A taxi ride at rush hour through Riyadh’s chaotic traffic
for almost forty minutes brings us to the gateway of one of Riyadh’s better
compounds to the north of the city. Any taxi ride around this city is eventful
to say the least, road etiquette simply doesn’t exist and neither does public
transport, and add in the fact that women are not permitted to drive (though there’s
no specific written law on this !) and that the city has a population of some
six million people, gives you an idea of what traffic can be like here.
It’s Sunday evening, which is the first working day of the
week, and it’s also the beginning of pre-season training for Riyadh’s Naomh Alee Riyadh GAA Club, a fully affiliated
GAA club, founded twenty years ago and a member of the broader Middle East GAA
Family which includes other clubs in UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman & Kuwait.
It’s still around 38 degrees when we start our workout on
the floodlit grass pitch which has just been much sought after these past few seasons,
the group grows to over forty people by the time training kicks off in earnest
at 8pm, which is of course is in complete darkness at this time of the evening
all year around. This session is led by Sean O’Sullivan from Cork, Patrick
Moynagh from Cavan and Tony Robinson from Derry and the participants and club
members come from Dublin, Fermanagh, Clare, Galway, Antrim, Down, Wexford, Offaly, Cavan, Derry, Westmeath, Louth, Meath, Tipperary and a few lads from Cork. It doesn’t
end there of course as a further sizeable contingent in this group and the club
as a whole come from much further afield, such as United Kingdom, Germany,
Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, United States and Jordan. At one point in
the session, one could even hear a strong Australian accent count out “a H-aon, A do, a tri….” while the squad
does press ups.
In recent years, Naomh
Alee Riyadh GAA Club has seen a strong
revival in Riyadh, coinciding with the economic slump back in Ireland which has
brought additional numbers of professionals to the Kingdom securing work in
sectors such as Banking, Construction, Education, Agriculture and Nursing, the
club has seen increased participation and is now running a number of both Men’s
and Ladies Teams in the Middle East League, and competing very consistently and
competitively in the past few years. They provide Gaelic Football only at the
moment, however in its early years in the late 1990’s, it was initially a
hurling club, and there are ambitions to once again field a hurling team in the
future.
This club is like no other in the sense that it doesn’t have
a dedicated pitch and must arrange to use facilities such as this one within a compound,
it also uniquely must travel abroad to play competitive matches given the lack
of any other GAA in the Kingdom at the moment and the difficulties in getting
visa’s to allow a travelling team to come to Riyadh to play the home team, so Noamh Alee Riyadh GAA Club will travel over six weekends over the winter season to
Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Al Ain to play fixtures in the Middle East
League and other Competitions in the region. It’s a huge commitment from
players and management alike and a great credit to all of them. The Club has
also been very well supported by way of sponsorship from Irish Businesses working
in Saudi Arabia in recent times, such as Jones Engineering Group, Bruce Shaw,
First Staff Recruitment and CCM Recruitment.
Beyond sport however, the Club represents so much more, it’s
a very natural stop off point for Irish emigrants passing through Riyadh , whether
on a long stint here over many years or a one year assignment. It provides a
vital conduit for those just arrived to find out how to make one’s way around this
vast city and integrated into their new surroundings and culture, it’s a vital
sporting and social outlet for the many Irish, British, Australian and New Zealand
nurses who play on the ladies squad, and a great way of building and sustaining
the Irish Community in Riyadh, fostering new friendships and also having some
great fun.
Naomh Alee Riyadh GAA Club
also run a Juvenile programme for young boys and girls to take up the sport. They
also promote Irish culture and with the on-going support of the Irish Embassy,
has been to the forefront of all things Irish in Riyadh.
The session finishes up just before 10pm with a warm down
led by Tony, and the exhausted and rather sweaty group of people head off into the
Riyadh night chatting as they go, off to recover, get home, have a shower and a
good sleep before the next day’s work and the next training session the
following Wednesday…….
If you are Interested in participating in Gaelic Football, want to stay
fit and also get to know more people in Riyadh, or maybe you are considering a
move to Riyadh soon, get in touch, as the club is always looking for new
members and is here to help….
Contact details as follows…
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiyadhGAA
