Children from GAA clubs in Madrid and Warwickshire will provide an international flavour to Sunday's Leinster football final day at Croke Park.
The senior and minor finals will already bring a wide spread of fans together from Dublin, Westmeath, Longford and Kildare to Croke Park. But on top of that, the day will also feature the twinning links that Leinster GAA enjoys with the rapid growth of Gaelic games over seas through this visit of young players from Spain and England.
The Madrid Harps GAA club was founded in 2004, and its success led to the establishment of a juvenile section in 2010 which has gone from strength to strength.
Promoting Gaelic football and hurling in the Spanish capital, at juvenile level its membership is a diverse mix of Spanish and Irish children aged from 3 to 15, and the club provides a valuable outlet for Irish families living in Madrid looking to maintain a cultural link with Ireland, as well as offering Spanish families the chance to savour Irish sporting culture.
Earlier this year the Madrid Harps club was awarded a grant from the GAA and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in recognition of its juvenile development plan, and in particular the creation of a Madrid Juvenile Mini League for children aged between 8 and 15 which will commence in the autumn.
The plan is for the league to grow to feature games in Seville, Valencia, Galicia and Marbella as well as regular matches in Madrid. This weekend the Spanish club will be hosted in Kildare after forging a link with the Johnstownbridge club last year.
On Sunday we will have names like Fernández and González being cheered on at Croke Park on the same stage as the Brogans and the Heslins.
And for Madrid Harps clubman Keith Curran, the Croke Park visit is another important milestone for the Spanish GAA club.
He said: "Bringing the kids to Croke Park is a very special day for all of us and a dream come true. It will provide the children with a memory they will never forget and will be another step in our desire to have a Madrid Harps Senior team of Madrilenos playing in Croke Park one day."
Warwickshire GAA meanwhile, will be in Croke Park with 22 players from their U12 Football Development Squad.
Another highly progressive GAA unit, they are still celebrating their recent success at U14 level where they carried off the spoils in the Féile Peil na nÓg Division 8 cup final last month.
There has been strong GAA activity in Birmingham since the 1900s and as a regional GAA board Warwickshire continue to promote Gaelic games in Birmingham and the Midlands with club teams in competition from U10 up to senior.
Currently there are more than 400 GAA clubs in existence outside of Ireland. Leinster GAA is twinned with GAA county boards in Europe, Australasia and the Middle East.
This Sunday the children from Madrid Harps and Warwickshire GAA will take part in the half-time mini Go Games on Leinster final day at Croke Park and showcase their skills and passion for Gaelic football which continues to fuel this expansion of the GAA abroad.
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