New York chairman Larry McCarthy has defended the Exiles' participation in the Connacht SFC ahead of next Sunday's clash with Mayo. John O'Mahony's Mayo are expected to win with plenty to spare, but McCarthy insists that New York's continued participation in the championship is vital to keeping the GAA alive in the Big Apple. "We're part and parcel of the championship," he said. "We have young fellas coming through now that would have played in the minor championship which is hugely vibrant at the moment with 12 clubs. We send an under 21 team to the British Universities championship. There's a lot of phenomenal work being done here. "When you look at the other GAA units across the world, we're arguably the most developed and that's with all due respects to the other units. The next thing to measure ourselves with is Ireland." The Cork native added: "We're not the dominant sport culture here obviously. You're competing against baseball, American football, lacrosse - we have to find our niche and we have. Many of the people running the teams are American-born and obviously everyone involved at underage level is American-born which shows that we're doing something right anyway." Tweet

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