working in Swiss banks, some of them are working with the embassies across Europe.
“They're really, really impressive people and we’ve a great network there. Our aim is to try to get a principal sponsor over the line in the next 12 months and we're looking to engage with companies whether they're at home or abroad.
“What a sponsorship would enable us to do at this point would be to really invest in the Games Development side of things, the youth structures. Really getting in to clubs and helping them to establish roots.
“If you take something like the AIB sponsorship of the club championships, it's all about the journey and the struggles that people make to play our games. That whole brand around the club championships being ‘The Toughest'. I think there's a parallel that could be drawn with that and what we can offer in Gaelic Games Europe where it is really about the journey.
“I'm really excited about where Gaelic Games Europe can go. I suppose what we're looking for is companies to get on board at this point who share that sense of adventure and ambition.”
When you see people in places like Galicia and Brittany where Gaelic games are growing more quickly than in any other part of Europe, they’ll tell you that what draws them to Gaelic games is the community ethos as much as the sports themselves.
A vibrant social community is a big part of the culture for international units such as the Darmstadt hurlers in Germany.
Collins believes this is a unique selling point that should be very attractive to companies who see their employees as people rather than just workers.
“There's a growing awareness around the impact of social anxiety and loneliness,” he says. “If you send some young fella or girl to work in a country where nothing is familiar at all from home, that can be a very lonely place.
“We have 114 GAA clubs and there wouldn't be too many companies operating across Europe where there wouldn't be a GAA club fairly close to where their workers are going.
“I think that piece is something we could definitely work on over the course of the next 12 months as well with companies.
“We’re looking to build a business network similar to what would happen in counties at home. We would hold a couple of events in Croke Park over the course of the year where companies with the same values who are operating in the same space come together.”
Gaelic Games Europe’s growth since 1999 has been largely organic. The next phase of their evolution is likely to be more strategic and planned, but Collins is determined that won’t be at the expense of the youthful enthusiasm that has so energised the organisation for the past 25 years.
“At the 2023 World Games in Derry it was just the sheer joy of it that stood out to me,” he says. “There was just so much love and joy in terms of participating, whether it was the French, Galicians, or teams from Iberia, wherever.
“Playing the game for the love of the game and that sense of community it created. There was just so much fun and respect attached to the World Games.
“I think if we can harness all of that good will and the sense of joy then we can achieve great things. As things become too serious in a sport it's not necessarily a good thing either because you lose that joy and mutual respect a little.
Thibaud Trillard of Europe Bears during day one of the FRS Recruitment GAA World Games 2023 at the Owenbeg Centre of Excellence in Dungiven, Derry. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
“We want to harness that joy and continue it on, but there are also a few things that we can tidy up too. There has been organic growth at a club level and it's just now about trying to create opportunities for them to engage in terms of their development plans moving forward.
“I don't see it stopping. The youth side of things in Europe has really exploded and it's only going to get bigger and bigger. I'm really enthusiastic about what will happen over the next 10 years.
“Where it has grown in Galicia and Brittany, they love that idea of Celtic heritage. So you've people who are learning Irish off the back of it, it's just mental how it has gone.
“I suppose everybody is looking for a community in all aspects of life. Everybody wants to be a part of something. This is fun and I think people are playing for the right reasons in Europe. We just need to harness that and keep encouraging it.”