Yes, the GAA is getting ready to officially set up a new County Board in Europe at next year's Millenium Congress.

Joe McDonagh has been especially keen to expand the GAA's international dimension during his presidency.

And with the Celtic Tiger riding high at present, Europe is full of thriving young emigrants who are keen to keep their gaelic interests alive.

Over the past three years a regular calendar of seven-a-side gaelic tournaments has emerged on the continent and in the case of Brussels, is really flourishing.

This year's competitive calendar started with a tournament in Guernsey, followed by Luxembourg in May, Brussels in July and there's still two more to come, in Paris and Amsterdam in October and November.

A meeting in Luxembourg, which McDonagh attended, did much of the groundwork and a formative meeting of the Europe County Board will take place in Amsterdam, though the board itself cannot be established until Congress.

Euro relations were certainly cemented at the Brusssels International Sevens, hosted by the locals and eventual victors, the EC GAA Club, whose team included Adrian Silke, brother of Galway's All Ireland captain Ray.

Interestingly the EC club train in the `British School of Brussels' where they hosted this year's tournament which attracted teams from Dusseldorf, Luxembourg, the Hague, Brest and the Paris Gaels.

The Brest team had only three Irishmen and was made up largely of Bretons who benefit from twice weekly coaching from Corkman Micheal Dennehy.

"We reckoned even Michael O'Muircheartaigh would have had trouble with their names!" joked one of the Brussels organisers Cathal Lynch, a former Annaduff clubman from Leitrim.

But Lynch feels the most significant development in Brussels is the setting up of underage coaching.

"Brussels is unusual in that it's not all young, single emigrants passing through but quite a few young families who settle here on longer term contracts. We started coaching a group of children on St Patrick's Day last and have had up to 40-50 out since for Sunday morning coaching. Most of them have been born here to Irish parents but the funny thing is that many of them go to `international schools' here and apparently their friends think this `new' game is really trendy. You've got these Belgian/Flemish and Belgian/French kids and other nationalities now who want to start playing gaelic!"

McDonagh, Barney Winston (Chairman of the International Dimension Workgroup) and particularly Debbie Massey in Croke Park have been especially supportive.

The Brussels tournament also invited over a Cumann na mBunscol team under Jerry Grogan, who played a game against the local children and also gave a hurling exhibition.

But will we soon see `Europe' taking part in an All Ireland competition, as New York and London do now?

"We're taking very small steps at present" cautioned Winston. "The real emphasis has been on underage development and we're giving them every help we can at that level, but not putting pressure on anyone.".

Winston cites San Francisco, where there's now 500 local children playing gaelic games every weekend as a model to which all the foreign gaelic groups can aspire to.

The annual international minor competition, running since '92, takes place in Cooley Kickhams next week, July 28-31.

And while Europe won't be in the All Ireland Championships for some time, expect them to take part in the GAA's official `World Sevens International Tournament' which is also being planned as part of next year's Millenium celebrations.