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CLG Oileáin Árainn ready for Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta

CLG Oileain Árainn's Conal O hIarnáin attended the launch of Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta at Croke Park.

CLG Oileain Árainn's Conal O hIarnáin attended the launch of Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta at Croke Park.

By Michael Devlin

Being a GAA player on the Aran Islands isn’t exactly straightforward.

Take for instance a typical match day. Players of the Oileáin Árann club take the ferry over to the Galway mainland at around 10 o’clock and have breakfast. At 12 they will do their warm-up, before the game throws in at one. After the game, the players will eventually get the ferry back home at half six in the evening.

Games have to be held on a Saturday or a Sunday, as ferry timetables make it unable for players to travel over in the evenings during midweek. “There is a lot of waiting around, but we are so used to it at this stage,” says Oileáin Árann player Conal O hIarnáin. “It just doesn’t really phase us.”

“If we are playing an away game maybe in the middle of winter, we go out at eight o’clock in the morning and we don’t come home until that evening again. It’s a full day, just for a game.”

The situation for training can be even trickier. O hIarnáin is from Inis Mór, the largest of the three Aran Islands. During the summer months, his team mates from Inis Meáin and Inis Oírr travel over Inis Mór to train on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

“When we train during the early months I suppose and the later months when everybody goes back to college and working away, we usually train together in Galway. Lads who are based at home will come out from the islands and we’ll all meet and train in Galway, so that’s how we train together for a start. It’s not the easiest.

“It’s become the norm for us now,” says O hIarnáin, who has been living and working in Dublin for the past two years. “For example, I am going to Galway this evening because of the game on Sunday, so I am going down this evening for training. But every club in the country does that to a sense. We’ve got lads coming out from Inis Mór and Inis Oírr to train in Galway tonight. A few of the lads may live in Galway, so you might stay over with them or whatever.”

According to O hIarnáin, the club’s adult team are punching above their weight in terms of competiveness, despite the perceived disadvantages that go with being based on tiny remote islands 40km out in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Within Galway club football’s eight divisions, Oileáin Árann play in Division Two, where they regularly come up against most senior clubs. They have been pushing in the Intermediate Championship in recent seasons as well, notably making the semi-final stage on the last two occasions.

The club’s biggest achievement to date was winning the Connacht Junior Football Championship in 2014, a feat made all the more unique in that their opponents that day were also an island club, Achill GAA of Mayo.

Colm O Braonain played at minor and Under 21 level for Galway.

Colm O Braonain played at minor and Under 21 level for Galway.

The game at Tuam Stadium was dubbed the ‘All-Island Final’, with Oileáin Árann winning out on a 0-16 to 0-8 score line. The victory put the club on the map, so to speak, according to O hIarnáin.

"That Connacht run, that was a big thing for us. Those Stenaline ferries were packed going over to England to play John Mitchels in Birmingham in the quarter-final. There was plenty of drink drank as well!

“That was unreal, because we were pushing that for 10 years or so I’d say, trying to get out of Junior and now we’re really pushing on trying to get onto senior. It’s just shown really how far the club has come.

“The biggest difference now is that we are getting a lot more recognition. A lot of our younger lads are playing county underage and stuff whereas before that would have never happened.

“In terms of numbers now, we are going pretty strong. We’ve got the guts of twenty strong lads, ready to go playing. We are competing at a pretty high level, which some people don’t really expect.”

Oileáin Árann’s loyal supporters also go above and beyond. The club recently qualified for the upcoming Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta, which takes place in the west Kerry Gaeltacht of Corca Dhuibhne over this Bank Holiday weekend. The club’s loyal fan base will be joining with their players in the trip to take their place amongst the pride tradition of Ireland’s Gaeltacht clubs.

“We’ve got really good support, especially for this competition,” says O hIarnáin. “We played An Cheathrú Rua the last day in the final and the gang came out. We’ve got special ferries and everything to get people home. We try and help out as much as possible.”

While Oileáin Árann load their kitbags onto the ferry for games week in week out, visiting teams to the islands also have to make the reverse journey for the club’s home games. The trips come sometimes be fun or not so fun, depending on your appetite for sea travel.

“Teams that come over to us, it’s like a bonding session for them really. They make they most of it. For instance Oughterard and Moycullen had just come in to us recently. Oughterard came in and they played the game on a Saturday and stayed the night, we were all out together and it was great craic.

“Teams say that it is the hardest place to come into and get a result in sometimes because some of them are puking over the side of the ferry and getting sick. At the start of the year there were teams coming in from Dublin, I remember seeing them throwing up the whole way in. They were dying!”