As they say in the GAA, a quick Fogra (ie. announcement) to start with. Because of the onset of the holiday season, there will be no more kids' Gaelic football until Sept next. The main event planned for that month is the visit of an under-age team from the Whitehall Colmcille's Club in Dublin to play our kids in a friendly. More later …….

Hands up anyone in the Irish Community here - or anywhere for that matter - who can say they have played for Europe in any sport at any level ? No, no takers, thought not … But there's now an elite Group right here in Brux who can lay claim to this honour. A mere 18 months after they first started playing, the Brux GAA-playing kids (and a few friends either just left or about to return to Brux) represented the GAA's European Board in Dublin the first weekend of July at this GAA Feile which is an under-14 Gaelic football competition for boys & girls. The full panel was Peter Barrett, Sean Breslin, Eamon Conway, Kristian Dunn, Niall Holleran, Mark Ludden, Ryan Ludden, Theo Morrissey, Stephen O'Malley, Barry Nevin, Conor Smyth (with a y) (Captain), Conor Smith (with an i), Gearoid Smith, Declan Walsh & Stephen Walsh. The youngsters were accompanied to Dublin by Liam Breslin, Eileen Ludden, John Ludden & Cathal Lynch.

This was an event of truly enormous scale featuring 130 teams (90 boys' & 40 girls') from every corner of Ireland and from further afield in the Irish Diaspora in the UK, US and of course here. They were seeded in Divisions which were in turn split up into Groups each of which had their matches run off on the Sat at 42 separate venues all over Dublin City & County together with a few venues in neighbouring Counties Wicklow, Kildare & Meath. This was followed on Sun by Group qualifiers playing Divisional quarter-finals & semi-finals with the Divisional finals themselves happening in GAA HQ in Croke Park on the Mon.

All of the visiting teams were hosted - with accommodation - by Dublin City & County Clubs. The Brux/Europe Group was placed with families from the Crumlin GAA Club in the City. Our sincere thanks to Crumlin, in particular Chairman Tom Grealish & Secretary Phil Gough and indeed their entire crew, for their kindness & hospitality for the entire weekend - they quite literally took our kids in hand in Dublin Airport on Fri afternoon and delivered them back there on Mon afternoon after a weekend to remember.

On the Fri evening, there was a parade led by the Artane Boys' Band from Parnell Square to Croke Park - a Today FM "beat on the street" was also in progress - during which every team Captain was welcomed to Dublin by new GAA President Sean McCague from Monaghan. On Sat, the Brux Kids played in Crumlin in their 4-team Group against their hosts Crumlin, Ballyboden from South Dublin and the Bishop Challoner School from Hall Green in Birmingham. While Europe lost heavily to hosts Crumlin in their first match, they only lost the other 2 games to late scores in both cases from physically stronger opponents (the Brux kids were mostly 10-12 yoa compared to 12-14 averages of their opponents). However, not even the steady Dublin rain deterred them, they had great "craic" with new friends, learned a lot about competitive GAA and also had the added bonus of being interviewed and recorded at the end by RTE television. The Brux kids did however retain have a very direct interest in proceedings right to the end on Mon as their hosts and new-found friends from Crumlin GAA went on to win out their Divisional Final in Croke Park on the Mon.

Another highlight was the attendance of all 130 teams & mentors as guests of the GAA at the inter-county Leinster Championship semi-finals in Croke Park on the Sun at which the Dublin minors (including 1 Crumlin player) beat Meath and Dublin seniors beat Westmeath. Just before the senior match, all 130 kids' teams paraded again, around this time around the famous Croke Park stadium with Conor Smyth & Peter Barrett proudly carrying the Club 12 Star Flag of Europe before the crowd of over 30,000 people.

Finally, later in the evening, a large group sat down to a most enjoyable meal in the Wild Geese Bar (the Club's main sponsors). After the meal, the Finnegan Brothers Perpetual Cup (sponsored by former Club Stalwarts John & Mick Finnegan) was presented to Willie Hempenstall, Captain of the victorious team from The Hague. Pat Ahern accepted the Brux Sevens Plate for the home side. Players on all 4 teams received medals to mark the occasion. A few pints followed !

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