Gaelic games in China: ‘We try to mimic the atmosphere of a club back in Ireland’

The temperature was climbing towards 36 degrees and the contest between Beijing and Shanghai was getting hotter as disputes arose over how many men were on the field.

“Ref, you’re only listening to them now,” one of the players shouted.

The referee didn’t take the protests too seriously and neither did anyone else, because what mattered most at the All-China GAA Games on Saturday was that it was happening at all. The annual tournament for Gaelic games in China was cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left the number of Irish people in the country seriously depleted.

Shanghai GAA is the biggest club in China but its chairman, Declan Saruwatari, a 27-year-old Carlow man who works for Bord Bia in the city, said many Irish players had left during the pandemic.

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“In the last couple of years, the number of Irish has really dwindled down, particularly in the men’s teams. The ratio of Irish is probably about 60 per cent Irish, I would say. And then the rest could be from anywhere. There’s a lot of Chinese locals on the team in Shanghai and we have people from South Africa, Australia, UK, Kazakhstan and Korea. And it’s similar on other teams as well.”

The games on Saturday drew teams from Suzhou and Shunde as well as from Beijing and Shanghai, with matches played in parallel on rugby grounds that were also being used by soccer and American football teams. Gaelic football teams were nine-a-side, playing matches with each half lasting seven minutes.

Shanghai native Jack Meng was playing for the Shanghai men’s team against Beijing, while his wife Grace played for the women’s team against Suzhou, and their daughters took part in the youth programme. Meng studied business marketing at Athlone Institute of Technology, which is now part of Technological University of the Shannon, and he now works as its regional manager in China.

“When I was in Ireland, I always saw my university mates play Gaelic, but that was a very high standard. When I came back to Shanghai after a couple of years, I had a colleague from Ireland join me. He was very big into Gaelic and he introduced me,” he said.

“We try to mimic here the atmosphere of a club back in Ireland. That’s our club’s goal. That’s my objective as well.”

Chinese parents are surprised that GAA members volunteer to coach youth teams because most western sports charge a fee for children to participate. Annie Norman (28), who moved to Shanghai from Kazakhstan eight years ago and was recruited to the women’s team by a friend from Donegal, said the club makes integration easy.

“People are super-nice and they accept that we are non-native towards the sport and they accept all our mistakes. And we keep learning every time we train, basically,” she said.

Paul Fogarty (31) from Blackrock, Co Dublin, studied Chinese at the Confucius Institute in University College Dublin and moved to Beijing to continue his studies, taking a master’s degree in Chinese law. Some of his fellow students from UCD also played Gaelic games and they joined the Beijing GAA club, a move that was to prove doubly fateful for Fogarty.

“The old chairman was leaving and they wanted someone to look after the club, so they tried to get me a job to stay. So one of the guys I played Gaelic with got me a job,” he said.

“I met my wife at Beijing GAA too. She’s from Canada. She’s a teacher and she had a vice-principal from Mayo.”

There is no official figure for Irish residents in China and although citizens are encouraged to register with the Irish embassy in Beijing or the consulate general in Shanghai, many do not. Some informal estimates suggest that after the pandemic the number in Beijing may have fallen below 200, with the total in China possibly fewer than 2,000.

Teachers make up a large part of the Irish community and they play an important role in the GAA clubs too. Ciaran McCann (31) from Castleisland, Co Down, said the men’s team at his club in Shunde in the Pearl River Delta is mostly made up of teachers from one school.

“We trained the whole way through Covid and it was a big release for a lot of people. We weren’t really able to do much, but Gaelic kind of kept the sanity and it was a good social aspect then, and then we maintained most of the people during that time,” he said.

“I think if it wasn’t for the Gaelic club, and I think I could speak for quite a few of the lads, I think we would have left the school a few years ago. I really think the Gaelic club has kept a lot of us there.”

McCann picked up the Men’s Plate trophy for his team, but Shanghai swept the rest of the board, defeating Beijing in the men’s final and Suzhou in the women’s final and taking the Ladies’ Plate trophy. Suzhou left Shanghai without a win, but for Conor Nealon (27), a primary teacher from Foxford, Co Mayo, the main appeal of the games lies elsewhere.

“I would say days like today are very important when you can come out and see people who are playing in other cities. I’ve bumped into so many people who I haven’t seen in years randomly at Gaelic football tournaments. I’ve bumped into people who lived across the hallway from me in college or just really crazy things like that. So I’d say the wider social aspect is very important, and then locally as well, it’s just a good chance to see your mates,” he said.