On the 23rd September, the GAA invites all clubs to open their doors to the wider community and support it's first GAA National Inclusive Fitness Day. The event falls during the European Week of Sport and aims to promote sport and physical activity to everyone regardless of age, ability, ethnicity, nationality or fitness level. Speaking at the announcement of the GAA's first National Inclusive Fitness Day at Croke Park in Dublin is Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi.
By John Harrington
Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi tells a good yarn that sums up just how much he and his family were fishes out of water when they first landed in Carrick-On-Shannon after leaving Iraq in 2002.
On one of their first strolls down the town, they visited Paddy’s Supermarket where Zak’s father told him and his younger brother they could have whatever they wanted.
They picked out what they presumed were Ireland’s answer to canned soft-drinks and went on their way.
Local Garda Sergeant, Martin Cunniffe, did a double-take a few minutes later when he saw 11-year-old Zak walking towards him slugging from a can of Guinness and his younger brother slaking his thirst with a can of Budweiser.
“Martin was like, ‘what do you lads think you’re doing!’”, says Moradi with a chuckle.
“But, sure, we had no English at the time and neither did my parents really and they didn’t know what alcohol was.
“Anyway, Martin came down to our house later with a load of pictures of different alcoholic drinks to tell my parents what we couldn’t be drinking and my older brother was there who spoke English so he was able to translate.
“Martin has been my Leitrim hurling manager for most of my career and still likes to bring that story up 18 years later!”
Leitrim manager Martin Cunniffe pictured during the 2019 Lory Meagher Cup Final match between Leitrim and Lancashire at Croke Park in Dublin.
Moradi’s family are Kurdish-Iranians who had to flee to Iraq in the 1980s when the Iran-Iraq wore broke out.
Zak was born in Iraq and lived there until the age of 11 until his family made the decision to relocate to Ireland when tensions between Iraq and the USA heightened in the aftermath of 9/11 and another war was inevitable.
Learning a new language and adapting to a very different culture at the age of 11 must have been a huge challenge for Moradi, but his integration into his new community was made a lot easier by his embrace of Gaelic Games.
Clement Cunniffe, son of Martin, introduced Zak to hurling when he visited his primary school to coach the children there.
It’s a testament to the power of inclusivity that they would both play on the Leitrim team that won the Lory Meagher Cup in Croke Park in 2019.
The Moradis moved to Dublin when Zak was 15. He joined the Thomas Davis GAA club in Tallaght but retained his links with Leitrim and has played senior inter-county hurling for the Ridge County since 2010.
When he reflects now on the impact Gaelic Games has had on his life since he moved to Ireland back in 2002, he is in no doubt that he wouldn’t be the man he is without it.
“The GAA has played a big part in my life,” says Moradi. “When I moved to Ireland and when I arrived in Leitrim I started playing hurling and football and I just made friends a lot easier and since then I became part of the community.
“I've done very well in life because of the GAA. I've made a lot of friends over it and all the jobs I've got it's all through the GAA, so the GAA it's in my heart!"
Zak Moradi scored a vital point for Leitrim in their 2019 Lory Meagher Cup Final vitory over Warwickshire.
When he was 12 years old Moradi helped St Mary’s, Kiltoghert win the Leitrim U-14 Feile.
Interviewed by a local newspaper afterwards, Moradi said it was his ambition to play in Croke Park some day.
He fulfilled that dream in style last year when he came off the bench to score a spectacular point that helped Leitrim beat Lancashire after extra-time in the Lory Meagher Cup Final.
“It was very special,” says Moradi.
“It meant a lot for me and the Leitrim hurlers. At the end of the day it's a panel of 34 and I've been playing with them for the past seven or eight years. We had a lot of bad days, there were times we were going out and getting beat by 20 or 30 points, but we'd always be trying to keep that scoreline down.
“Eventually all the hard work we put in, all the long-distance travelling to training down in Mullingar and Carrick-On-Shannon, coming home late at night at midnight or one in the morning and then having to get up for work at six or seven in the morning, all the hard work paid off.
“Sometimes in life you have to just put in the work and eventually it will pay off at some stage.”
Westmeath footballer Boidu Sayeh (left) and Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi pictured in Croke Park.
Moradi is an ambassador for the GAA’s first National Inclusive Fitness Day which takes place on September 23.
GAA clubs around the country are being encouraged to open their doors to the wider community and promote sport and physical activity to everyone regardless of age, sexual orientation, ability, ethnicity, nationality, or fitness level.
Having experienced first hand the positive benefits of inclusivity in Gaelic Games, Moradi is a passionate advocate for encouraging others to follow the same path.
“The GAA in this country plays a big part in everybody's lives and communities in this country,” he says.
“It's very important that people who are not involved in the GAA should get involved.
“Bring their kids into their local clubs in the community and it'd be nice for them when they grow up then their dream is to be playing obviously here and that was my dream when I was about 12 or 13 I wanted to play in Croke Park but it took about 16 years later I got a chance to play out there and I got a nice point so I'm still living that dream.
“It's the one thing about the GAA it doesn't matter where you're from everybody should take part. I've noticed in the last couple of years there is a lot of second generation from different nationalities. You know (it doesn't matter) whether you're black or brown. You see it all over the country now.
“You mightn't see them playing it inter-county level (yet) but they will. You're going to see the different faces in the GAA and in every county you're going to have, you know, like if you look at the French soccer team or the English soccer team and even the Ireland soccer team and even in the GAA in every county you're always seeing someone different in there. It's great for the GAA.”
