Viet Celts Previously in Vietnam the word ‘ga’ with a falling tone meant chicken or with no tone at all ‘station’ and now the scholars will have to make room in the local dictionary for a new entry - GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) as Gaelic Football has landed in Vietnam and although not too many people know it, the very-recently formed Viet Celts are about to change sport in the land of Ho Chi Minh… possibly forever! In what will surely be known as a hinge of history in years to come, one minute a motley bunch of Vietnam-based expats were drinking beer, smoking cigarettes and talking about – of all things – cricket, the next they, and a couple of unsuspecting local Hanoi lads, had been presented with an opportunity to join the Viet Celts Gaelic Football team. All they had to do was remember or learn how to play Gaelic football and travel to Singapore to represent Vietnam in the Asian Gaelic Games. Bemused onlookers at the inaugural training session will no doubt never forget the day four ‘Ong Tay’ (foreign gents) stood in a circle punching a football to each other. Despite the meagre turnout a seed had been planted and the word started to spread. Dreams grew and eyes twinkled with thoughts of what may come to pass and the excitement manifested itself in a bunch of slightly humorous emails. The next Sunday a score of would-be players arrived and passing motorbikes that slowed down by the Thuy Loi pitch would have had the privilege of witnessing the first ever Gaelic Football game played in Vietnam, not that they necessarily would have realised what was going on when people were being congratulated for punting the ball ten feet over the crossbar. Colm “At the end of the day, I’m the Gaffer” Ross, threw the imported-with-no-expense-spared-O’Neills’ ball into the air and the Viet-Celts sprang into action. Four minutes later, slowly evaporating in the sweltering heat, cries for a break were ignored as Patrick Cooney rattled the dust off the back of the onion sack to score the first ever goal in Viet-GAA-history. Slowly over the ensuing weeks, the lads have met up every Sunday to hone their skills or in most cases learn the rules from scratch, in preparation of the Asian Gaelic Games to be held in Singapore on June 23-24. The lads are quietly confident they can turn a few heads in the looks department, if not on the actual playing field. As for their secret weapon, as soon as they work out who or what that is, they’re definitely keeping it to themselves – otherwise it wouldn’t be a secret. The Viet Celts travel to Singapore thanks to the generous sponsorship of ESB International, Terotech International Limited, Finnegan’s Bar Hanoi, and Enterprise Ireland. |
