New York players celebrate after winning the Boys Division 1 Final at the 2017 John West Peile na nÓg national competition.
By Cian O’Connell
Michael O’Connor’s phone doesn’t stop ringing. There is always something to arrange, a problem to solve, but O’Connor wouldn’t have it any other way.
NUIG’s GAA Development Officer, O’Connor is also Clare’s PRO, but at the moment the upcoming John West Football Féile being hosted by Connacht GAA is placed high on the priority list.
The figures are staggering. Around 8,500 boys and girls will take part all over the province, and the excitement is increasing out west.
On Monday evening at the splendid Centre of Excellence in Bekan, the Regional Launch took place with clubs from throughout Mayo, Galway, Leitrim, Sligo, and Roscommon represented.
It is the third time in five years that Connacht GAA have organised the tournament, but next month’s event is the largest so far. “We have 358 teams, you can multiply that by 24 children,” O’Connor says about the amount of youngsters who will participate.
“Each team then will have a minimum of four mentors, plus club officers, parents and grandparents. You could estimate that 100 people will be with each team travelling around the province. That is at the very minimum. You are talking over the course of the weekend you could have up to 50,000 people in the province moving around.”
John Lavery of O'Donovan Rossa GAC in action against Rory McCormack, left, and Ian Kavanagh of New York during their John West Féile Peil na nÓg National Competitions 2018 match at Stamullen GAA in Meath.
The planning and plotting commenced during the winter, but O’Connor valuable experience was gained in 2014 and last year. “I was secretary when we had the Feile football in 2014 and I was secretary with the hurling in 2018,” O’Connor states. “With the whole province involved you have a greater amount of teams available to take part.
“We have 104 boys teams in and 75 girls teams which means outside the province you have to have 104 visiting boys teams and 75 visiting girls teams. It starts in November of the previous year. Every club is different, they all have their own way of doing things so it is a very strong logistical thing.
“On the Saturday morning some clubs will have dual teams too and you will have 170 venues in action in the province. On the Friday night you have 90 central venues, close to 100 on Saturday afternoon. You will have 16 venues in action on the Sunday hosting finals. One venue the Connacht GAA Centre will take 18 finals. You could estimate between 15,000 and 20,000 coming into the Centre on the Sunday.”
The South London football team that won Division 2 of the 2018 John West Féile Peile na nÓg.
The host clubs have been briefed and in the west they are looking forward to another important weekend of football at the end of June. “In February John Hopkins, the Chairman, and I travelled to each of the five counties and met as many clubs that wanted to come to discuss matters with us,” O’Connor explains.
“That was very beneficial. On four nights we did Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and then we did Sligo and Leitrim at two venues on the one night. We raced from one venue to the other.
“We met about 250 people representing clubs from throughout the province on those four nights. We've had roadshows as well.”
Clubs from all over Ireland will hit the west, but Western Australia’s involvement is attracting interest according to O’Connor. “We have a team from Western Australia, you have South London and New York in Division One, North London are around Division Three,” O’Connor adds.
“The team that could have the best support of them all is Western Australia. An awful lot of them are coming back for the first time ever, I've been receiving phone calls from grandparents wanting to know when the games were on because they have never seen their grandchildren playing football.
“You are looking at teams from Delawere, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Gloucestershire, Lancashire, Hertfordshire, Warwickshire, North London, South London. There were suggestions that a team from Asia may travel, but they just aren't ready. Australia are that bit ahead of them in the sense that you had more people going there 20 or 30 years ago. In 10 years time for sure you will have teams from Asia.”
O’Connor is adamant about the financial benefits for the Connacht region over the course of the three days. “I did a quick estimate, if you calculate that you have 8,000 boys and girls playing, it is a multi million euro project over the weekend,” O’Connor remarks. “You have 179 teams coming from outside the west of Ireland.
“Every part of Connacht will see a benefit. It is going well. Four weeks this Friday, the fixture booklet is nearly ready to go to production, there is a good staff and committee there. The difference compared to a few years ago was that it was often the same team nearly every year because they were the strongest.
“Now you have teams coming to compete, a lot of people said to me they are so delighted to just play outside their own county. They know they will never get a chance to do so again. I was talking to people who were with us five years ago too who are coming back, they have made friends.”
Michael O'Connor, Secretary of the Féile Committee speaking at the John West Féile na Peil Regional Launch at Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence.
So how has the Committee prepared for the Féile? “The way we work it is we have a committee with a representative from each county, you'd have a representative from the referees, and Ladies Football, who are obviously heavily involved in it.
“The Chairperson is John Hopkins from Mayo, I'm the Secretary, and you'd have the Connacht Council staff Adrian Hassett, John Prenty, and Cathal Cregg would be all involved on the committee as well.
“We have met five or six times since January. Having the experience of doing it before is a huge benefit, you'll find a lot of the small stuff only gets done in the two weeks before even with the best planning. You know yourself not to panic, there is a timeline there. If it was your first time you'd be nervous.”
Challenges exist and the importance of immediate information is key to the smooth running of the Féile with O’Connor stressing the input of third level students from the province.
“We've met all the co-ordinators, we are explaining to them what they have to do which is basically to manage the venue. Within a minute of the result I expect the result in order to update it on Twitter and Facebook.
“The way modern technology is with people not at the Feile, they would like to see what is happening and they expect the result. They nearly want the result before the game happened. After they have played their two games on the Friday evening the host team plays the visiting team. Then they are moving to a neutral venue so they want to know where they are going and who they could be playing. Information is crucial.
“We will have eight mobile phones in operation over the weekend, each will be carrying results from two to three divisions. We will have third level students, who are doing their work experience with the Connacht Council for the summer, they will be the people involved.
“We had six last year and they were absolutely outstanding. Eventually even though were information gatherers, we found they learned within hours. If somebody rang with a gripe or they'd know how to sort something. People get anxious, but the interns were great.”
Good work experience is being gained and while the next four weeks will be hectic O’Connor is relishing the role. The chief issue is a clash with the Munster Senior Hurling Championship Final which could be tricky if O’Connor’s beloved Clare reach the decider.
“I have a busy schedule, if Clare make the Munster Hurling Final I won't be at it, I might ask John Prenty, he might let me off for the day,” O’Connor chuckles.
Whatever happens between now and then Connacht GAA is bracing itself for another worthwhile project. The rewarding graft continues.
