GAA: Community, connection & sport – The growth of Gaelic games in Europe

An Irishman and a Frenchman are sitting in an Irish pub in Lille on a wet Saturday afternoon.

It’s not the start of a joke, but it’s a story of connection, community and discovering a new sport.

It is well known that Gaelic games have expanded far beyond its Irish roots with teams as far as London, the USA, Africa and Australia.

But it is in mainland Europe where it is really starting to grow.

Originally from Dublin, Turnbull has been involved with GAA as long as he can remember.

So when he ended up settling in Lille in northern France in 2020, where he did not know many people, he reached out to try and find a GAA club and that’s when he discovered Lille GAA.

Founded in 2013 by two Lille natives after a trip to Ireland, the club is one of 35 in France.

“I turned up and I expected it to be mostly Irish people, a few French people and it’d just be a way to make friends,” Turnbull said.

“But I was literally the only Irish person at the training, so the idea of having 20 French guys running around in the rain on a Wednesday night playing Gaelic games is an incredibly surreal experience, I have to say.”

As one of the locals who fell in love with the sport, Yann Boudjennah’s story is slightly different.

A big football fan, Boudjennah was introduced to Gaelic games on a trip to Dublin and, through a French-Irish friend, went along to training at Lille GAA to see what all the fuss was about five years ago.

“It’s a bit of a niche sport in France, which is a huge football and huge rugby country, plus basketball and handball as well.

“Players from all these different sports join together in Gaelic football teams.

“It brings together all the DNA of different team sports, which is a huge thing in French culture, so that helps us a lot.”