Oileain Árainn footballers head into unknown territory

THE Gaelic footballers of Oileain Árainn enter unchartered waters this weekend as they cross the Irish Sea to take on John Mitchels of Liverpool in the All-Ireland club junior football championship quarter-final.

Throw-in time for this unique quarter-final showdown is 1.30pm on Saturday at Páirc na hÉireann, Birmingham, home of Lancashire GAA. The Aran squad and management fly-out to England on Friday and a supporters’ bus, which is sold out, is travelling from the islands by bus and ferry.

Scores more islanders – and Galwegians – living in the UK are expected to make the journey to Birmingham for the clash. “I’m from Inis Óirr and there will be nobody left on the island! There’s a huge crowd going over,” said manager of Oileain Árainn, Ciarán Foley.

Though Oileain Árainn has never before reached this stage of the competition, their opponents are accustomed to the All-Ireland junior series. This will be their second year on the trot competing in a quarter-final, after they completed a two-in-a-row of All-Britain success some weeks ago with a win over North London Shamrocks.

The club’s best performance came in 2009, having won the All-Britain final, they were narrowly defeated in the junior club All-Ireland final at Croke Park by a Kerry outfit. That year the team was backboned by players from Donegal, although the current management says just a handful of finalists from 2009 will line-out this Saturday.

The club’s roots can be traced back to 1902, according to PRO, former Chairman and current selector, Danny McDonagh, a Mayo man. The name of the club has changed and evolved since; and John Mitchels re-grouped about eight years ago into its current incarnation.

There are between 100 and 150 adult players and about 60 underage players in the club which plays at Greenbank Park about three miles from Liverpool City Centre. Their jersey is blue and gold, and its crest has a yellow Liver bird perched between two pillars, which represent the pillars of Clarence Dock, on the river Mersey, familiar to hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants. The current squad, managed by Barry Morris, McDonagh and Colm Gallagher, does not contain any Galway players.

Full preview in this week’s Connacht Tribune.