Emigration-hit Galway GAA moves club social to Boston

A Connemara GAA club ravaged by emigration is taking a novel approach to marking a significant milestone – by partying with its Disapora in Boston!

Carna/Caiseal GAA will celebrate its 30th birthday later this year with a trip Stateside, where many of its members were forced to emigrate to in search of work. The logic is that there are as many members abroad, as there are at home.

“Sure, half the Carna parish is over there, it’s the natural place to have it. We thought about London but decided on Boston,” said club chairman Éamonn Ó Cualáin.

It helps, too, that the Mayor of Boston, Marty Walsh, is the son of County Galway immigrants.

His mother Mary Walsh – formerly Mary O’Malley – is from Ros Cide in Ros Muc and his late father John Walsh was from Callowfeenish in Carna; two of the thousands of Connemara people who have emigrated to Boston through the centuries.

In the past number of years Carna/Caiseal has struggled to field Gaelic football teams due to declining population.

They were relegated from senior last season, and are in trouble again this year in intermediate, having lost two of their opening championship games.

Immigration is a factor in their decline. And that’s one of the reasons the club is planning a six-day trip to Boston to mark 30 years since its founding in 1987 – to reach out to its Diaspora.

“We had five or six players tog out for the Boston Gaels yesterday. We have two or three lads playing in London. And we have three or four lads injured. It’s hard to cope with that many lads out,” said Mr Ó Cualáin.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.