Tohill loving 'whirlwind' of International Player Exchange Programme in Iberia

By John Harrington

Derry footballer Anton Tohill says his first month in Spain and Portugal coaching Gaelic games to clubs and schools as the International Player Exchange Programme has been “a bit of whirlwind”.

In the space of a month he has visited 10 cities – Bilbao, Barcelona, Girona, Sitges, Madrid, Valencia, Malaga, Marbella, Lisbon, and Porto – and he’s only half-way through his tour of duty.

“It's been brilliant,” Tohill told GAA.ie “I couldn't talk it up enough. It's been fantastic how it's been organised by Chris Collins (Gaelic Games Europe Head of Operations) and all the clubs have been so welcoming and so giving of their time. I've had a fantastic experience so far.

“It's been a great old spin in the space of a month. Nearly 5,000 kilometres up in terms of distance on the journey, so it's been great.

“I got the ferry from Rosslare to Bilbao and been driving everywhere with a car full of footballs and cones ever since."

The GAA scene in Iberia is a mixture of Irish ex-pats and hugely enthusiastic locals, particularly in the north west of Spain where the Galicians have really embraced Gaelic games with open arms.

“The Irish people here are a fantastic community and resource for each other,” says Tohill.

“It's not dissimilar to the way that Gaelic football is in other parts of the world that I've been in before and had the fortune of being in before in terms of Boston or in terms of Australia but just on a much smaller scale where they're really tight-knit, helping each other out with their accommodation, helping each other out with jobs, just helping as much as they can with each other, just trying to make sure that everyone settles in well and enjoys the time staying wherever they are.

“One of my main emotions going away from any of the sessions I've done, especially ones that are involving people that aren't Irish, is that you feel a mixture of being proud and humbled because the game that has given me so much through my life provides such a sense of community and purpose for people that live in places like Spain.

“It makes you feel very, very privileged, I suppose, to have grown up in a community like we have back home and have the opportunity to shine a light on the good work that's been done by the people who've started the clubs in Spain and Portugal and the challenge they have with trying to improve the games and make the games more accessible to people over there.

“There's quite a few barriers to that, but they such pride in being involved in Gaelic games.”

As well as sharing his Gaelic football knowledge, Tohill has leaned on his experience as a facilitator with the Movember ‘Ahead of the Game’ mental health literacy programme to deliver health and wellbeing workshops.

“Yeah, it’s been a bit of everything,” he says. “I've been coaching predominantly the clubs in the cities but I've been involved in a few schools as well.

“We've hosted a few chats about who I am, what Gaelic games are, a wee bit about my experiences with both and then also the jobs that I've been up to with my time, such as the Movember Ahead of the Game chats.

“That kind of structure has proven useful in terms of just giving me a different kind of layer of stuff I can talk about.

“The schools have been fascinating. I'm coaching Gaelic games in places called the British International School of Marbella, or the British School of Lisbon, coaching them Gaelic football, and it has just been extraordinary to see how they've taken to it.

“There are schools up the north back home in Ireland that don't get any exposure to Gaelic football at all so it's fantastic that we're able to bring the game to people who never otherwise would have got involved in it.

“The kids have just rolled up their sleeves and got involved straight away. A lot of the schools offer loads of different sports so they can see the similarities and differences between the games that they already play and the sport that we have with Gaelic football.

“The kids have been very enthusiastic especially here in Portugal here I am now, where I was in six schools across three school days. They're very, very keen to try and take the game on as part of their curriculum and get involved in maybe even setting up an inter-school competition.

“That's very much a growth area now in Portugal. The two guys who are there, John Gilson and John Barker, are fantastic in terms of the organisation that they're willing to put out there for it.”

Tohill will soon head north to Galicia where he will spend the remaining four weeks of his time in Iberia doing his best to fan the flames of that region’s growing love affair with Gaelic games.

“They've got the best school system in Europe, in terms of how many of their schools are involved in Gaelic games and I think they've got as much as 12 GAA clubs set up by Galician people.

“They see it as very much a celebration of their Celtic origins and Celtic culture so it'll be a fascinating experience just to see how Gaelic football is set up there and how they go about playing it.”