Is GAA, Ireland's best export?

Saturday marked history in the making for Ireland and Myanmar as the first official international game of Gaelic football was played in Yangon.

The Myanmar Celts was set up in Myanmar in February by Tullamore born Elaine Kelly and is now officially affiliated with the GAA in Croke Park who awarded the club funding as part of the Global Games Development Fund 2014. The club has over 35 members now and is growing steadily.

The Singapore Gaelic Lions, one of the largest and highest ranked Gaelic clubs in the Asia Pacific region triumphed in Myanmar at the weekend bringing over 20 of its members to play in a friendly match.

Elaine, Chairperson of the Myanmar Celts added "It was fantastic to have the Singapore Gaelic Lions come play us in Yangon, as a young club we are keen to get the word out there to support the growth and development of the club. With Myanmar now opened up there has been a big growth in the number of expats arriving to Yangon and Gaelic has been a great way to bring together the Irish community. We have a number of successful Irish who have set up business here from Denis O'Brien with MTC and John Nagle with Red Dot which has brought in a lot more Irish people. After 3 great games we are excited about going to the Asian Gaelic Games in October".

Pauric Mc Grath, Vice President of the Asian Country Board also flew over and attended the games and added "The Myanmar Celts played a fantastic game today you can spot the potential of a very good club in the making. Where the GAA is active promotes a strong sense of Irish community and culture. I have witnessed first-hand how GAA clubs help shape communities for expats and it is a great way to meet people and built trade links."

For further information please contact Elaine Kelly on [email protected] or [email protected] Tweet

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