Samuel Lagoa Blanco pictured before a match for St. Peregrine's.
By John Harrington
The chance discovery of Gaelic football has ultimately been life-changing for Samuel Lagoa Blanco.
He now plays for St. Peregrines GAA club in Dublin, but his Gaelic games journey began on the beaches of his native Fisterra in Galica, Spain.
It was there he first kicked a Gaelic football after being introduced to the sport by University friend who played for a GAA club in Santiago de Compostela, one of 12 in Galicia where Gaelic games have put down strong roots and are growing vigorously.
Lagoa Blanco was immediately entranced. Gaelic football was the sport he didn’t realise he had been looking for all his life.
He and his brother Tomás joined their friend’s club, Estrela Vermelha, and dedicated themselves to becoming the best Gaelic footballers they could be.
“I said to myself, 'This is perfect, this is absolutely wonderful!'”, says Lagoa Blanco of his first impression of Gaelic football.
“I used to play a lot of different sports. I did boxing, basketball, soccer and I just found that Gaelic football was a nice mixture of different sports like rugby, basketball and a bit of soccer.
“It just felt like you could do whatever you wanted, in a sporting sense. I could hand-pass, I could kick the ball, I can score goals and kick it over the bar. It was just absolutely perfect.”
Like many other Galicians, the appeal of Gaelic football is that it's more than just a sporting outlet for Lagoa Blanco.
Genetic studies have discovered that a large proportion of the Irish population are likely descendants of migrants from the North West of Spain and to this day Galicians and Irish people share a similar celtic culture.
“In Galicia we have a lot of that Celtic connection,” says Lagoa Blanco. “We are also pipers and we listen to a lot of Irish music. When I was young the Chieftains came to play in the south of Galicia and they used to play with our own pipers. We would also listen to the Wolfe Tones and Seán Ó Riada and all of those great musicians.
“So when we realised that there's a Gaelic sport as well we really bought into the sport. A lot of people in Galicia are sick of soccer all the time and all the talk of Real Madrid and Barcelona and that sort of thing and we wanted to have a connection instread with Ireland and the GAA.
“That's why lots of people are happy to get rid of the soccer and start to play GAA.”
Brothers Samuel and Tomás Lagoa Blanco pictured together before playing for Galicia.
Gaelic football has become so popular in such a relatively short period of time in Galicia that it is now part of the sporting curriculum in many schools where over the course of the last three years around 10,000 children have been coached how to play the game.
“It’s growing all the time,” says Lagoa Blanco. “At the moment we have around 12 clubs in the main cities in Galicia and some rural areas as well and we play a League and also go abroad to play.
“We have a project that is called Gaelico Escolas where we have coaches like myself when I lived in Galicia who go to the different primary and secondary schools and teach them the sport.
“We spend an hour or two per week going there and teaching them the skills and playing Gaelic football. When they feel confident enough and they want to keep practicing the sport then they come to the clubs that we have already established.
“We also have school competitions where the schools play one another. It's growing all the time and people are really interested in it in Galicia.”
When Lagoa Blanco moved to Ireland in 2022 one of the very first things he did was to find out where the nearest GAA club to him was and join them.
“The first house I lived in was Corduff and the closest team to me was St. Peregrines so I got in contact with them and from the very beginning they were absolutely amazing,” he says. “10 out of 10.
“They were really caring and kind to me. They helped me with anything that I needed in my personal life, not just in the sport. It just felt like a family straight away. I only have beautiful words for all of the people that are involved with the club.
“It really has changed my life. I've made a lot of friends and relationships here.
“I was a qualified teacher in Spain but didn’t have the required teaching qualifications for Ireland when I moved here. One of my coaches is a deputy-principal in a local school and he helped with those and is the one who got me into the primary school system here.
“So, the GAA has helped me a lot in a lot of aspects of my life. With work, with relationships, and with my mentality in terms of how to be more resilient.”
Samuel Lagoa Blanco pictured in action for St. Peregrine's.
Lagoa-Blanco first worked in St. Patrick’s National School in Corduff where he struck up a friendship with fellow teacher and Mayo Gaelic footballer, Jack Carney.
The two would go for regular kick-abouts in Abbottstown together as Lagoa Blanco made it his business to work on his skill-set as much as he possibly could.
It took him a little time initially to adapt to how Gaelic football is played here compared to Galicia, but after joining St. Peregrines he made quick progress.
“In Galicia we have a lot of influence from soccer so we are not as physical as they are here,” he says. “When I came here and I started crashing into people and just finding it much more physical I realised that I have to change something here!
“I've improved a lot over the three years. I started in Division 11 and last year I was able to play a few games with the intermediate team in Division 4.
“I like to play full-forward and be a Bear in the Square!”
Lagoa Blanco isn’t just an enthusiastic Gaelic footballer, he has embraced all aspects of Irish culture through St Peregrines.
“I joined an Irish-speaking group in the community school and I go to a lot of Gaeltachts and Ceilís in the club. I can play a few tunes on the tin-whistle and the pipes and sing a bit.
“I’m still learning with the Irish but I can have a basic conversation. I’m involved in a lot of things.”
Now teaching in Castaheany Educate Together National School in Ongar where he also coaches Gaelic football, Lagoa Blanco is making a great contribution to his local community on and off the pitch and loving life in Ireland.
“I'll hopefully stay here for the foreseeable future, I'm really happy here,” he says. “At some stage in the long term it would be good to go back to Galicia and create my own Gaelic football team in the area that I'm from and live closer to my family as well.
“But for now I'm very happy in Ireland. I'm having the craic with my life!”
