Peter Mossey
GAA on the East Coast of Scotland is now something that we can say after 34 years of participation via Universities in Aberdeen and Dundee and the Dalriada GFC is firmly embedded in the infrastructure.
Over these 34 years there’s been some incredible successes, amazing stories, fantastic matches but most importantly and a great deal of community development and lasting friendships. These friendships were borne out of a desire to provide a home from home for Irish citizens who for educational or work reasons came to live for some time in Dundee or Aberdeen.
From there it developed into something more as those Irish who were already living and had made their homes here joined forces to build social and community activities, ensuring the GAA teams were registered to play in Universities and Scotland County Board competitions and locally sought the help of local councils to provide playing facilities. These provided the foundations for stability and sustainability and the successes over the years were the rewards that provided the inspiration and motivation to continue.
Landmark events
In recent times, there are a few landmark events for the Dalriada club that are worthy of acknowledgment and recognition. In its inaugural year, 1990, the club entered the Scotland County Leagues, GAA Championships and Cup competitions at a time when there was a horizontal structure with every club competing in the same competitions and being a novice team, it took a while for Dalriada to find their feet and be a
competitive entity.
In that inaugural 1990 season, we received a massive boost with the arrival of a young graduate engineer who worked with Don & Low Woven company in Forfar, north of Dundee. His name was Steven Mulvenna and he had a formidable GAA playing pedigree in that he had not only played for Antrim county senior footballers, he had also been selected to represent Ulster in the Irish interprovincial championship, the Railway Cup.
Steven somehow got to know that there was a Gaelic Football team starting up in Dundee, signed up, transferred from Ireland and transformed our season with superb displays and being a committed and dedicated trainer was an inspiration to all the other players.
Unsurprisingly he was Player of the Year at the Club in our inaugural season (1990). It is a quite incredible coincidence that this summer Steven’s son Patrick Mulvenna has arrived in Dundee and has, 34 years later like his father transferred from Ireland to the local club, Dalriada.
Aspiration
Meanwhile a long-standing aspiration for the club, development of a youth policy and establishing a club for developing local talent in Dundee and hopefully in the future also Aberdeen is up and running.
The first tentative steps involved inviting the children of Irish parents who had expressed an interest in playing Gaelic games to a summer camp. This camp had an interesting feature in that it was set up by a local soccer legend on the East Coast of Scotland, Sean Dillon. Sean hails from Dublin and has played in the Scottish Premiership and Championship for Dundee United over 10 consecutive seasons from 2007 to 2017 after which he joined Montrose FC. He played some GAA in his youth but was an Irish International in soccer at U-16 and U-21 and turned professional and having settled on the East of Scotland has sons who were keen to have a go at Gaelic games also.
Sean agreed to facilitate this Dalriada GAA youth event by hosting the local community GAA session during one of his summer camps at Soccerworld in Dundee. So, this summer, the Dalriada GAA club in collaboration with Sean Dillon organised a GAA ‘taster’ coaching session for children in Dundee from 5-16 years old.
The Gaelic Games coaching was carried out by Niall Considine, Gaelic Games Development Officer for Scotland. The event was well-attended, with more than 20 children taking part on the day. The children took part in a range of activities, developing basic skills and rules of the game. We have had great feedback from parents, with both children and parents keen on taking part in further sessions.
Dalriada GFC are grateful to Sean Dillon and Niall Considine for their efforts in collaboration with our club officers Shaun McBride, Finbarr McCarthy and Eddie Egan on making this event possible. We have had tremendously positive feedback from parents and the club’s strategic plan is that this will be the first step towards a sustainable youth policy that will be complemented by school GAA coaching sessions in the 2024-25 academic year with university students from the Dundee University Ladies and Men participating as coaches. This triangulation of Educational, Club and County Board GAA activities provides Dalriada with an unprecedented opportunity to develop a sustainable youth programme.
Dalriada GFC have an upcoming foundation coaching on October 20 at Dundee University of Dundee. The club is excited to have the opportunity to host this course for perspective coaches in the city and have spaces available. Please contact Shaun McBride, Irish Language and Cultural Officer, for further details via e-mail: IrishCulturalOfficer.Scotland@gaa.ie
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